Sam Reinhart scored two goals and Ryan Lomberg recorded the game-winner in the third period as the Florida Panthers stayed hot with a 4-2 victory over the New York Rangers in Monday's showdown between division leaders.
Anton Lundell sealed Florida's fifth consecutive win and 11th in 12 games with an empty-net goal in the final minute, while Aleksander Barkov and Gustav Forsling had two assists in support of Sergei Bobrovsky's 26-save effort.
The win maintained the Panthers' two-point advantage on the Boston Bruins for first place in both the Eastern Conference and Atlantic Division, with the Metropolitan-leading Rangers now four points back of Florida.
After the Rangers tied the game at 2-2 on Chris Kreider's power-play goal late in the second period, the Panthers outshot New York by a 12-6 margin while dominating the third.
Lomberg snapped the deadlock 6:11 into the period when his wrist shot got past New York goaltender Igor Shesterkin, and Lundell put the game out of reach by scoring with 59 seconds remaining.
The Rangers took a 1-0 lead after one period on Will Cuylle's power-play goal, but Reinhart registered his 43rd and 44th goals of the season within a span of 2:45 in the second to put Florida ahead. His first of the night was his league-leading 25th in power-play situations.
Shesterkin stopped 25 of 28 shots for New York, which has now lost three of four following a franchise-record 10-game winning streak from Jan. 27-Feb. 24.
MacKinnon extends home point streak as Avalanche blank Blackhawks
Nathan MacKinnon increased his home point streak to 30 games with a two-goal, two-assist performance that helped the Colorado Avalanche cruise to a 5-0 rout over the badly struggling Chicago Blackhawks.
Justus Annunen stopped 37 shots to record his second shutout of Chicago in five days and send the Blackhawks to a seventh straight loss. The rookie netminder had 24 saves in Colorado's 5-0 win at Chicago on Thursday.
MacKinnon gave Annunen all the help he would need by blasting a shot past Chicago goaltender Petr Mrazek 12:31 in. The Colorado captain's home point streak is the second-longest to start a season in NHL history behind Wayne Gretzky's 40-game run with the Los Angeles Kings in 1988-89.
MacKinnon then set up Jonathan Drouin's goal later in the first period before adding another assist on Cale Makar's score with 7:22 left in the second that extended the Avs' lead to 3-0.
Zach Parise made it 4-0 when he redirected a drive from Caleb Jones five minutes after Makar's goal, and MacKinnon capped his four-point night with a power-play tally with 4:25 remaining.
Mrazek finished with 32 saves in Chicago's ninth shutout loss of the season, tied with the San Jose Sharks for the most in the NHL.
Zacha's two goals lead Bruins past Maple Leafs
The Boston Bruins were able to keep pace with the Panthers in the Eastern Conference race by delivering a 4-1 win over the rival Toronto Maple Leafs behind Pavel Zacha's two goals and 32 saves from Jeremy Swayman.
Jake DeBrusk chipped in a goal and an assist and David Pastrnak had three assists to help the Bruins win for the second time in three outings following a three-game losing streak.
Morgan Geekie added a goal that put Boston ahead midway through the first period, and Zacha made it 2-0 by converting a power-play chance just under three minutes later.
Swayman came up with 13 saves during a second period in which DeBrusk produced the only goal, though Toronto's John Tavares scored for a second straight game to end the shutout bid 3:52 into the third.
Zacha completed his first multi-goal outing of the season by knocking in a feed from Pastrnak with 9:25 remaining.
Toronto, which had won nine of 10 coming in, received 23 saves from Joseph Woll.
NHL: Surging Vegas scores 4 in 1st to beat Canucks
Jonathan Marchessault and Jack Eichel each had a goal and an assist in a four-goal first period and the Vegas Golden Knights extended their point streak to seven games with a 6-3 win over the Vancouver Canucks on Tuesday.
Anthony Mantha and Noah Hanifin also scored in the opening period and Brett Howden also tallied for Vegas, which has gone 6-0-1 in its last seven games to pull within three points of Edmonton for second place in the Pacific Division.
Logan Thompson made 27 saves to win his sixth straight start in his 99th career game.
Quinn Hughes scored twice for the Canucks, who have lost three of four but are five points up on the Oilers for first in the Pacific.
Ullmark perfect in Bruins’ win
Linus Ullmark turned away 32 shots and assisted on Charlie Coyle’s short-handed, game-winning goal in the third period to lead the Boston Bruins to a 3-0 victory over the Nashville Predators.
David Pastrnak and Pavel Zacha had a goal and an assist apiece to help Boston win for the third time in four games and extend its Atlantic Division lead to four points over Florida.
Juuse Saros made 30 saves for the Predators, who dropped their third in a row following a franchise-record 18-game point streak.
Surging Penguins rally past Devils
Evgeni Malkin and Sidney Crosby each scored twice during the Penguins’ five-goal third period and Pittsburgh remained in the playoff race with a 6-3 win over the New Jersey Devils.
The Devils took a 3-1 lead into the third period, but Crosby scored on a power play at 6:48 and Malkin’s first goal of the game just over a minute later tied it.
Rickard Rakell’s goal with 3:44 left put the Penguins ahead and Malkin made it 5-3 32 seconds later. Crosby’s empty-net goal closed the scoring.
Pittsburgh is 4-0-2 in its last six games and had moved within three points of Washington for the final Eastern Conference playoff spot.
NHL: Matthews scores 2 more in Leafs' win
Auston Matthews scored two more goals to push his league-leading total to 62, and the Toronto Maple Leafs withstood a third-period rally from the Florida Panthers to hold on for a 6-4 win in a potential first-round play-off matchup on Monday.
