Timo Meier and Logan Couture scored 1:05 into the second period to break a tie game, then the visiting San Jose Sharks held on to snap a five-game winless rut with Friday night’s 5-4 victory vs. the Dallas Stars.

Alexander Barabanov and Tomas Hertl also had a goal with an assist each, and James Reimer made 25 saves for the Sharks, who were mired in an 0-3-2 slide. San Jose also snapped a seven-game losing streak at Dallas.

With the game tied 2-2 after a period, the Sharks made Dallas pay for an own-zone turnover that resulted in Meier ringing the far post — 29 seconds in — behind the Stars’ Jake Oettinger, who allowed a season-high five goals and made 13 saves after missing the last four games with a lower-body injury.

Just 36 seconds later, Barabanov created another Stars-zone turnover, then sent a cross-crease pass for Couture to bury.

After Hertl’s goal 29 seconds into the third put San Jose ahead 5-2, Dallas’ Roope Hintz rang the post himself and Joe Pavelski scored on rebound with 7:54 left in regulation. However, Reimer came up with some key stops to hand the Stars a second straight loss despite two goals from Jamie Benn.

Dallas got out to a strong start, and was rewarded when Benn kept the puck via a two-on-one to beat Reimer. However, San Jose tied it less than two minutes later when Barabanov scored on the power play through traffic.

The Sharks went up 2-1 with 7:42 remaining in the opening frame. Off a one-handed chip-pass from Oskar Lindblom, Evgeny Svechnikov was quick to the puck with his shot in the slot.

However, the Stars tied with just 20.4 seconds left in the first. Taking advantage of a San Jose turnover in its own zone, Benn made the visitors pay with his second multi-goal effort in three games.

But the Sharks further stunned Oettinger and the stars with those two goals in the second. San Jose recorded just one shot the rest of the period, while Dallas posted 11 on goal.

The Stars’ Jason Robertson’s six-game goal streak ended, but he had two assists.

–Field Level Media

The Winnipeg Jets will look to extend their points streak to eight games when they visit the Calgary Flames on Saturday night.

Winnipeg is 6-0-1 in their past seven following a 5-1 win over the visiting Dallas Stars earlier this week. The stingy Jets have allowed the fewest goals (28) in the NHL.

“Hopefully we continue to be one of the top defensive teams. The last couple of games at home, it’s certainly looked a lot better,” said forward Adam Lowry. “The other team isn’t getting a lot of chances that previously we gave up quite a few.”

The Jets limited the Stars to 22 shots on goal, 21 of which were stopped by Connor Hellebuyck.

Mark Scheifele scored two goals against Dallas, Mason Appleton had a goal and two assists and Kyle Connor had three assists.

“We’re not sitting back on our heels. We’re playing on our toes, we’re making it hard on teams to make plays and make continuous passes,” Scheifele said. “That comes with playing fast and having good sticks and trusting your teammates. I think we’ve done a really good job with that.”

Winnipeg’s Pierre-Luc Dubois enters Saturday with a three-game goal streak and five points over that span.

Calgary returns home looking to end a seven-game losing streak (0-5-2). The Flames went 0-2-1 on a three-game road trip in which they were outscored by a total of four goals over three close games.

Boston edged Calgary 3-1 on Thursday despite being outshot 32-28.

“On winning or losing streaks, what are the two things that always happen?” Flames coach Darryl Sutter said. “The goaltender steals a game, or somebody scores a big goal. … The two things we for sure have to get better at as a team is save percentage and shooting percentage.”

Noah Hanifin scored against Boston, and Dan Vladar made 25 saves.

The Flames’ seven-game losing streak is tied for the sixth-longest in their history; the record is 11, set in 1985-86.

Trailing 2-1 after two periods, the Flames outshot the Bruins 11-6 in the final frame — but surrendered an empty-net goal to David Pastrnak at 19:27 to seal it.

“I think our effort is there,” forward Andrew Mangiapane said. “Puck management is a big one for us lately. We’ve just got to clean up those little areas and we’ll get out of this. We’ve just got to stick with it and keep building off the positives and eliminating the mistakes.”

And put the puck in the net. The Flames are tied for 21st in the NHL with 2.92 goals per game.

Streaking Winnipeg is looking past the Flames’ record of late.

“The coaches laid out a stat for us about their starts and how much they’re outshooting teams in the first 10 minutes,” Jets defenseman Josh Morrissey said. “We have to be ready to go and we know they’re going to come out hard.”

