Andrei Vasilevskiy turned aside 23 shots and Nikita Kucherov scored to take over the NHL scoring lead as the surging Tampa Bay Lightning defeated the Atlantic Division-leading Boston Bruins, 3-1, on Wednesday.

Mitchell Chaffee and Brayden Point also had goals for the Lightning, who improved to 7-0-1 in their last eight games to move within two points of Toronto for third place in the Atlantic Division.

Point, who has six goals and two assists in the last four games, and defenseman Victor Hedman both returned after missing one game with lower-body injuries.

Danton Heinen had the lone goal for Boston, which lost its third in four games and missed an opportunity to jump over the Rangers and take over the league lead in points.

Kucherov’s empty-net goal capped the scoring and gave him a league-leading 124 points, one more than Colorado’s Nathan MacKinnon.

Senators score 5 in 1st in win over Sabres

Shane Pinto had a goal and three assists and Joonas Korpisalo stopped 34 shots as the Ottawa Senators rolled to a 6-2 rout of the Buffalo Sabres.

The Senators scored five times in the first period to chase starter Ukko-Pekka Luukonen, who allowed the first four goals on nine shots. Devon Levi stopped 31 of 32 shots the rest of the way.

Artem Zub, Boris Katchouk, Drake Batherson, Jakob Chychrun and Brady Tkachuk all scored in the opening period to help Ottawa win its third straight.

JJ Peterka and Connor Clifton had second-period goals for the Sabres, who have lost three of four and remained eight points behind the final Eastern Conference playoff spot.

Alex Ovechkin ignited a run of five unanswered goals and the Washington Capitals picked up a key 5-2 win over the Philadelphia Flyers on Friday.

Ovechkin’s 17th goal of the season and 839th of his career at 4:34 of the second period cut Philadelphia’s lead to 2-1 before Sonny Milano and John Carlson scored later in the period to put Washington ahead for good.

Anthony Mantha and Dylan Strome added third-period goals for the Capitals, who have won five of seven to pull within four points of the third-place Flyers in the Metropolitan Division.

Bobby Brink and Owen Tippett scored for Philadelphia, which has dropped five of seven. The Flyers played their fourth straight game without All-Star forward Travis Konecny, who could return next week.

Coyotes snap 14-game losing streak

Dylan Guenther snapped a tie in the third period and the Arizona Coyotes held on for a 5-3 victory over the Ottawa Senators to end a 14-game losing streak.

Michael Carcone, J.J. Moser, Nick Schmaltz and Matias Maccelli had the other goals to help Arizona stop a 0-12-2 slide with its first win since Jan. 22.

Karel Vejmelka made 34 saves to earn his first win since Dec. 27 after going 0-8-0 in 10 appearances since.

Ottawa lost its third straight game and both meetings this season against Arizona.

Dostal stars in Ducks’ win

Lukas Dostal stopped 52 shots and Jack Hughes’ penalty shot with 2.1 seconds remaining to lift the Anaheim Ducks to a 4-3 victory over the New Jersey Devils.

Frank Vatrano scored twice and Adam Henrique and Max Jones had the other goals as the Ducks won back-to-back games after a three-game skid.

Hughes had a goal and two assists but failed to convert a late penalty shot, awarded when Vatrano deliberately knocked the net off its moorings following a scramble around Dostal.

Claude Giroux's goal with 1:24 remaining in overtime completed a furious rally as the Ottawa Senators overcame a three-goal deficit to earn a 4-3 win over the Nashville Predators in Monday's lone game of the NHL schedule.

Ottawa trailed 3-0 after one period before goals from Drake Batherson, Tim Stuetzle and Brady Tkachuk in the second tied the game, and the Senators received a superb relief effort from goaltender Joonas Korpisalo to help spur the comeback.

Korpisalo stopped all 17 shots he faced after taking over for Mads Sogaard, who was pulled after one period after allowing three goals on 11 shots.

After the Predators failed on a 2-on-1 attempt late in overtime, the Senators countered with an odd-man rush of their own. Stuetzle worked a give-and-go with Giroux, who blasted his teammate's pass over Nashville goaltender Juuse Saros for the game-winner.

Ottawa, tied for last in the Eastern Conference with 40 points, had lost two in a row coming in but improved to 4-1-2 over its last seven games.

