Zuccarello’s goal lifts Rangers to a win over the Islanders
NEW YORK >> Mats Zuccarello scored late in the third period and the New York Rangers beat the Islanders 2-1 on Saturday for their first victory at Barclays Center.
Zuccarello redirected the winner with his skate from in front of the net for his fifth goal of the season. Filip Chytil also scored and Alexandar Georgiev made 24 saves to help the Rangers win in Brooklyn for the first time since the Islanders began playing home games there in 2015.
The Islanders had been 132-0 in the teams’ previous 15 meetings overall.
The game completed a home-and-home series that began Thursday night with the Islanders’ 4-3 victory at Madison Square Garden. It also marked the final meeting between the Big Apple rivals this season, with each team winning two games. LIGHTNING 5, SABRES 3 >> Steven Stamkos broke a tie with
5:16 remaining in the NHLleading Tampa Bay Lightning’s 5-3 victory over the Buffalo Sabres on Saturday night.
Nikita Kucherov, Brayden Point, Ondrej Palat and Ryan Callahan also scored, and Louis Domingue stopped 30 shots. The Lightning have won
18 of their last 20.
Sam Reinhart, Tage Thompson and Marco Scandella scored for Buffalo.
Scandella gave Buffalo a 3-2 lead at 5:54 of the third, chipping home a pass from Jason Pominville from close range. Just 23 seconds later, the Lightning took advantage of a bad giveaway by Sabres defenseman Lawrence Pilut, and Stamkos found Kucherov for his 22nd goal of the season. BLUE JACKETS 2, CAPITALS 1, OT>> Cam Atkinson scored his 25th goal of the season, Artemi Panarin connected in overtime and Columbus beat Washington after the defending Stanley Cup champion Capitals lost All-Star goaltender Braden Holtby to an eye injury.
Panarin scored in overtime for the second straight game.
Holtby took a stick to the left eye from Atkinson through his mask in the second period. He left the game, giving way to backup Pheonix Copley, and the team said Holtby was still being evaluated.
Blue Jackets goalie Joonas Korpisalo stopped 32 shots in his second consecutive start in place of Sergei Bobrovsky, who backed up after being scratched Thursday for disciplinary reasons. Coach John Tortorella did not commit to starting Bobrovsky in the second half of his team’s back-toback this weekend.
After Atkinson beat Holtby a minute into the game on a breakaway, Columbus was cruising toward a regulation victory until Evgeny Kuznetsov tied it with 1:06 left. The 6-on-5 goal was Kuznetsov’s first in 18 games dating to Dec. 2.
BRUINS 3, MAPLE LEAFS 2 >> David Pastrnak scored a tie late in the second period and Boston beat Toronto.
Sean Kuraly had a goal and two assists, David Krecji also scored, and Tuukka Rask made 30 saves. Boston won the season series 3-1 and moved within two points of Toronto for second place in the Atlantic Division.
RED WINGS 5, WILD 2 >> Tyler Bertuzzi had his first career hat trick and Detroit beat Minnesota to end a threegame losing streak.
Playing in his 100th career game, Bertuzzi completed his three-goal performance at 8:38 of the third period, converting a feed from Nyquist by lifting a backhand past Devan Dubnyk.
Thomas Vanek had two goals, and Jimmy Howard made 17 saves for the Red Wings, winners for the second time in 11 games. Nino Niederreiter and Luke Kunin scored for the Wild.
CANADIENS 3, AVALANCHE 0 >> Carey Price stopped 28 shots for his third shutout of the season and 43rd overall to help Montreal beat Colorado.
Brett Kulak, Jesperi Kotkaniemi and Jordie Benn scored in the third period. The Canadiens had lost three of their last four. The Avalanche have lost nine of 10.