Hellebuyck is 12-4-1 with a 1.87 goals-against average (GAA) and .936 save percentage in 19 games against the Flames. Calgary’s Jacob Markstrom is 5-14-2 with a 3.27 GAA and .890 save percentage in 21 games versus the Jets.

–Field Level Media

Sonny Milano scored his first two goals for Washington, John Carlson returned from a six-game absence and notched his 600th career point and the Capitals beat the visiting Tampa Bay Lightning 5-1 on Friday night.

Carlson, a defenseman, set up left winger Milano on a breakaway for the milestone point. Milano scored again on a pass that went in off the Lightning’s Steven Stamkos in the third. Carlson’s fellow blue-liner Nick Jensen had an assist for his 100th career point.

Anthony Mantha, Aliaksei Protas and Conor Sheary tallied, while goaltender Darcy Kuemper stopped 28 shots. Head coach Peter Laviolette (COVID protocol) was absent from the game, with assistant coach Kevin McCarthy replacing him.

Washington finished its season-long homestand with a 2-2-0 mark and won for the second time in the past seven games (2-3-2).

Tampa Bay’s Nick Perbix scored his second career goal and has points in three straight matches, but Nikita Kucherov’s 11-game point streak ended. Andrei Vasilevskiy made 19 saves.

In the first match of a home-and-home set, Kuemper — who beat the Lightning as a member of the Colorado Avalanche in last season’s Stanley Cup Final — stuffed Kucherov’s breakaway attempt early.

Washington took the lead when Lars Eller sent a blind, cross-ice pass through to the right circle right on the tape for Mantha, who flipped in his fifth goal at 10:32.

Bad blood developed in the second when Washington’s Nicolas Aube-Kubel hit Cal Foote high, leaving the Lightning defenseman bleeding and sending him to the dressing room. Aube-Kubel was assessed a five-minute major for a hit to the head and ejected with a match penalty.

But Washington killed the penalty, and to make matters worse, Milano — serving the match penalty — bolted out of the penalty box and in for a breakaway at 7:03. Carlson’s stretch pass to set up Milano was the only assist.

Just over seven minutes later, Protas cleaned up a rebound of Jensen’s long blast for his third goal to put Washington up 3-0.

In the final frame, Sheary helped put the game away when he streaked through the middle of the offensive zone after a poor Lightning line change and potted his fifth marker at 4:53.

After Perbix’s tally at 12:09 broke up Kuemper’s shutout bid, the teams had multiple players fight as tempers heightened in the chippy matchup that will be revisited Sunday in Tampa.

–Field Level Media

Brock McGinn scored the go-ahead goal early in the third period and the visiting Pittsburgh Penguins went on to defeat the Toronto Maple Leafs 4-2 on Friday night.

Evgeni Malkin had a goal and an assist for Pittsburgh. Jason Zucker and Jake Guentzel also scored for the Penguins, who have won two straight after losing seven in a row.

Casey DeSmith stopped 28 shots for Pittsburgh in his second consecutive start.

Zach-Aston Reese and William Nylander scored for Toronto in the annual Hall of Fame game.

Erik Kallgren made 19 saves for the Maple Leafs, who have lost two in a row.

Pittsburgh capitalized on a Toronto turnover to take the lead at 1:54 of the third period. Danton Heinen set up McGinn, who shot from the right circle for his third goal of the season.

Aston-Reese, a former Penguin, pounced on a loose puck after Denis Malgin’s shot toward the net to score his second goal of the season at 13:49 of the first period. David Kampf also earned an assist.

Malkin, who took two minor penalties during the first period, scored his sixth goal of the season at 19:24 of the first. It came after Chad Ruhwedel’s shot bounced off Toronto defenseman TJ Brodie.

Toronto had a 10-7 advantage in shots on goal after one period.

Malkin’s spinning backhand pass set up Zucker’s fourth goal of the season on a laser from the right hash mark at 1:08 of the second period. Marcus Pettersson also earned an assist.

About one minute after he hit the goal post during a power play, Nylander converted a pass from Morgan Rielly for his sixth goal of the season at 17:17 of the second to tie the game 2-2. Kris Letang was serving a tripping penalty. Mitchell Marner also notched an assist.

Toronto led 26-15 in shots on goal after two periods.

After McGinn’s go-ahead goal, Zucker came close at 10:54 of the third, but his shot was deflected wide.