The Predators lost for the fourth time in five games despite a solid performance from Saros, who made 14 saves in the third period to force overtime and finished with 31.

Michael McCarron staked Nashville to an early lead when he rocketed a loose puck past Sogaard 8:26 in. Philip Tomasino and Yakov Trenin then scored 2:30 apart before the end of the first period to give the Predators a seemingly comfortable 3-0 advantage. 

Sam Reinhart recorded a hat trick and Aleksander Barkov had four assists to lead the visiting Florida Panthers to their season-high seventh straight victory, 8-4 over the Colorado Avalanche on Saturday.

Carter Verhaeghe had two goals and an assist and Matthew Tkachuk added a goal and two assists for the Panthers, who have scored 31 goals – including 10 on the power play – during the win streak.

Reinhart has 10 goals in the seven-game run, including three multigoal games. He ranks among the NHL leaders with 28 goals this season, three fewer than he had in 82 games in 2022-23.

Cale Makar and Valeri Nichushkin each scored one goal and set up another as Colorado had a seven-game point streak snapped.

Nathan MacKinnon had an assist to extend his home point streak to 21 games to start the season.

Streaking Oilers win behind Hyman’s hat trick

Zach Hyman notched his third hat trick of the season and the Edmonton Oilers extended their winning streak to seven games on Saturday with a 3-1 victory over the Ottawa Senators.

Stuart Skinner stopped 30 shots and Evan Bouchard had three assists for Edmonton, which has overcome a 5-12-1 start by going 15-3-0 in their last 18.

Oilers coach Kris Knoblauch became the first coach in NHL history to have two seven-game winning streaks in his first 25 games in the position. 

The Senators got their lone goal from Parker Kelly and dropped their third straight.

Fleury ties Roy as Wild win

Marc-Andre Fleury tied Patrick Roy on the all-time wins list with Marco Rossi’s overtime goal that gave the Minnesota Wild a 4-3 victory over the Columbus Blue Jackets.

Fleury made 25 saves to match Roy with his 551st win and now trails only Martin Brodeur (691) on the career list.

Matt Boldy scored two power-play goals and Marcus Johansson also tallied for the Wild, who snapped a four-game losing streak.

Columbus’ Cole Sillinger scored all three goals for his second career hat trick.

Nathan MacKinnon notched the first four-goal game in Avalanche history and extended his point streak to 17 games Thursday as Colorado rallied for a 6-4 win over the Ottawa Senators.

MacKinnon opened the scoring 2:43 into the game and tallied again with 1:32 left in the first period for his 300th career goal. 

He completed his hat trick at 6:16 of the third period to lift the Avs into a 4-4 tie and scored into an empty net with 23 seconds left.

MacKinnon has 12 goals and 21 assists during his 17-game streak, the longest of his career.

Mikko Rantanen had a pair of power-play goals and Cale Makar had two assists in his return from a lower-body injury that sidelined him for three games.

Drake Batherson had a goal and an assist as the Senators lost their sixth in a row, the last two coming under interim coach Jacques Martin, who replaced the fired D.J. Smith on Monday.

Sabres respond with rout of Maple Leafs

Jeff Skinner returned from a three-game absence with two goals and an assist and the Buffalo Sabres responded to their worst loss of the season with a 9-3 rout of the Toronto Maple Leafs.

Tage Thompson had a goal and two assists and captain Kyle Okposo scored twice for the Sabres, who were coming off a 9-4 loss to Columbus on Tuesday, when the team was booed off the ice.

Rookie Devon Levi shook off allowing Auston Matthews’ league-leading 26th goal in the first period from a bad angle to stop 25 shots. He improved to 4-1-1 in his past six appearances.

Ilya Samsonov surrendered five goals on 19 shots before he was replaced in the second period by Martin Jones, who allowed four goals on 16 shots.

Toronto has allowed 14 goals in consecutive losses following a nine-game point streak.

Ovechkin ends drought in Capitals’ win

Alex Ovechkin scored his first goal in 15 games on a power play with 53 seconds left in overtime to lift the Washington Capitals to a 3-2 victory over the Columbus Blue Jackets.

