BOSTON (AP) — Charlie McAvoy got his 299th career point with a goal in the second period and Jeremy Swayman stopped 35 shots for his third shutout of the season as the Boston Bruins beat the Minnesota Wild 3-0 on Tuesday night.
Trent Frederic scored and Morgan Geekie added an empty-net goal in the final minute for the Bruins.
Marc-Andre Fleury had 32 saves for the Wild, who swept the Bruins in both meetings last season but could not get anything past Swayman on Tuesday. Minnesota was shut out for the second straight game.
SABRES 3, BLUE JACKETS 2
BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP) — Alex Tuch had two goals and an assist, and Buffalo beat Columbus for their first four-game winning streak in more than two years.
Bowen Byram had a goal and an assist, and James Reimer stopped 28 shots to get his second win of the season and snap a five-game skid (0-4-1). Buffalo had not won four straight since a five-game run spanning Jan. 19-26, 2023.
Kent Johnson got his career-high-tying 16th goal, and Ivan Provorov also scored for Columbus. Elvis Merzlikins stopped 18 shots.
LIGHTNING 4, SENATORS 3
TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — Brandon Hagel scored less than two minutes into the third period to give Tampa Bay the lead for good in a win that snapped Ottawa’s five-game winning streak.
Luke Glendening, Nikita Kucherov and Ryan McDonagh also scored for Tampa Bay while Andrei Vasilevskiy finished with 25 saves.
Michael Amadio, Claude Giroux and Drake Batherson scored for Ottawa. Linus Ullmark, making his first start in goal since Dec. 22, finished with 34 saves.
DEVILS 3, PENGUINS 2, SO
PITTSBURGH (AP) — Timo Meier beat Alex Nedeljkovic in the seventh round of a shootout to lift New Jersey past Pittsburgh.
Jack Hughes scored twice for the Devils. Nico Daws stopped 25 shots in overtime and regulation then turned away five of the seven Penguins he faced in the shootout as the Devils won for the sixth straight time in Pittsburgh.
Jesper Bratt assisted on both of Hughes’ goals to boost his season total to 45 as the Devils bounced back from a loss to lowly Buffalo by ending Pittsburgh’s modest two-game winning streak.
CAPITALS 6, PANTHERS 3
WASHINGTON (AP) — lex Ovechkin scored his 878th career goal into an empty net with 0.1 seconds left on the clock to move closer to Wayne Gretzky’s NHL career record, and Washington defeated defending Stanley Cup champion Florida.
Ovechkin’s goal puts him 17 away from breaking Gretzky’s mark of 894 that once seemed unapproachable. The Capitals have 29 games left for him to get to 895 or beyond this season, though he does have another year left on his contract.
Andrew Mangiapane, Tom Wilson, Lars Eller and Nic Dowd scored on two-time Vezina Trophy-winning goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky, and Aliaksei Protas also had an empty-netter. Logan Thompson, among the current contenders for the award, stopped 31 of the 34 shots he faced to help Washington avoid losing three in a row.
Florida’s winning streak ended at three despite goals from Sam Bennett, Aleksander Barkov and Matthew Tkachuk and 21 saves by Bobrovsky.
ISLANDERS 2, GOLDEN KNIGHTS 1
NEW YORK (AP) — Brock Nelson snapped a tie midway through the third period and Ilya Sorokin made 34 saves, helping the New York Islanders beat the Vegas Golden Knights 2-1 on Tuesday night for their eighth win in nine games.
Nelson tipped a shot by defenseman Alexander Romanov past Ilya Samsonov at 10:43. Tony DeAngelo also assisted on Nelson’s 16th goal of the season.
Bo Horvat also scored for the Islanders, who improved to 11-3-0 since Jan. 5.
Brandon Saad scored for the Golden Knights, who lost their fourth straight.
Samsonov made 12 saves for the Golden Knights.
The Associated Press