Guentzel scored into the empty net for his eighth goal of the season at 19:47 of the third.

Former Maple Leafs defenseman Borje Salming was given a long ovation before the game.

–Field Level Media

The Vegas Golden Knights can match their franchise-record 10-game winning streak when they open a three-game homestand on Saturday night against the St. Louis Blues in Las Vegas.

Vegas, which won 10 in a row in April of 2021, leads the NHL with 13 victories and 26 points in 15 games. The Golden Knights completed a sweep of a five-game eastern road trip on Thursday with their ninth straight win, a 7-4 victory at Buffalo, as Jack Eichel scored his third career hat trick and finished with four points.

It was Eichel’s second game at KeyBank Center since a Nov. 4, 2021 trade to the Golden Knights for Alex Tuch and Peyton Krebs. Eichel, who left on controversial terms with the Sabres who were against his decision to have eventual disc replacement surgery in his neck, was booed each time he touched the puck. Eichel made a point to acknowledge the crowd after each of his goals.

“It’s satisfying to come in here and win,” said Eichel, who has a team-best nine goals and 19 points. “I think that’s the most important thing for our group. They were desperate and they gave us everything that we could handle and we found ways to make the plays when we needed to.”

“No one likes to see a teammate get booed, right?” Vegas coach Bruce Cassidy added. “I’m going to say it as simple as I can. It hurts everybody, right, especially if you are a close-knit team. So we’re happy for him.”

After failing to make the playoffs for the first time in team history last season, Vegas heads home leading the NHL in both wins and points after one month of action.

“It’s pretty good,” captain Mark Stone said of the start. “Probably the best start of my career. We’ve had good health, great goaltending. The defense has been good. Jack’s kind of leading the way offensively, but if you look down the board so many guys are chipping in offensively. That’s why we’re a good team, I think, because we have depth scoring. We’ve got to go home and carry the momentum.”

Waiting for the Golden Knights is a St. Louis team that ended an eight-game losing streak with a 5-3 victory over visiting San Jose on Thursday. It was the team’s first win since a 2-0 blanking of Edmonton on Oct. 22.

Defenseman Calle Rosen scored the game-winner at 8:20 of the third period on a one-timer off a Robert Thomas pass. It was Rosen’s fourth career goal and first of the season.

“It was obviously a good (feeling), for sure,” St. Louis coach Craig Berube said of snapping the losing streak. “You lose as much as we have lately and it’s really not a good feeling. Got a win. It was a battle, but we got a win and did a lot of good things tonight.”

The Blues now hit the road for three games, the final two of which will be part of the team’s first-ever Mom’s Trip. Twenty-two mothers will join the Blues in Denver before the Monday night’s game with the defending Stanley Cup champion Colorado Avalanche and will then fly with the team to Chicago for Wednesday’s road trip finale. The mothers will attend morning skates, sit in on team meetings, ride on the team bus and also eat pregame meals with the squad.

“We’ve got a tough road trip coming up,” Thomas said. “Vegas, Colorado, Chicago — they’re all playing well. It’s a good time to go on a run.”

–Field Level Media

With their optimistic start all but a memory at this point, the Chicago Blackhawks stumble into a road matchup against the Anaheim Ducks on Saturday.

Since a four-game winning streak last month, the Blackhawks have just one victory in their past seven games. They are 1-3-3 since Oct. 27 and have lost twice on the current road trip that ends Saturday.

The most recent defeat came Thursday when they dropped a 2-1 overtime decision to the Los Angeles Kings.

The Blackhawks have managed just four goals over the past four games, with two of those coming in a 2-1 victory over the Kings at home on Nov. 3. Los Angeles made its revenge extra spicy, getting the game-winning goal from Kevin Fiala with 1.4 seconds remaining in the extra period.

The good news for Chicago is that goalie Petr Mrazek returned from an eight-game absence (groin injury) to stop 31 shots. Taylor Raddysh had the lone goal for the Blackhawks.

Chicago was constantly pinned in its own zone under relentless pressure and stayed in the game thanks to Mrazek’s heroics.

“Just try to do everything you can to not prolong those shifts before you get caught in our own zone,” Chicago’s Max Domi said. “… (We have) just got to work on closing plays a little quicker, both forwards and (defenders). Just a little more communication will solve that problem.”

Getting shift changes while under constant bombardment has been a particular issue.

