Jared McCann and Jordan Eberle had a goal and two assists apiece as the Seattle Kraken clinched a berth in the NHL playoffs with a 4-2 victory against the visiting Arizona Coyotes on Thursday night.
Matty Beniers added a goal and an assist and Vince Dunn also tallied for the Kraken, who won their third consecutive game. Philipp Grubauer made 27 saves.
Seattle leads the Western Conference’s wild-card race by seven points over Winnipeg and Calgary, with the Flames having only three regular-season games remaining. The Kraken are in their second year as an NHL franchise.
Barrett Hayton and Laurent Dauphin tallied for the Coyotes, who lost their ninth game in a row (0-7-2). Karel Vejmelka stopped 29 of 33 shots.
Golden Knights 5, Kings 2
Phil Kessel, Ivan Barbashev and Chandler Stephenson scored on consecutive shots over a 3:13 span early in a four-goal first period as Vegas cruised against Los Angeles in Las Vegas.
Stephenson added two assists while Kessel and Barbashev each wound up with two points for Vegas, which extended its Pacific Division and Western Conference lead to three points over the idle Edmonton Oilers. Both teams have three games remaining. Nicolas Roy and Jonathan Marchessault also scored goals, and Laurent Brossoit made 30 saves to improve to 5-0-3 in eight starts this season.
Anze Kopitar and Vladislav Gavrikov scored for Los Angeles, which lost its second straight game. Joonas Korpisalo stopped 10 of 15 shots before being pulled after yielding Marchessault’s goal at the 1:02 mark of the second period. Pheonix Copley took over and finished with 22 saves.
Blues 3, Rangers 2 (OT)
Kasperi Kapanen scored the decisive goal 1:16 into overtime as St. Louis edged visiting New York.
Alexey Toropchenko and Tyler Pitlick also scored for the Blues, and Jordan Binnington made 22 saves.
In his first game back in St. Louis to face his former team, Vladimir Tarasenko scored and had an assist for the Rangers. Vincent Trocheck also scored for New York and Jaroslav Halak made 19 saves.
Panthers 7, Senators 2
Alex Lyon made 56 saves and Aleksander Barkov scored two goals as Florida won its fifth straight game and eliminated visiting Ottawa from the playoff race.
Filling in for an ill Sergei Bobrovsky, Lyon made the second-most saves in Panthers history. Roberto Luongo set the record with 57 in 2002. Matthew Tkachuk had two assists, giving him a career-high 105 points. Brandon Montour added one goal and three assists, matching the franchise record for points in a game by a defenseman. Sam Reinhart, Eetu Luostarinen, Nick Cousins and Gustav Forsling also scored.
Claude Giroux and Ridly Greig scored for the Senators.
Islanders 6, Lightning 1
Brock Nelson collected a goal and two assists as host New York scored four times in the second period and recorded a crucial victory over Tampa Bay in Elmont, N.Y.
The Islanders remained in the second Eastern Conference wild-card spot. Nelson and Kyle Palmeiri scored in a span of 49 seconds midway through the second. Defensemen Adam Pelech and Ryan Pulock also scored before Simon Holmstrom and Bo Horvat tallied in the third as New York ended a six-game regular-season losing streak to the Lightning.
Nikita Kucherov scored for the Lightning, who mathematically lost home-ice advantage in the first round by dropping seven points behind the Toronto Maple Leafs.
Avalanche 6, Sharks 2
Mikko Rantanen produced his third hat trick of the season and added an assist for visiting Colorado in a 2 win against San Jose.
Nathan MacKinnon had a goal and three assists, Ben Meyers scored twice and Alexandar Georgiev made 21 saves for Colorado, which moved back into a tie for first in the Central Division with the Dallas Stars.
Erik Karlsson had a goal and an assist for the Sharks to become the sixth defenseman in NHL history to log at least 98 points in a season.
Devils 8, Blue Jackets 1
Jack Hughes had two goals and two assists as New Jersey scored a season-high eight goals in a rout of visiting Columbus.
Timo Meier had two goals and an assist, reaching the 40-goal plateau for the first time in his career. John Marino had three assists for his first career three-point game. Ryan Graves and Erik Haula each had a goal and an assist, and Tomas Tatar and Damon Severson scored New Jersey’s other goals.
Joona Luoto’s first career NHL goal represented the only offense for Columbus, 1-5-1 in the past seven games.
Predators 3, Hurricanes 0
Juuse Saros made 33 saves and Mark Jankowski collected a goal and an assist to fuel host Nashville to a victory over Carolina.
