NHL ROUNDUP
Islanders 5, Kings 2
John Tavares had a goal and an assist, Thomas Greiss stopped 28 shots and host New York scored three times in the first 14 minutes and beat Los Angeles on Thursday night. Johnny Boychuk, Casey Cizikas and Anders Lee all scored in the first period and Travis Hamonic added an empty-netter in the third to help the Islanders win their third straight overall and third in a row at home. New York improved to 15-4-2 against Western Conference teams this season and moved three points behind the crosstown-rival Rangers for second place in the Metropolitan Division. Kyle Clifford and Milan Lucic scored, and Jhonas Enroth finished with 25 saves for the Pacific Division-leading Kings, who had won three straight on the road. Los Angeles was coming off a 9-2 win at Boston on Tuesday night in the opener of a seven-game, 12-day road trip. After Clifford got the Kings on the scoreboard with less than nine minutes left in the second, Tavares restored the Islanders' three-goal lead 2:20 later. It was the New York captain's 20th goal of the season as he reached that mark for the sixth time in his career. Tavares got the puck in the neutral zone, skated across the blue line down the right side and wristed the puck past Enroth on the glove side with 6 1/2 minutes left in the second. He tied Brock Nelson for the team lead in goals and Kyle Okposo for points (43) and has a team-leading 11 multipoint games this season. The Islanders earned a split of the teams' season series after a 2-1 loss at Los Angeles in November. Boychuk, who got the Islanders started in their 8-1 win over Edmonton on Sunday, did it again in this game. Tavares took a pass from Mikhail Grabovski in the offensive zone, skated into the right faceoff circle, turned around and passed back to Boychuk, who fired it past Enroth on the glove side for his fifth of the season 6:05 into the game. Cizikas doubled the lead a little more than five minutes later. Matt Martin took a slap shot from the left faceoff circle that Enroth stopped. However, the puck rebounded right to Cizikas in front on the right side and he fired it past the goalie for his fifth of the season with 8:41 left. Lee made it 3-0 on the power play just 2:17 later from right in front as he tipped a slap shot through traffic by Nick Leddy past Enroth for his ninth. Okposo also had an assist on the play, giving him a team-leading 28. Jeff Carter had a shot ring off the left post in the final minute of the first period, and Dustin Brown also hit a post about eight minutes into the second. Clifford pulled the Kings to 3-1 with 8:50 left in the second with his first goal of the season. Greiss tried to smother his initial shot, but Clifford kept jamming at the puck and it trickled across the goal line.
Bruins 6, Jets 2
Patrice Bergeron scored twice, Brett Connolly had three assists and Boston beat Winnipeg. Brad Marchand had a goal and two assists and Loui Eriksson and Jimmy Hayes each had a goal and an assist for the Bruins. David Pastrnak also scored to help Boston win its fifth straight road game. Bryan Little had a goal and an assist and Nikolaj Ehlers also scored for Winnipeg. Blake Wheeler had two assists. Tuukka Rask made 34 saves for Boston, which rebounded from a 9-2 home loss to Los Angeles on Tuesday night. Connor Hellebuyck started in goal for Winnipeg, but was replaced by Michael Hutchinson after the first period. Boston led 3-2 at the first intermission, and then the teams were scoreless in the second.