“(When) you’re not moving your feet and you turn the puck over in the neutral zone or at the blue line and it comes back in your zone, those little plays everywhere on the ice are important,” Blackhawks head coach Luke Richardson said. “Just little chips in the neutral zone to get guys off the ice.”

Creating offense might come a bit easier against the Ducks, who have allowed an NHL-worst 65 goals and minus-25 goal differential.

The Ducks dropped a 4-1 decision to the Minnesota Wild on Wednesday after averaging 4.6 goals a game during a four-game stretch.

The Ducks have scored a respectable 40 goals this season and are getting highlight-worthy performances from Troy Terry (team-high 17 points) and Trevor Zegras (team-high seven goals), with Zegras’ most recent effort at a wraparound lacrosse-style goal Wednesday notable even though it was erased on replay because of offsides.

Not having as much fun are the Ducks goaltenders. Veteran John Gibson has allowed a league-most 45 goals — a 4.47 goals-against average in 11 starts, while getting pulled from three of them. Backup Anthony Stolarz has a 3.90 goals-against average in six games (three starts).

Gibson has allowed 15 goals in his last three starts, including seven against the Vancouver Canucks on Nov. 3.

Making matters worse is that the Ducks lost a pair of defensemen — Kevin Shattenkirk (lower-body injury), Nathan Beaulieu (upper body) — in the defeat to the Wild and finished the game with just four defensemen.

“We’ve been saying a lot of the right things but our results and what we’re doing on the ice isn’t where we need it to be,” Ducks defenseman Cam Flower said. “That’s just a product of letting the game get away from you a little bit. Putting yourself in penalty trouble against any team is a recipe for disaster.”

–Field Level Media

The Colorado Avalanche have plenty of offensive firepower — even with injuries — but their next opponent has one of the hottest goal scorers in the NHL.

In the Carolina Hurricanes’ first 14 games, Andrei Svechnikov already has notched two hat tricks, including one Carolina’s 7-2 win over the Edmonton Oilers on Thursday night. Each of his three-goal games have come against Edmonton.

Colorado has the job of slowing down the 22-year-old Svechnikov, the league’s third-leading scorer Saturday night when the Hurricanes visit Denver.

Carolina’s victory on Thursday ended a two-game skid and it came with backup goaltender Pyotr Kochetkov stopping 20 shots in his season debut. Kochetkov got the start because starter Frederik Andersen was out with a lower-body injury and will remain out until at least Monday.

Kochetkov won all three of his starts for the Hurricanes last year and appeared in four playoff games.

“He played great for us last year,” Jordan Martinook said. “We know what he is.”

Carolina knows what Svechnikov brings to the game as well. He is in his fifth NHL season, all with the Hurricanes, and his third goal on Thursday night gave him 100 in 297 career games.

Svechnikov has 11 goals and is on pace to surpass last year’s career high of 30 goals in 78 games.

“He has been good all year,” Hurricanes coach Rd Brind’Amour said. “We need it. We have some key guys that aren’t in our lineup who score goals. So we’re counting on everyone else to chip in and he has been leading the charge.”

The Avalanche are also dealing with injuries, and Thursday night suffered another in their 5-3 win over Nashville. Shane Bowers, a 2017 first-round pick of Ottawa that Colorado acquired in the Matt Duchene trade, made his NHL debut but left with an upper-body injury in the first period.

That added to the list of players sidelined, which include forwards Gabriel Landeskog, Valeri Nichushkin and Darren Helm and defenseman Bowen Byram. Helm has yet to play this season and coach Jared Bednar said Friday that Helm underwent another surgery last week.

Colorado is hopeful that defenseman Sam Girard, who is listed as day to day, can return against the Hurricanes.

Despite the injuries, the Avalanche have won their last three games and can build momentum on their current three-game homestand. Colorado dealt with injuries last year on its way to the Stanley Cup title and has the experience to get through a tough schedule to begin the season.

“I think it’s next man up mentality,” said Logan O’Connor, who had two goals in Thursday’s win. “As cliche as that may be, it’s pretty truthful and everyone just has to elevate their games in different areas.

“I think we have to be that much sharper in our details and our structure and I think we’ve seen that over the last couple of games. We’ve definitely focused on things defensively and the little nuances of the game that I think have been effective for us with a little bit of a thinner lineup.”

–Field Level Media

The New York Islanders and Johnny Gaudreau were commonly linked together during the early days of the NHL’s offseason in July.

On Saturday night, they’ll finally get to share the ice together.