Matthews added an assist to help Toronto to its third consecutive victory, which moved the Maple Leafs within four points of Florida for second place in the Atlantic Division. The two teams are currently on course to meet in the Eastern Conference quarter-finals.
Nicholas Robertson and Matthew Knies each contributed a goal and an assist for Toronto, which built a 5-1 lead after two periods before the Panthers scored three straight goals in the third.
Robertson and Matthews both lit the lamp in the opening period to stake the Leafs to a 2-0 advantage before Florida trimmed the deficit on Brandon Montour's goal 47 seconds into the second.
Toronto responded quickly as Tyler Bertuzzi scored off a Matthews feed just 39 seconds later, and goals by David Kampf and Knies before the end of the period increased the Maple Leafs' cushion to 5-1.
The Panthers pulled goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky at the second intermission after the veteran stopped just 11 of 16 shots.
Florida's offence came to life in the third, as Vladimir Tarasenko redirected Niko Mikkola's shot past Toronto netminder Ilya Samsonov just 2:12 into the period and Sam Reinhart cut the lead to 5-3 with 8:02 left to play on his 52nd goal of the season.
With replacement goaltender Anthony Stolarz pulled for an extra attacker, Sam Bennett brought Florida within one when his wrist shot beat Samsonov with 1:50 remaining.
The Panthers couldn't come up with the equaliser, though, and Matthews sealed the outcome with an empty-netter with 46 seconds left.
Tarasenko ended with a goal and two assists for Florida, which has lost three of four. Stolarz stopped all six shots he faced in relief.
Samsonov finished with 26 saves.
Crosby, Penguins halt Rangers' win streak
Sidney Crosby led the way with two goals and an assist as the Pittsburgh Penguins put an end to the New York Rangers' five-game winning streak with a 5-2 victory.
Bryan Rust also scored twice to back 28 saves from Alex Nedeljkovic as the Penguins extended their point streak to five games (3-0-2). Pittsburgh currently sits five points out of a play-off spot in the Eastern Conference.
Nedeljkovic made 10 first-period saves and Rust quickly put Pittsburgh ahead by knocking in a rebound of Crosby's shot just 18 seconds into the contest.
Crosby made it a 2-0 lead midway through the opening period and after a scoreless second, Emil Bernstrom converted a breakaway chance 9:51 into the third to increase the Penguins' margin.
The Rangers regrouped to cut their deficit to 3-2 on goals by Kaapo Kakko and Jack Roslovic, the last coming with 3:07 left to play. New York pulled goaltender Igor Shesterkin in the closing stages, but fell further behind as both Rust and Crosby scored into an empty net inside the final 2 1/2 minutes.
Shesterkin turned aside just 15 of 18 shots to have a three-start winning streak snapped.
Blues continue post-season push with overtime win over Oilers
Brandon Saad scored 2:09 into overtime as the St. Louis Blues continued their late-season push for a play-off spot with a 3-2 win over the Edmonton Oilers.
Brayden Schenn accounted for both St. Louis goals in regulation to help the Blues improve to 8-2-1 over their last 11 games. The surge has brought St. Louis within three points of the Los Angeles Kings, who were dealt a 4-3 loss by the Winnipeg Jets on Monday, for the Western Conference's final wild-card berth.
The Blues trailed 1-0 after one period, but Jordan Binnington stopped all 13 Edmonton shots in the second and Schenn tied the game with a power-play goal 8:15 into the middle stanza.
Schenn struck again 1:44 into the third before the Oilers drew back even when Leon Draisaitl stuffed a feed from Connor McDavid past Binnington with 5:25 remaining in regulation.
Edmonton committed a costly giveaway in the neutral zone during overtime, though, which led to Saad scoring on a breakaway for his fifth goal in six games.
Mattias Ekholm recorded the Oilers' first goal and added an assist on Draisaitl's 39th tally of the season.
Binnington ended with 36 saves and Stuart Skinner stopped 26 shots for Edmonton.
NHL: Canucks extend Ducks' woes
Dakota Joshua scored two goals, including the game-winner with 2:13 left to play, as the Vancouver Canucks bounced back with Sunday's 3-2 victory over the downtrodden Anaheim Ducks.
Arturs Silovs made 20 saves to win his first NHL start in over a year and help Vancouver halt a two-game losing streak as well as extend its lead atop the Pacific Division. The Canucks now own a four-point advantage over the second-place Edmonton Oilers.
The Ducks rallied from a 2-0 deficit on third-period goals from Olen Zellweger and Mason McTavish before ultimately being dealt a fifth consecutive loss and 12th in 13 games.
Silovs, whose last NHL appearance came on March 6, 2023, stopped all 17 shots he faced through the first two periods as the Canucks built a 2-0 lead on a pair of power-play goals. Brock Boeser had the first 11:26 into the first period and Joshua backhanded a close-range shot past Anaheim goaltender Lukas Dostal midway through the second.
The Ducks then came to life early in the third, as Zellweger and McTavish scored 1:11 apart to even the game less than five minutes into the period. Zellweger's goal was the first of his NHL career.
The score remained 2-2 until Joshua knocked in a behind-the-net pass from Conor Garland with under 2 1/2 minutes left.
Dostal finished with 27 saves for Anaheim.
SportsMax is the Caribbean sports channel of choice, committed to providing sporting content of the highest quality to the Caribbean, delivered by a team of highly innovative, passionate and qualified professionals.
(876) 619-7629
digitalmedia@sportsmax.tv
