TAMPA, Fla. (AP) - Brandon Montour, Patric Hornqvist and Jonathan Huberdeau scored in the first period, and the Florida Panthers beat the Tampa Bay Lightning 5-3 on Saturday night.
Frank Vatrano and Anthony Duclair also scored as Florida jumped one point ahead of Tampa Bay for second place in the Central Division. Sam Bennett had two assists and Sergei Bobrovsky stopped 28 shots.
Brayden Point, Erik Cernak and Mathieu Joseph scored for the Lightning. Victor Hedman had two assists to top 400 for his career. Andrei Vasilevskiy had 27 saves in his first loss on home ice this season in 15 starts.
HURRICANES 3, PREDATORS 1
RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) - Jani Hakanpaa scored his first goal with Carolina, breaking a tie in the third period and leading the Hurricanes to the victory.
Hakanpaa, a defenseman acquired Monday at the trade deadline from the Anaheim Ducks, was in his second game with Carolina. He blasted in a shot with 11:05 left for just his second goal in 49 career games in the NHL.
Jaccob Slavin scored in the first period and Andrei Svechnikov had an empty-net goal for the Hurricanes, who completed a season-high homestand at 5-2-1. Alex Nedeljkovic stopped 27 shots.
Roman Josi scored for Nashville, which has lost back-to-back games for the first time in more than a month. Juuse Saros had 45 saves.
WILD 5, SHARKS 2
ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) - Mats Zuccarello had a goal and an assist, and the Wild stayed hot at home.
Joel Eriksson Ek, Zach Parise, Kirill Kaprizov and Nico Sturm also scored on a night when 12 different Wild players had at least one point. Kaapo Kahkonen made 26 saves as Minnesota won its third straight and improved to 17-4-0 at home this season.
Brent Burns and Joel Kellman scored for San Jose, and Martin Jones made 19 saves on 24 shots before being replaced by Josef Korenar in the third period.
Sharks forward Patrick Marleau tied Gordie Howe’s NHL record by playing in his 1,767th game. He is set to break the mark on Monday in Las Vegas.
BLACKHAWKS 4, RED WINGS 0
DETROIT (AP) - Malcolm Subban made 29 saves for his second shutout of the season, leading the Blackhawks to the road win.
Patrick Kane had a goal and an assist for Chicago, which was coming off a 4-1 loss to last-place Detroit on Thursday night. Alex DeBrincat, Wyatt Kalynuk and Pius Suter also scored, and Vinnie Hinostroza had three assists.
The Blackhawks pulled within two points of the Predators for fourth and final playoff spot in the Central Division. Chicago and Nashville play their next three games against each other.
Jonathan Bernier stopped 23 shots for Detroit, which had won a season-high three straight.
RANGERS 6, DEVILS 3
NEW YORK (AP) - Pavel Buchnevich scored three times on his 26th birthday, and the Rangers beat the Devils for their third win over their Hudson River rivals in five days.
It was Buchnevich’s first career hat trick. Artemi Panarin added a goal and three assists as the Rangers improved to 12-4-3 in their last 19 games.
The question after the quick start was whether rookie Igor Shesterkin would get his third consecutive shutout. The Russian’s shutout streak was stopped at 152 minutes, 37 seconds when Michael McLeod scored on a second-period rebound.
P.K. Subban and Yegor Sharangovich each had a goal and an assist for New Jersey.
The victory extended the Rangers’ point streak to a season-high five games (4-0-1) and pulled them within four points of idle Boston in the race for the last playoff berth in the East.
CAPITALS 6, FLYERS 3
PHILADELPHIA (AP) - Alex Ovechkin scored twice to move within one goal of Marcel Dionne for fifth place on the NHL’s career goals list.
Dmitry Orlov, Evgeny Kuznetsov, Conor Sheary and Anthony Mantha each added goals while John Carlson had four assists for Washington, which increased its lead in the East Division to four points over the New York Islanders.
Ivan Provorov, James van Riemsdyk and rookie Wade Allison, who got his first NHL goal, scored for the Flyers.
