Zacha helps Bruins beat Oilers for 7th straight win
Pavel Zacha scored the tiebreaking goal late in the second period and the league-leading Boston Bruins beat the Edmonton Oilers 3-2 Monday night for their seventh straight win.
Nick Foligno and Tomas Nosek also scored for the Bruins, and Dmitry Orlov had two assists for his first points since being acquired from Washington last week. Jeremy Swayman stopped 22 shots to win his third straight start and eighth in his last 10.
Connor Mcdavid scored twice to reach the 50-goal mark for the first time in his career for the Oilers, who have lost two straight in regulation after a five-game point streak (2-0-3). Stuart Skinner had 25 saves.
Zacha gave the Bruins their second lead of the night with 30 seconds left in the middle period. David Pastrnak fired a shot from the left slot that hit Oilers defenseman Cody Ceci’s skates and slowly trickled toward the left side of the goal. As Skinner reached to knock the puck aside, Zacha dove and swatted the puck up and in for his 14th of the season to make it 3-2.
Mcdavid had tied it 2-2 with 7:40 left in the second with his 50th. Klim Kostin skated down the right side and chased down a long dump in behind the goal line, came around the back of the net and sent a centering pass in front to Mcdavid. The Oilers’ captain faked to get Swayman to go down, went to his left and put it in.
Mcdavid, whose previous career high was 44 goals last season, got the Oilers on the scoreboard first, 2:17 into the game, as he skated in the left circle and beat
Swayman five-hole.
Nosek tied it just 13 seconds later as he got a pass in front from Garnet Hathaway — who came over from the Capitals with Orlov last Thursday — and sent the puck into the top right corner for his fourth.
SENATORS 6, RED WINGS 2
Claude Giroux scored the tiebreaking goal and had three assists, Thomas Chabot had a goal and two assists and the Ottawa Senators beat the Detroit Red Wings.
Brady Tkachuk, Tim Stutzle, Drake Batherson and Jake Sanderson also scored to help Ottawa win its second straight after a two-game skid. Cam Talbot finished with 22 saves.
David Perron and Tyler Bertuzzi scored goals for the Red Wings, who have lost two straight after winning seven of eight. Magnus Hellberg had 36 saves.
This matchup of teams chasing a playoff spot in the Eastern Conference was a makeup for the game that was canceled on Dec. 23 due to a snowstorm. The teams meet again here on Tuesday.
Detroit remained three points behind Pittsburgh for the East’s second wild card. Buffalo is just a point behind the Penguins, and the Red Wings are in a three-way tie with Florida and Washington with 64 points.
Perron fired a shot from the left circle on a power play for his 15th goal of the season to give the Red Wings a 2-1 lead at 5:11 of the second period.
The Red Wings then scored the next four goals over an 8 1/2-minute stretch to take control of the game.
Batherson tied it with Ottawa’s second power-play goal of the game on a shot from the right circle with 7:25 remaining in the middle period. It was his 19th of the season — 12th on the power play.
Giroux put the Senators ahead for good as he got a long pass from Dylan Gambrell and skated in on Hellberg on a breakaway and slid the puck through the goalie’s legs for his 24th with 5:50 left in the period.
Tkachuk took a pass from Giroux and fired it past Hellberg from the left circle for his 25th with 2:19 left in the second to make it 4-2.