TORONTO (AP) - Valeri Nichushkin scored a short-handed goal in the third period, lifting the Colorado Avalanche to a 3-1 win over the Toronto Maple Leafs on Wednesday night.
Nathan MacKinnon had a goal and an assist, Joonas Donskoi also scored and Philipp Grubauer stopped 38 shots for the Avalanche.
Zach Hyman scored for Toronto and Frederik Andersen, starting on consecutive nights for the first time since January 2017, had 27 saves.
With his team on the power play, Toronto center Jason Spezza’s stick shattered on a shot and as he tried to keep the puck in with his feet at the blue line, he got caught up with teammate Morgan Rielly. That allowed Nichushkin to move in all alone and bury his third goal of the season upstairs at 6:40 to put Colorado up 2-1.
Toronto, which had Mitch Marner back after he missed 11 games with a high ankle sprain, pushed as the period wore on and pressed late, but couldn’t get anything past Grubauer with Andersen on the bench before Donskoi iced it into an empty net with 79 seconds left.
PENGUINS 3, BLUES 0
PITTSBURGH (AP) - Stefan Noesen celebrated his return to the NHL with his first goal of the season and banged=up Pittsburgh handed St. Louis its first regulation loss on the road since before Halloween.
Noesen, a five-year veteran who signed a minor-league deal with the Penguins in the offseason, pounded home a rebound off Jared McCann’s shot with 39 seconds left in the second period for his first goal since last March when he played for New Jersey.
Teddy Blueger scored 39 seconds into the game to give the Penguins the early lead and Alex Galchenyuk got his second of the season early in the third period. Tristan Jarry stopped 28 shots to post his third career shutout as.
Jordan Binnington finished with 30 saves for St. Louis, but the Blues saw their 10-game road point streak end.
SENATORS 5, OILERS 2
EDMONTON, Alberta (AP) - Tyler Ennis had a goal and two assists to help Ottawa snap a five-game skid.
Artem Anisimov, Connor Brown, Anthony Duclair and Vladislav Namestnikov also scored for the Senators. Craig Anderson, returning from a lower-body injury, stopped 24 shots.
Jujhar Khaira and Oscar Klefbom had goals for the Oilers, losers of three of their last four. Mikko Koskinen gave up three goals on 12 shots before leaving in the second period. Mike Smith finished with 11 saves.
CAPITALS 3, KINGS 1
LOS ANGELES (AP) - John Carlson scored twice, Ilya Samsonov stopped 22 shots and Washington beat Los Angeles.
Tom Wilson also had a goal as the Capitals have won five in a row for the second time this season. They won six straight Oct. 25-Nov. 9.
Blake Lizotte had a goal and Jonathan Quick made 19 saves for the Kings, who lost for the third time in their past 10 home games.
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