Raanta's third shutout leads Hurricanes past Senators
Antti Raanta made 32 saves for his third shutout in 21 appearances this season, and the host Carolina Hurricanes beat the Ottawa Senators 4-0 on Friday night.
Brent Burns, Seth Jarvis, Martin Necas and Brady Skjei scored in Carolina's fifth straight win and 12th in 13 games overall. Andrei Svechnikov and Sebastian Aho each had two assists.
The Senators were blanked for the second time this season, and they went back-to-back games without a team point for the first time in more than a month.
Jeff Skinner scored twice and Craig Anderson made 53 saves against his former team to lead visiting Buffalo. The 41-year-old Anderson spent three seasons with the Panthers (200609). He helped the Sabres get to 64 points and pull into a three-way tie for the final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference with Detroit and Florida. The Sabres have not been to the playoffs since 2011 — the longest such drought in the NHL. Carter Verhaeghe scored for the Panthers.
Nathan MacKinnon scored 19 seconds in for visiting Colorado, which got four goals on its first five shots. MacKinnon, Mikko Rantanen and J.T. Compher each had a goal and assist. Bowen Byram and Matt Nieto also scored for the Avalanche. Mason Appleton
had the goal for Winnipeg.
Jesse Ylonen had a goal and an assist and Jake Allen made 24 saves for visiting Montreal. Chris Tierney, David Savard, Josh Anderson and Nick Suzuki also scored for the Canadiens. Owen Tippett and Ivan Provorov scored for Philadelphia. Carter Hart made 26 saves.
MAPLE LEAFS 2, WILD 1 (OT) >> William Nylander scored 1:05 into overtime for host Toronto. David Kampf also scored for the Maple Leafs (36-15-8), and Ilya Samsonov made 24 saves. Minnesota (32-21-6) had won four in a row. Brandon Duhaime scored for the Wild, and Filip Gustavsson made 22 stops.
LIGHTNING'S CERNAK SUSPENDED TWO GAMES >> Tampa Bay Lightning defenseman Erik Cernak has been suspended for two games for elbowing Buffalo Sabres captain Kyle Okposo in the head. The NHL's department of player safety announced the suspension Friday, a day after Cernak struck Okposo with his left elbow during Tampa Bay's 6-5 overtime loss. The play took place late in the third period, and no penalty was called.
In a video explaining the suspension, the league said Cernak extended his elbow to make sure he did not miss the hit and that the onus was on him to deliver a clean hit instead. Cernak, 25, will miss games this weekend at Detroit and Pittsburgh. The suspension will cost him $31,892.
WESTERN CONFERENCE
PACIFIC DIVISION
Vegas Kings Edmonton Seattle Calgary Vancouver San Jose Ducks
Dallas Winnipeg Minnesota Colorado Nashville St. Louis Arizona Chicago
Boston Toronto Tampa Bay Buffalo Detroit Florida Ottawa Montreal
Carolina
New Jersey N.Y. Rangers N.Y. Islanders Pittsburgh Washington Philadelphia Columbus
GP W
58 60 59 58 59 58 59 59
CENTRAL DIVISION
58 59 59 56 56 58 58 57 57 59 57 57 57 61 57 58 57 58 58 62 57 60 60 58
Friday's games
Today's games
35 33 32 32 27 23 18 18
GP W
30 35 32 32 28 26 20 20
EASTERN CONFERENCE
ATLANTIC DIVISION
GP W
44 36 36 30 28 29 27 25
GP W
39 38 33 30 27 28 23 18
L OT Pts GF GA
18 19 19 20 20 30 30 34
8 15 17 23 21 26 26 29
METROPOLITAN DIVISION
10 15 16 25 21 26 27 35 5 8 8 6 12 5 11 7
Kings 3, N.Y. Islanders 2 Montreal 5, Philadelphia 2 Carolina 4, Ottawa 0 Toronto 2, Minnesota 1, OT Buffalo 3, Florida 1 Colorado 5, Winnipeg 1 5 8 4 4 8 6 4 4 8 5 9 7 9 6 10 5 75 190 163 74 203 201 72 225 196 70 202 184 66 192 184 51 199 236 47 176 219 43 149 248
L OT Pts GF GA
16 23 21 19 22 28 29 32 12 1 6 5 6 4 9 5 72 188 152 71 183 155 70 172 164 69 178 156 62 163 169 56 178 212 49 158 205 45 143 206
L OT Pts GF GA
93 216 123 80 202 157 76 206 169 64 213 199 64 179 181 64 210 213 58 172 183 54 161 209
L OT Pts GF GA
86 196 148 81 201 157 75 193 160 67 179 174 63 182 185 62 178 177 56 161 195 41 146 214
Edmonton at Columbus, 9:30 p.m. N.Y. Rangers at Washington, 10 a.m. Pittsburgh at St. Louis, 12:30 p.m. Ducks at Carolina, 4 p.m.
Boston at Vancouver, 4 p.m.
Ottawa at Montreal, 4 p.m. Philadelphia at New Jersey, 4 p.m. Tampa Bay at Detroit, 5 p.m. Calgary at Colorado, 7 p.m.
Dallas at Vegas, 7 p.m.
Chicago at San Jose, 7:30 p.m.