Lightning’s big guns too much for Sharks

TAMPA, Fla. — Steven Stamkos scored twice, and NHL points leader Nikita Kucherov added two assists as the Tampa Bay Lightning defeated the San Jose Sharks 6-3 on Saturday.

Victor Hedman had a goal and an assist, and Alex Killorn, Mathieu Joseph and Yanni Gourde also scored for Tampa Bay, which is 6-2 since the Sharks ended the Lightning’s 16-game streak of consecutive games with a point on Jan. 5.

Andrei Vasilevskiy made 36 saves in his 20th victory of the season. Martin Jones, who stopped 20 shots, had his eightgame win streak halted.

Evander Kane had two goals, and Marcus Sorenson also scored for the Sharks, who were without All-Star defenseman Erik Karlsson, who was a late scratch after participating in warmups.

Stamkos put the game out of reach with two goals in the third period. He took a pass from Kucherov and scored on a wrist shot high to the stick side at 5:08 and added a powerplay goal with a one-timer off a pass from Hedman at 14:15 for his 26th goal of the season.

Stamkos reached the 25goal mark for the ninth time. Kucherov’s two assists give him a league-leading 56 on the season. He has 78 points overall.

■ Stars 4, Jets 2 — At Dallas, Brett Ritchie, Blake Comeau and Radek Faksa scored their first goals of 2019 to put Dallas up 3-0 as the Stars ended a four-game slide. Branden Lemieux and Kyle Connor scored 21 seconds apart in the third for Winnipeg.

■ Rangers 3, Bruins 2 — At Boston, Mika Zibanejad scored twice to back Henrik Lundqvist, who had 27 saves while taking sole possession of sixth on the NHL wins list with 466. Boston lost starting goalie Tuukka Rask to a first-period concussion.

■ Flames 5, Oilers 2 — At Edmonton, Alberta, Johnny Gaudreau, Mikael Backlund and Sean Monahan each had a goal and an assist for West-leading Calgary, which improved to 7-0-1 in its past eight games and halted Edmonton’s twogame win streak.

■ Ducks 3, Devils 2 — At Newark, N.J., Troy Terry scored his first NHL goal and set up another, and Daniel Sprong also had a goal and an assist to back John Gibson, who had 29 saves, as Anaheim won its second straight after a 12-game slide.

■ Avalanche 7, Kings 1 — At Denver, Mikko Rantanen scored two of Colorado’s franchise record-tying six second-period goals, backing Semyon Varlamov, who had 30 saves. The Avs last scored six goals in a period on March 3, 1999, at Florida.

■ Wild 2, Blue Jackets 1 — At St. Paul, Minn., Zach Parise scored his Minnesota-best 20th goal, and Pontus Aberg and Victor Rask each had an assist for their first points since the Wild acquired them in trades last week.

■ Flyers 5, Canadiens 2 — At Montreal, Nolan Patrick scored twice in the third period to back rookie Carter Hart, who stopped 33 shots in his fifth straight start, as Philadelphia halted Montreal’s four-game win streak.

■ Panthers 4, Predators 2— At Nashville, Tenn., Aaron Ekblad and Vincent Trocheck each had a goal and an assist to back winner James Reimer, who had 37 saves. ■ Blues 3, Senators 2 —

At St. Louis, Carl Gunnarsson scored the go-ahead goal with 7:44 left, his second goal in as many games and first in 29 games against Ottawa.