Ovechkin’s sixth goal of the season and 828th of his career was his first since Nov. 18 and his 26th in overtime, extending his NHL record. It was also his 125th game-winner overall, second in league history behind Jaromir Jagr’s 135.

Anthony Mantha scored twice and John Carlson had three assists as Washington won its third straight.

Casey Mittelstadt scored twice in a four-goal third period to lead the Buffalo Sabres to a 5-2 win over the Vegas Golden Knights on Friday.

Zach Benson and former Golden Knight Alex Tuch also scored in the third and Dylan Cozens had a first-period goal and added two assists to help Buffalo improve to 3-1-1 in its last five games.

Devon Levi turned aside 32 shots and is 3-0-1 with a 1.71 goals-against average since he was recalled from the AHL earlier this month.

Ivan Barbashev and Jack Eichel had goals for Vegas, which had a nine-game point streak stopped (6-1-3).

Pastrnak lifts Bruins over Islanders in shootout

David Pastrnak scored the deciding shootout goal to lift the Eastern Conference-leading Boston Bruins to a 5-4 win over the New York Islanders.

Pastrnak, Morgan Geekie, James van Reimsdyk and Mason Lohrie scored in regulation, with Lohrei netting the equaliser with 3:09 left in regulation on a bank shot from behind the goal line.

Brock Nelson, Bo Horvat, Alexander Romanov and Simon Holmstrom had goals for the Islanders, who had won four straight but moved to 6-0-2 in their last eight games.

Stars rally past Senators after Oettinger injured

Miro Heiskanen and Matt Duchene scored 44 seconds apart in the third period to rally the Dallas Stars to a 5-4 win over the Ottawa Senators after losing goalie Jake Oettinger to an early injury.

Oettinger left eight minutes into the game with a lower-body injury after allowing goals on the Senators’ first two shots on net. Scott Wedgewood entered and stopped 25 of 27 shots for the win.

Joe Pavelski, Esa Lindell and Thomas Harley also had goals for Dallas, which won its second straight.

Drake Batherson scored twice for Ottawa and Jake Chychrun had three assists in the Senators’ third consecutive loss.

Jacob McDonald and Anthony scored two goals apiece and the San Jose Sharks defeated the New Jersey Devils 6-3 on Friday for their first road win of the season.

Kaapo Kahkonen matched a season high with 44 saves and Mikael Granlund had a goal and two assists for the league-worst Sharks, who entered 0-10-0 away from home with just six goals in those games.

Dawson Mercer, Jack Hughes and Ondrej Palat scored as New Jersey had a three-game winning streak snapped.

Akira Schmid stopped just 12 of 17 shots one day after making 44 saves in a 4-3 overtime win at Philadelphia.

Timo Meier returned for the Devils to face his former team after missing seven games with a lower-body injury.

Merzlikins leads Blue Jackets over Senators

Elvis Merzlikins turned aside 41 shots and the Columbus Blue Jackets scored four unanswered goals in a 4-2 victory over the Ottawa Senators.

Goals by Claude Giroux and Brady Tkachuk gave Ottawa a 2-0 lead midway through the first period, but Patrik Laine scored on a power play with 5:07 left in the period and Dmitri Voronkov tallied less than a minute later to tie it.

Adam Fantilli and Boone Jenner scored in the second period and Merzlikins was perfect on 16 third-period shots to help the Jackets improve to 4-2-0 in their last six games.

Joonas Korpisalo made 19 saves for the Senators in his first game against the team where he spent the first 7 ½ seasons of his career.

Tim Stutzle batted a puck out of mid-air with two seconds left in overtime to lift the Ottawa Senators to a 5-4 win over the Detroit Red Wings on Thursday in the opening game of the NHL’s Global Series in Sweden.

Stutzle also assisted on two goals by Brady Tkachuk and Josh Norris added a goal and an assist to help the Senators recover after squandering a four-goal lead.

The game was the first over four days in Stockholm as part of the Global Series.

Ottawa, Detroit, Minnesota and Toronto are involved in the first such series outside North America. It marks the NHL’s return to Sweden for the first time since before the pandemic.

Shayne Gostisbehere scored a goal and set up two others for the Red Wings, who have lost three of four.

