Rask backstops Bruins to important victory
WILD-CARD GLANCE
BOSTON >> Tuukka Rask made 24 saves in his return from a onegame absence and the Boston Bruins beat the Nashville Predators 4-1 on Tuesday night, boosting their playoff chances.
Patrice Bergeron, David Krejci, Noel Acciari and David Backes scored for the Bruins, who moved three points ahead of idle Tampa Bay for the second Eastern Conference wild card with six games remaining. Boston began the night a point behind Toronto for third place in the Atlantic Division.
Rask was sidelined with a lower-body injury for Boston’s 2-1 road win against the New York Islanders on Saturday.
Bergeron’s goal was his 18th of the season, and Krejci got his 22nd. Acciari scored his first career goal in 43 NHL games, Backes netted his 17th of the season and Zdeno Chara earned his 600th NHL point with an assist on Boston’s first goal. HURRICANES 4, RED WINGS 1 >> Lee Stempniak and Joakim Nordstrom scored about five minutes apart in the first period, and Carolina beat Detroit in the teams’ second meeting in two nights.
Jordan Staal and Elias Lindholm also scored for Carolina and Cam Ward stopped 21 shots. The Hurricanes have earned a point in 12 straight games (8-04) to move four points out of the Eastern Conference’s final playoff spot.
The Red Wings beat the Hurricanes on Monday in a makeup game rescheduled from Dec. 19 when a Freon leak at PNC Arena made for unplayable ice. Tuesday’s contest was regularly scheduled.
The postponement resulted in three games in the three days for the Red Wings. They won the first two but visibly struggled with their energy in the finale to snap a four-game point streak.
Tomas Nosek scored his first NHL goal and Jimmy Howard made 29 saves for Detroit. BLUE JACKETS 3, SABRES 1 >> Cam Atkinson got his team-leading 34th goal and Sergei Bobrovsky had 41 saves to power Columbus over Buffalo.
Kyle Quincey also scored for Columbus, getting his first goal since being acquired from New Jersey on March 1. Brandon Saad got an empty-net goal with 1:05 left after Buffalo pulled its goalie for an extra skater.
The win put the Blue Jackets two points ahead of idle Pittsburgh in second place in the Metropolitan Division as they battle for home-ice advantage in the playoffs next month. Columbus won its second straight to improve to 7-2-1 in its last 10.
Bobrovsky got his league-leading 41st win, following a 1-0 shutout win over Philadelphia on Saturday in which he had 36 saves. JETS 4, DEVILS 3 >> Patrik Laine scored in a shootout and Winnipeg rallied from a two-goal deficit to beat New Jersey in the makeup of a game that was postponed by a snowstorm earlier this month.
Connor Hellebuyck made 20 saves and stopped all three Devils’ shootout attempts as the Jets rallied from a 3-1 deficit to sweep the season series. Nikolaj Ehlers, Blake Wheelers, Joel Armia scored for Winnipeg.
Beau Bennett, Taylor Hall, Stefan Noesen tallied for New Jersey, which has lost four straight and won only twice (2-12-4) in 18 games. Cory Schneider made 33 saves, but he was beaten between the pads by Laine, who missed Winnipeg’s last game with an illness, on the Jets’ second shootout attempt.