Ovechkin now has 730 regular-season goals in his 16-year career. Dionne finished with 731 during 18 seasons with the Red Wings, Kings and Rangers from 1971-89. Saturday’s goals increased Ovechkin’s career total against Philadelphia to 42, one of six teams that he’s scored 40 or more goals against.
PENGUINS 3, SABRES 2
BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP) - Tristan Jarry stopped 27 shots as the Penguins eliminated the Sabres from playoff contention.
Bryan Rust and Evan Rodrigues scored second-period goals in helping the Penguins improve to 10-2-2 in their past 14. Jared McCann also scored for Pittsburgh, which earned its 59th point to move one ahead of the idle New York Islanders, and remain three behind the Washington Capitals.
Jarry improved to 18-8-3 on the season, and is 6-0-2 since last losing in regulation on March 18.
The New York Rangers’ win in over New Jersey earlier in the day combined with Buffalo’s loss made the Sabres the NHL’s first team eliminated from playoff contention with some three weeks left in the 56-game shortened season. Buffalo matched the league record in extending its playoff drought to a 10th consecutive year.
Tage Thompson and Casey Mittelstadt scored for Buffalo, which is 5-3-2 since snapping an 18-game winless streak.
OILERS 3, JETS 0
WINNIPEG, Manitoba (AP) - Mike Smith stopped 26 shots in his third shutout of the season, sending Edmonton to the victory.
Tyson Barrie, Jesse Puljujarvi and Alex Chiasson scored for the Oilers, who had not played since a 5-0 loss at Calgary last Saturday. Captain Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl each had two assists.
Edmonton (26-12-2) pulled within three points of Winnipeg for second place in the North Division.
The Jets (27-15-3) were playing their fourth game in six nights. Connor Hellebuyck stopped 22 shots in the loss.
The Oilers improved to 5-2-0 versus Winnipeg this season.
COYOTES 3, BLUES 2
GLENDALE, Ariz. (AP) - Darcy Kuemper stopped 20 shots in his return to the lineup, and the Coyotes rallied for the win.
Arizona got off to a sluggish start in its first home game in three weeks, falling into a 2-0 hole in the first period.
The Coyotes revved up the pressure in the second, tying it on power-play goals by Alex Goligoski and Clayton Keller. Michael Bunting scored early in the third, and Kuemper was sharp after the early goals in his first game since missing 19 with a lower-body injury.
The Coyotes ended a five-game losing streak and moved a point ahead of the Blues in the race for the West Division’s final playoff spot.
Sammy Blais and Tyler Bozak scored for St. Louis, and Jordan Binnington stopped 26 shots.
STARS 5, BLUE JACKETS 1
DALLAS (AP) - Joe Pavelski had a goal and an assist, and Dallas scored four times in 6½ minutes in the second period.
Denis Gurianov, Jamie Benn, John Klingberg and Esa Lindell also had a goal and an assist for the Stars, who are on a season-high six-game point streak (3-0-3). Rookie goalie Jake Oettinger made 20 saves in improving to 5-0-1 this season against Columbus.
Vladislav Gavrikov scored for the Blue Jackets, who are 0-4-1 in their last five games and 2-10-2 in their last 14. Joonas Korpisalo was pulled after allowing four goals on 16 shots.
SENATORS 4, CANADIENS 0
MONTREAL (AP) - Drake Batherson had two goals and an assist for last-place Ottawa, which had dropped five of six.
Artem Zub and Nikita Zaitsev also scored for the Senators and Brady Tkachuk and Josh Norris each had two assists.
Matt Murray made 23 saves in his first shutout of the season and No. 11 for his career.
Montreal lost for the fifth time in seven games. It has managed just 11 goals during the tough stretch.
Carey Price finished with 11 saves for the Canadiens. He returned to the lineup after missing six games with a lower-body injury.
The rebuilding Senators improved to 5-3-0 against the Canadiens this season, with three of their six road wins in 2021 coming at the Bell Centre.
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