Short-handed Devils cool Penguins

Jesper Bratt, Alexander Holtz and Tyler Toffoli scored third-period goals as the undermanned New Jersey Devils snapped the Pittsburgh Penguins’ five-game winning streak, 5-2.

New Jersey ended a three-game skid and defeated Pittsburgh for the sixth straight time despite missing forwards Timo Meier, Nico Hischier and Jack Hughes.

Curtis Lazer had a short-handed goal and an assist to reach 100 career points for the Devils.

Bryan Rust scored twice for the Penguins and Sidney Crosby had an assist to extend his point streak to 10 games.

Crosby became the 15th player in league history with 11 point streaks of at least 10 games.

Kings snap Panthers’ 5-game streak

Kevin Fiala had a goal and an assist and Cam Talbot turned aside 30 shots in the Los Angeles Kings’ 2-1 win over the Florida Panthers, who had a five-game winning streak halted.

Anze Kopitar scored on the power play as the Kings won at home for just the second time in eight games.

Sam Reinhart scored in his third straight game, but Florida was held to its lowest scoring output since being shut out at Minnesota in its season opener.

Patrick Kane described making his debut for the New York Rangers as "pretty cool" but saw considerable room for improvement after a 5-3 loss to the Ottawa Senators.

Kane's trade this week from the Blackhawks marked the end of an era, with his 16-season stint in Chicago having included three Stanley Cup triumphs.

The first overall pick in the 2007 draft has still been performing at a high level in this campaign, ranking second at Chicago this season in goals (16) and points (45).

He has left a team at the foot of the Central Division for the Rangers, who sit third in the Metropolitan Division, and Kane received a warm welcome at Madison Square Garden.

"It was awesome. The crowd and coming out for warm-ups and the pre-game introduction, just the first game as a Ranger, it was a pretty cool experience," Kane said.

"Obviously I would have liked to play a little bit better and come out with a win, but hopefully it will come.

"I haven't played in a little bit, so I'm maybe a little bit rusty, but excited to get feeling good with this team.

"I'm excited to be here and excited to get better and play better for my teammates."

It was his first game since February 22, with Kane unable to prevent the Rangers (35-18-9) sliding to a loss to the Senators (31-26-4).

Rangers coach Gerard Gallant, quoted on the NHL website, said: "There was some good and there was a lot of bad, but there was some real good stuff too.

"They were good five-on-five for the most part, but I thought the power play hurt us, just trying to be too pretty and too many passes. Bottom line is you have to put the puck in the net, and we didn't do that."

Kane is hoping for better against the Boston Bruins on Saturday and over coming games as he begins to find his way.

"It'll be nice to settle in, get a couple of practices and kind of understand the way they want to play systematically, with the puck, offensive zone, things like that," he said. "They haven't given me too much yet, just telling me to go out there and play."

David Pastrnak became the fifth Bruins player to score 40 goals in consecutive seasons as the Bruins remained on pace for a history-making season with Monday's 3-1 win over the Ottawa Senators.

Pastrnak scored twice, breaking the second-period tie to move beyond the 40-goal mark for the third time in his career.

The win improved the NHL-best Bruins' record to 43-8-5, extending their current win streak to four games.

Boston are currently on pace for 62 wins, which would match the record held by the 1995-96 Detroit Red Wings and the 2018-19 Tampa Bay Lightning.

The Bruins are also on pace for 133 points, which would exceed the record held by the 1976-77 Montreal Canadiens.

Boston also tied the 1979-80 Philadelphia Flyers for the fewest games to reach 90 points in NHL history.

Bruins center David Krejci, who brought up his 1000th game, said the challenge for the team was to not mentally let standards slip.

"We're at that point in the season where it's mental," Krejci told reporters. "We all know what we can do in this room, and we've got to be mentally prepared for each game.

"We hit a little tough patch maybe a couple of weeks ago, but we're a good team. We've got good guys on the team, and we talk about it.

"Like I said, it's mental. We've just got to get ready for those games. We've got to stay sharp because it is not easy.

"This is the time of the year that if you let up, it can get away from you pretty easily, so we've got to stick together, grind it out and be mentally sharp."

The Chicago Blackhawks’ rebuild officially began hours before the start of Thursday’s NHL draft and continued right into the opening moments of the first round. 

