Staal returns, helps ’Canes cool Flyers
Tinged with sadness, the Hurricanes welcomed their captain back to the lineup.
Jordan Staal helped give them the boost they needed toward a playoff push. Justin Williams scored two goals, CamWard stopped 21 shots, and the Carolina-Hurricanes snapped a six-game losing streak with a 4-1 win over the host Philadelphia Flyers on Thursday night.
The Flyers had been the hottest teamin hockey, winners of six straight overall and riding a 10-0-2 streak for their longest span without a regulation loss since 2003.
They were even 4- 0-1 against the Hurricanes in their last five against them at home.
Carolina had an emotional lift in this one tomake those numbers trivial.
Staal played for the first time since he and his wife said their infant daughter died of a terminal birth defect. Staal had missed three games and he rejoined the teamWednesday.
Carolina, which is chasing the eighth spot in the East, made quick work in ending the good times in Philly.
Williams knocked in a loose puck 4:40 into the game, and the former Flyer stuck it to his former team one more time. KINGS 5, BLUE JACKETS 2 » Alex Iafallo scored two goals to lead Los Angeles back froman early two-goal deficit for its third straight win.
Jonathan Quick stopped 30 shots.
The Kings have won six of their past eight. PREDATORS 4, OILERS 2 » Viktor Arvidsson scored a pair of goals as Nashville won its sixth straight. Nashville’s David Polie earned his 1,320th career win as a general manager, the most in NHL history. Nashville was trailing 2-0 when Nick Bonino made a touch pass to Hartnell in front, and he beat CamTalbot for his 12th of the year with 3:32 left in the second period. Arvidsson tied itwith 10 seconds left in the second. BRUINS 8, PENGUINS 4 » Da- vid Krejci had his fourth career hat trick, David Pastrnak had two goals and an assist, and Boston had its highest-scoring game since 2012. The Bruins have won back-to-back games since the trade deadline, when they acquired Rick Nash and Tommy Wingels and signed Team USA Olympic captain Brian Gionta. Nash had a goal and an assist, and Gionta had two assists. PANTHERS3, DEVILS2 » Aleksander Barkov scored two goals to lift Florida to its fourth straight win. New Jersey’s Taylor Hall scored and has 21 points (11 goals, 10 assists) in a 16-game point streak, the longest in the NHL this season and the longest in Devils history. LIGHTNING5, STARS4 » Cory Conacher scoredwith 41 seconds left in overtime to lift Tampa Bay. It was Tampa Bay’s fourth game in six nights that went past 60 minutes. Tampa Bay’s Anthony Cirelli had a goal and an assist in the three-goal second period of his NHL debut. COYOTES 5, WILD 3 » Richard Panik broke a tie midway through the third period, and Arizona rallied past Minnesota, snapping the Wild’s winning streak at five games. TICKET DRIVE IN SEATTLE OFF TO HOT START » Apparently, sports fans in Seattle are ready for the NHL. The group looking to bring an expansion team to Seattle for the 2020 season said it surpassed 25,000 ticket commitments in two hours after kicking off its season-ticket drive. The seasonticket drive is one the steps required by theNHL as part of the expansion process and is meant to gauge the interest in themarket. Fans were required to put down a deposit of $500 per ticket or $1,000 for club tickets.
By comparison, a similar season-ticket drive to gauge the interest in Las Vegas took two days to reach 5,000 deposits and a month to reach 9,000.