Capitals stop Rangers for 5th straight win
NEW YORK — Brett Connolly scored the tiebreaking goal with 6: 24 left in the third period, and the Washington Capitals beat the New York Rangers 5- 3 Saturday for their seasonhigh fifth straight win.
Alex Ovechkin, Nic Dowd, Jakub Vrana and Tom Wilson also scored for defending Stanley Cup champion Washington, and John Carlson had three assists. Pheonix Copley, starting in place of Braden Holtby, stopped 27 shots.
Jimmy Vesey, Brady Skjei and Ryan Strome scored for the Rangers, who lost their second straight, ending a seven- game winning streak on home ice. Kevin Hayes had two assists and Alexandar Georgiev finished with 23 saves.
On the go- ahead goal, Connolly got a pass from Carlson and fired a onetimer from the left circle past Georgiev for his fourth of the season.
Wilson added an emptynetter with 1: 08 left for his fourth. He has nine points in seven games since returning from a seasonopening suspension that sidelined him for 16 games.
ISLANDERS 4, HURRICANES 1: Thomas Greiss made 26 saves, and Valtteri Filppula, Anthony Beauvillier, Josh Bailey and Adam Pelech scored for New York.
Brock Nelson, Anders Lee and Bailey finished with multipoint games. It was the sixth multipoint game of the season for Bailey.
Justin Williams scored for the Hurricanes. Carolina starter Scott Darling made 15 saves in the loss. The Islanders limited the Hurricanes to a single goal for the third straight game.
Filppula scored the opening goal off a highlight reel Standings play, juking the Hurricanes’ defensemen. The Isles’ forward then tucked the puck under the extended leg of Darling.
The Islanders extended their lead to two just over five minutes later when Beauvillier scored from in front of the net off a pass from Bailey. New York took a 3- 0 lead in the second period when Bailey took a pass from Brock Nelson behind the net.
Pelech scored the Islanders’ fourth goal of the game at 8: 52 of the third period.
BRUINS 3, CANADIENS 2: John Moore scored a power- play goal with 2: 57 left as Boston beat Montreal in a hard- hitting and penalty- filled game.
David Backes and Jake DeBrusk also scored to help the Bruins win for third time in four games. Tuukka Rask made 32 saves, and David Krejci had two assists.
Jonathan Drouin and Tomas Tatar scored in the third period for Montreal, and Carey Price stopped 32 shots. The Canadiens have lost four straight.
With Drouin in the box for high sticking, a double minor, Moore scored his first of the season from a tight angle.
Boston finished 1 for 6 with the man advantage, while Montreal was 1 for 5. Both teams combined for 30 penalty minutes.
It was the second game of a back- to- back series for both teams. Boston beat Pittsburgh 2- 1 in overtime on Friday, while Montreal lost 3- 2 in overtime in Buffalo.
The Bruins took a 1- 0 lead at 13: 01 of the first period when Backes swiped the puck from Jesperi Kotkaniemi at the Montreal blue line before beating Price glove side for his first goal of the season. Leaders