The Islanders will conclude a three-game homestand when they host Gaudreau and the Columbus Blue Jackets in a battle of Metropolitan Division rivals.

Both teams were off Friday after playing at home Thursday, when the Islanders fell to the Arizona Coyotes 2-0 and the Blue Jackets beat the Philadelphia Flyers 5-2.

The results were atypical for both teams over the first month of the season.

Despite not adding a proven goal-scorer such as Gaudreau to a team that finished 16 points out of the playoffs last season, the Islanders entered Friday tied for eighth in the NHL with 49 goals (3.27 per game) and are amid a 7-2-0 stretch in which they have recorded three multi-goal third-period comebacks.

That’s serious improvement over last season, when the Islanders ranked 23rd in the NHL at 2.87 goals per game and had just two third-period comebacks, both of the one-goal variety.

But the Islanders couldn’t muster their goal-scoring magic Thursday, when they were credited with just 24 shots as Coyotes goalie Karel Vejmelka posted the second shutout of his career. Arizona was credited with 17 blocked shots while New York had 23 missed shots.

“You can’t score if you don’t hit the net, that’s the bottom line.” Islanders head coach Lane Lambert said. “Seventeen attempts blocked and 23 missed shots. That’s too many.”

Gaudreau, the former Calgary Flames superstar and native of New Jersey, surprised observers by choosing the Blue Jackets in free agency instead of teams closer to home such as the Islanders, Flyers or New Jersey Devils. He reached a seven-year deal, $68.25 million deal that was expected to hasten the Blue Jackets’ rebuilding plan and vault them into the thick of the competitive Metropolitan race.

But the Blue Jackets, who have missed the past two playoffs and advanced beyond the first round just once in the franchise’s 21 seasons, will enter Saturday with eight points, tied for fewest in the NHL.

Gaudreau, who leads Columbus with six goals — all at home — and six assists, snapped a four-game goal-scoring drought Thursday, when he finished with three points. That was his best regular-season game since a four-point outing for the Flames against the Coyotes last Apr. 16.

“I like playing in front of these fans,” Gaudreau said. “It’s been a lot of fun playing in front of them. I’m enjoying my time here so far, so hopefully I can keep scoring here.”

The Blue Jackets will be without defensemen Zack Werenski, who could be lost for the season with a shoulder injury. Erik Gudbranson is day-to-day with an upper-body injury. The Blue Jackets also placed defenseman Nick Blankenburg and forwards Sean Kuraly and Jakub Voracek on injured reserve.

Islanders right winger Cal Clutterbuck returned to action Thursday after missing Tuesday’s game against the New York Rangers with an unspecified injury. He said Thursday he expects to continue playing through whatever it is that’s ailing him. Fellow fourth-liner Casey Cizikas, who was pulled after he appeared to hit his head in the third period Thursday, practiced Friday.

–Field Level Media

The NHL and NHL Players Association called off the World Cup of Hockey for 2024 on Friday, changing their target date to February 2025.

“Over the last year, the NHL and the NHLPA have been working on plans to conduct the next World Cup of Hockey, the premier international best-on-best hockey tournament, in February 2024,” the two organizations said in a joint statement. “Unfortunately, in the current environment it is not feasible to hold the World Cup of Hockey at that time. We continue to plan for the next World Cup of Hockey, hopefully in February 2025.”

The postponement comes amid the question of whether to admit Russia into the tournament as the nation wages war against Ukraine, reports said, among other logistical obstacles.

As recently as August, NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly said the league and players union were moving ahead with plans for a 2024 World Cup. Daly later went on the record in October to say that there were issues the league still had to iron out with the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF), including Russia’s participation.

It’s the latest setback for hockey after the NHL chose to pull its players out of the 2022 Winter Olympics last February due to COVID-19 concerns.

The world’s best players have expressed a desire to return to represent their nations, which they haven’t been able to do since the last World Cup of Hockey was staged in 2016. The NHL did not let players participate in the 2018 Winter Games, either.

“They pushed the Summer Olympics back one year, maybe that happens again this year,” Edmonton Oilers star Connor McDavid said last December, after the league pulled out of the Olympics. “Obviously it’s not looking that way, I think we do need to find a way to get a best-on-best tournament done at some point here.

“We can’t go six, seven, eight years without playing best-on-best. I’d like to see something worked out.”

Per ESPN, other remaining sticking points include North American broadcast rights for the tournament.

–Field Level Media