David Rittich stopped all 26 shots he faced as the Los Angeles Kings put an end to the New York Islanders' six-game winning streak with Monday's 3-0 victory.

Adrian Kempe, Phillip Danault and Trevor Moore all had goals to back Rittich's second shutout of the season as the Kings bounced back from Saturday's 4-1 home defeat to the Dallas Stars. Moore added an assist on Danault's goal, which gave Los Angeles a 2-0 lead 6:07 into the third period.

After an eventful opening period, Kempe put the Kings ahead 7:14 into the second by rifling a shot over the glove of New York goaltender Ilya Sorokin.

Moore set up Danault's close-range goal that gave Los Angeles some more breathing room, then sealed the outcome with an empty-netter with 2:22 left to play.

Rittch polished off his sixth career shutout by making 13 saves in the final period.

Sorokin stopped 22 of 24 shots for New York, which had totalled 13 goals in winning the first two games of its current four-game road trip.

Kapanen, Hofer lead Blues over Bruins

Kasperi Kapanen had a goal and two assists to support a 36-save effort from Joel Hofer that sparked the St. Louis Blues to a needed 5-1 victory over the Boston Bruins.

Kevin Hayes and Brandon Saad added a goal and an assist each to help the Blues end a three-game losing streak and gain some ground in the Western Conference play-off race. St. Louis is six points back of the current holders of the West's final wild-card spot, the defending Stanley Cup champion Vegas Golden Knights.

Despite the Bruins owning a 24-17 shot advantage through the first two periods, the Blues built a 4-0 lead as Hofer outperformed counterpart Jeremy Swayman.

Kapanen opened the scoring midway through the first period and Robert Thomas made it 2-0 with a power-play goal later on in the frame. Hayes then extended the margin by burying a feed from Kapanen on a 3-on-1 rush with 4:31 elapsed in the second period.

Saad scored St. Louis' fourth goal later in the second period before the Bruins finally got on the board early in the third on David Pastrnak's team-leading 41st goal of the season.

Boston later pulled Swayman with still nearly nine minutes remaining, a decision that enabled St. Louis' Alexey Toropchenko to score into an empty net with 8:33 left to play.

Swayman stopped just 17 of 21 shots as the Bruins had a four-game point streak snapped (3-0-1).

Rangers extend Devils' struggles, pad lead in Metropolitan Division

Jonathan Quick made 20 saves and the New York Rangers scored twice in the second period en route to a 3-1 win over the still-slumping New Jersey Devils.

Mika Zibanejad and Erik Gustafsson accounted for the second-period goals that helped New York extend its lead over the second-place Carolina Hurricanes to four points in the Metropolitan Division. 

Quick yielded only Simon Nemec's goal with 2:34 remaining to record his 389th career victory, two shy of tying Ryan Miller for the most by an American-born goaltender in NHL history.

Vincent Trocheck tacked on an empty-net goal with 1:13 left that sealed New Jersey's eighth loss in 11 games, and third in four outings since Travis Green replaced the fired Lindy Ruff as head coach last week. 

Kaapo Kahknonen stopped 23 of 25 shots in his Devils' debut. The goaltender was acquired by New Jersey from the San Jose Sharks at Friday's trade deadline.

 

The New Jersey Devils lost star center Jack Hughes to an injury and Kevin Hayes scored twice in the St. Louis Blues’ 4-1 victory.

Hughes, who entered with an NHL-leading 15 assists and 20 points, left after awkwardly crashing into the boards following a slight hook by Blues defenseman Torey Krug. No penalty was called on the play.

New Jersey was already playing without center Nico Hischier, who missed his third straight game with an upper-body injury.

Jake Neighbours and Robert Thomas had the other goals and Jordan Binnington made 34 saves to prevent the Blues from a third consecutive loss.

Curtis Lazer scored for the Devils, who had won three in a row.

 

Ersson leads Flyers past Sabres

Samuel Ersson turned away 22 shots and Bobby Brink had a goal and an assist as the Philadelphia Flyers snapped a three-game losing streak with a 5-1 win over the Buffalo Sabres.

Scott Laughton, Louie Belpedio, Travis Konecny and Garnet Hathaway also scored for the Flyers, who had allowed 15 goals during the three-game skid, including a 5-2 loss to the Sabres on Wednesday.

Henri Jokiharju had the lone goal for Buffalo, which failed in a bid for a three-game winning streak.

Sabres defenseman Mattias Samuelsson left the game in the first period with a lower-body injury.

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