NATIONAL HOCKEY LEAGUE ROUNDUP
Rangers 1, Lightning 0
Mika Zibanejad scored 3:56 into overtime, Antti Raanta made 38 saves, and the New York Rangers beat Tampa Bay on Monday night. Zibanejad beat Andrei Vasilevskiy during a breakaway. Raanta got his third shutout of the season. Vasilevskiy stopped 33 shots and Tampa Bay, 8-2-3 over the past 13 games, moved within two points of New York Islanders for the final wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference. The Rangers failed to score on three power plays, and are 1 for 36 over the past 14 games. Tampa Bay, with NHL's third-best power play, went 0 for 6. Gabriel Dumont had his backhand turned aside by Raanta at the midpoint of the third. Rick Nash had a chance from the low right circle in the final minute of regulation, but Vasilevskiy made the save to keep it scoreless. Vasilevskiy stopped Pavel Buchnevich's in-close power-play shot in the first, and had nifty save late in the second on Brady Skjei. Raanta fully extended his right pad to block a point-blank shot during the first by Ondrej Palat, and withstood a stretch midway through the second where Tampa Bay had a series of good scoring chances.
Senators 4, Bruins 2
Mike Hoffman had a power-play goal early in the third period and Ottawa defeated Boston. Derick Brassard, Jean-Gabriel Pageau and Alex Burrows also scored as the Senators extended their winning streak to three games. Craig Anderson made 25 saves. Patrice Bergeron and Brad Marchand scored for the Bruins. Tuukka Rask made 25 saves. Ottawa has a four-point lead on the Bruins in the Atlantic Division. With just six remaining home games, the Senators gave the Canadian Tire Centre crowd something to remember in what could be a preview of a first-round playoff matchup should the standings remain as they are.
Ottawa took a 3-1 lead early in the third as Hoffman scored his 20th on the power play.
It was Ottawa's first goal with the man advantage in three games.
The lead was short-lived as less than two minutes later, the Bruins scored on the power play as Marchand picked up David Pastrnak's rebound to score his 30th, giving him back-to-back 30-goal seasons.
There were no goals in the second period, but the Senators clearly held the edge, outshooting the Bruins 16-5.
Ottawa had a number of chances as the Bruins turned the puck over several times, but Rask was solid and got a little help when Dion Phaneuf rang a shot off the post.
The Senators got a strong start as they held a 2-1 lead after 20 minutes. Trailing 2-0, the Bruins cut the lead in half as Bergeron took a pass from Torey Krug in the slot and quickly turned and beat Anderson with a wrist shot in the final minutes of the period. Brassard opened the scoring at 1:21 as he managed to beat Rask with a turnaround shot through traffic and Ottawa took a 2-0 lead just three minutes into the game as Pageau redirected Phaneuf's point shot.
Stars 4, Capitals 2
As dominant as the Washington Capitals have been at home this season, they haven't been able to figure out the Dallas Stars for years. That puzzling trend continued as the Stars beat the NHL-leading Capitals to extend their point streak in the series to 12 games. Dallas snapped Washington's home winning streak at 15 and point streak at 17, winning in D.C. for the sixth consecutive visit to move within seven points of a playoff spot.