Chicago’s teardown began in the afternoon with Alex DeBrincat being traded to the Ottawa Senators for the seventh and 39th pick in this year’s draft, and a third-round selection in 2024. 

The Blackhawks didn’t stop there, however, as Kirby Dach was then traded to the Montreal Canadiens for the 13th and 66th overall picks. 

In a statement, the Blackhawks' first-time general manager Kyle Davidson said in a statement that he feels it is the right way to go about building a contender.

"It was an incredibly difficult decision to trade a player of Alex’s caliber," he said. "We feel as if this move sets the Blackhawks up for future success by giving us additional flexibility and future talent.

"Securing this early of a first-round pick for tonight and an additional second-round selection tomorrow allows us to fortify our prospect base with high-end players who we expect to be difference-makers in the coming years." 

DeBrincat was an All-Star for the first time this past season, as he led the team with an equal career-high 41 goals to go with a career-best 37 assists. In five seasons with the Blackhawks, the 24-year-old winger racked up 160 goals and 147 assists in 368 games, but Chicago was in danger of losing the young playmaker, as he’s due to fetch a big payday once his current contract expires after the 2022-23 season. 

Dach just finished up his third season with the Blackhawks, registering career highs of nine goals and 17 assists. The 21-year-old centre has 19 goals and 40 assists in 152 career games, but has not yet reached the production Chicago envisioned after selecting him with the third overall pick of the 2019 draft. 

The Blackhawks, who haven’t made the playoffs in four of the past five seasons and have won just one playoff series since capturing the 2015 Stanley Cup, also made a deal with the Toronto Maple Leafs for the 25th pick by helping the Leafs free up cap space by taking on goaltender Petr Mrazek’s salary. 

After beginning the night without a first-round selection as a result of last year’s trade with the Columbus Blue Jackets for defenseman Seth Jones, Chicago ended up with three picks in the first 25. 

The Blackhawks took Canadian junior defenseman Kevin Korchinski at pick seven, U.S. development team centre Frank Nazar at 13, and Minnesota high school defensemen Sam Rinzel with the 25th selection. 

Eugene Melnyk, the owner of the Ottawa Senators, has died aged 62.

The NHL team announced his passing due to "an illness he faced with determination and courage" on Monday.

Melnyk, who made his money as the founder of pharmaceutical company Biovail Corporation, purchased the Senators in 2003.

Under Melnyk, the Senators won their first Eastern Conference championship in 2006-07, losing 4-1 to the Anaheim Ducks in the Stanley Cup Finals.

"The National Hockey League mourns the passing of Ottawa Senators owner Eugene Melnyk," read a statement from NHL commissioner Gary Bettman.

"The words 'passion' and 'commitment' define the man who has owned the Ottawa Senators since 2003.

"Whether it was in the boardroom with his fellow governors, at the rink with his beloved Senators or in the community with his philanthropy, he cared deeply about the game, about his team and about bettering the lives of those in need, particularly underserved children, organ donation and, most recently, with his commitment to his parents' home country of Ukraine.

"While successful in business, it was our game and his Senators that he was most passionate about.

"Eugene was often outspoken, but he maintained an unwavering commitment to the game and his roots and he loved nothing more than donning a Senators sweater and cheering on his beloved team.

"On behalf of the entire National Hockey League, I extend my deepest sympathies to Eugene's daughters, Anna and Olivia, his extended family, and all those who benefited from his generosity."

The Ottawa Senators' next three NHL games have been postponed due to a coronavirus outbreak.

Ten Senators players and associate coach Jack Capuano are in NHL COVID-19 protocol following positive tests over the past 10 days.

Drake Batherson, Austin Watson, Alex Formenton, Dylan Gambrell and Connor Brown missed the 4-0 defeat to the Calgary Flames on Sunday, with Nick Holden, Victor Mete, Nikita Zaitsev, Josh Brown and Matt Murray also absent.

Ottawa's training facilities have been closed until further notice, and they will not face the New Jersey Devils on Tuesday or the Nashville Predators on Thursday.

Saturday's game against the New York Rangers has also been called off on Monday, with the league citing "evidence of continued spread in recent days."

They are the first games postponed this season due to concerns over the virus, with 55 having been postponed last season.

The NHL stated that rescheduled dates for the three games are to be determined.