Michael McCarron also tallied and defenseman Dante Fabbro scored into an empty net for the Predators, who have won four of their last six games. Nashville moved within one point of the idle Winnipeg Jets for the second wild-card spot in the Western Conference.
Frederik Andersen turned aside 20 shots for the Hurricanes, who saw their three-game winning streak come to a halt. Carolina saw its lead to shrink to one point over second-place New Jersey.
Penguins 4, Wild 1
Kris Letang and Rickard Rakell each had a goal and an assist to lead Pittsburgh past visiting Minnesota.
Jason Zucker and Jeff Carter also scored while Jake Guentzel and Brian Dumoulin each added two assists for the Penguins, who have won two of their past three. Pittsburgh goaltender Tristan Jarry made 27 saves.
Marcus Johansson scored for the Wild, who have lost three straight (0-1-2). Minnesota goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury, a longtime Penguins core player, stopped 27 shots.
Bruins 2, Maple Leafs 1 (OT)
David Pastrnak scored at 2:30 of overtime and Boston defeated visiting Toronto to close in on the NHL record for wins in a single season. Boston is one victory away from matching the league record of 62 wins in a season. The mark was set by the Detroit Red Wings in 1995-96 and tied by the Tampa Bay Lightning in 2018-19.
Toronto defenseman Morgan Rielly took a hooking penalty 24 seconds into overtime. Pastrnak scored his 57th goal of the season on a 36-foot shot that was screened just after the penalty expired. Boston’s Charlie Coyle scored the game-tying goal in the third period.
Sam Lafferty scored in the second period and Ilya Samsonov stopped 31 shots for Toronto.
Canadiens 6, Capitals 2
Joel Armia notched his second career hat trick, and Montreal defeated visiting Washington.
Nick Suzuki had a goal and an assist for the Canadiens, who had lost four straight and been shut out in consecutive games. Mike Matheson had three assists, and Sam Montembeault made 24 saves.
Dylan Strome had a goal and an assist, and Darcy Kuemper made 26 saves for Washington, which was eliminated from Stanley Cup Playoff contention on Wednesday. The Capitals have lost five straight (0-4-1) while scoring nine goals.
Sabres 7, Red Wings 6 (SO)
Dylan Cozens had two goals and an assist and visiting Buffalo recovered from two third-period goals for Detroit in a shootout win.
A tiebreaker was needed after Detroit’s Jonatan Berggren connected on the doorstep at 8:02 of the third period to cut it to 6-5, and David Perron scored from the left circle with one minute left, with goalie Ville Husso pulled for the extra attacker. Berggren and Dylan Larkin each had a goal and an assist, Lucas Raymond had three assists, Moritz Seider had two assists, and Husso made 30 saves for the Red Wings.
Tage Thompson and Henri Jokiharju each had a goal and assist, Owen Power had three assists and Casey Mittelstadt had two assists for the Sabres. Devon Levi made 26 saves. Jack Quinn and Alex Tuch scored on Buffalo’s second and third shots in the shootout.
Stars 4, Flyers 1
Joe Pavelski had a goal with two assists to move within a point of 1,000 and Jason Robertson scored twice, as Dallas Stars rolled past Philadelphia.
Pavelski, who turns 39 in July, posted his 26th goal and assisted on goals No. 44 and 45 from Robertson, whose 103 season points are the most since the franchise relocated to Dallas in 1993. Colin Miller also scored and Jake Oettinger made 24 saves for the Stars, who are vying for the Central Division title and have totaled 34 goals during their 6-2-1 stretch.
Meanwhile, Kevin Hayes scored and Carter Hart returned from a five-game injury absence to make 26 saves for the Flyers, who have allowed 23 goals during their 0-4-1 slide. Philadelphia has also dropped nine straight on the road (0-8-1) for the second time this season.
Canucks 3, Blackhawks 0
Andrei Kuzmenko scored his team-leading 38th goal and Thatcher Demko earned his first shutout of the season as Vancouver snapped a four-game skid with a victory over visiting Chicago. The Canucks are 13-2-1 in their past 16 games against the Blackhawks.
Vitali Kravtsov and J.T. Miller also scored and defenseman Akito Hirose dished out a pair of assists for the Canucks. Demko was superb in net, turning aside 33 shots.
Alex Stalock stopped 26 shots for Chicago, which took its ninth loss in 10 games.
–Field Level Media
