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.

 

Marc-Andre Fleury took sole possession of second place on the NHL's all-time wins list for a goaltender by posting a 21-save shutout and leading the Minnesota Wild to a 5-0 victory over the New York Islanders on Monday.

Fleury broke a tie with Hall of Famer Patrick Roy with his 552nd career victory, and did so in style with his 74th career shutout and the 39-year-old's first this season.

Joel Eriksson Ek scored both short-handed and on a power play to help Fleury achieve the feat and end a four-game losing streak for Minnesota. Mats Zuccarello and Marcus Foligno contributed a goal and an assist each. 

The Wild took control early by forcing an Islanders' penalty just over a minute in, and Zuccarello scored on the resulting power play for a quick 1-0 lead.

Connor Dewar scored off a New York turnover 2:18 into the second to extend Minnesota's advantage, and Eriksson Ek got his first of the night with the Wild on a 5-on-4 later in the period to increase the margin to 3-0.

Eriksson's short-handed goal came with 3:51 remaining and Foligno completed the rout by tipping in a pass from Frederick Gaudreau in the final minute.

Fleury needed to make just three saves during the Wild's dominant second period before recording eight more in the third to finish off his historic shutout.

The Islanders were dealt a fourth loss in five games and pulled star goaltender Ilya Sorokin following the second intermission after he allowed three goals on 32 shots.

Crosby, Jarry star as Penguins end Kraken's nine-game winning streak

Sidney Crosby scored two goals to support a 22-save shutout from Tristan Jarry as the Pittsburgh Penguins stopped the Seattle Kraken’s franchise-record nine-game winning streak with a 3-0 victory.

Drew O’Connor added a goal and Rickard Rakell finished with two assists to help Pittsburgh bounce back from overtime defeats in its previous two games and hand the Kraken their first loss since Dec. 18.

Seattle also had a 13-game point streak (11-0-2) halted despite a solid effort from goaltender Joey Daccord, who turned aside 30 of 32 shots.

Daccord made 12 saves in the first period to keep the game scoreless, but the Penguins broke through just 49 seconds into the second when O’Connor converted a backhand feed from Bryan Rust.

Crosby made it a 2-0 lead just 2:43 later before capping his two-goal day with an empty-net strike with 2:21 left to play.

Jarry’s shutout was his fifth of the season, tied with the Arizona Coyotes’ Connor Ingram for tops in the NHL.

Kings snap eight-game skid behind big third period

Trevor Moore had two goals and the Los Angeles Kings scored four times in the third period to come through with a 5-2 win over the Carolina Hurricanes and end an eight-game losing streak.

Moore, Phillip Danault, Alex Laferriere and Pierre Luc-Dubois all had goals in the final 19 minutes to send the Kings to their first victory of 2024. Los Angeles had gone 0-4-4 since its most recent victory on Dec. 27.

The Hurricanes, meanwhile, had gone 7-0-1 over their previous eight games.

Danault added two assists and David Rittich recorded 30 saves for the Kings, who struck three times in the first 5:20 of the third to break a 1-1 deadlock after two periods.

Danault put Los Angeles ahead by knocking in the carom of teammate Vladislav Garikov’s off-target shot 61 seconds into the third. Laferriere sent a wrist shot past Carolina goaltender Antti Raanta just 1:20 later to extend the lead, and Dubois’ one-timer with 14:40 remaining increased the margin to 4-1.

The Hurricanes got closer on Jack Drury’s goal with 11:02 left to play, but failed to close the gap further before Moore put the game away with a short-handed empty-net tally with 1:16 remaining.

Moore scored the game’s lone goal of the first period before Jordan Martinook answered for Carolina 5:38 into the second to extend his goal streak to three games.

Raanta stopped just 20 of 24 shots before being pulled after allowing Dubois’ goal.

Tampa Bay Lightning coach Jon Cooper became the third-fastest to 500 wins as Nick Perbix scored 2:02 into overtime in a 3-2 victory over the slumping Los Angeles Kings on Tuesday.

Scotty Bowman (825) and Bruce Boudreau (837) were the only coaches to reach the milestone faster than Cooper’s 839 games. Cooper is the fastest to do it with one franchise, and 29th overall to get to 500.

Tyler Motte and Brandon Hagel also scored for the Lightning, who have traded wins and losses in their past six games.

Perbix ended a 40-game drought with his OT goal and completed Tampa Bay’s comeback from a 2-0 deficit in the third period.

Phillip Danault and Matt Roy had goals as the Kings lost their sixth straight (0-3-3).

Tkachuk has hat trick to power streaking Panthers

Matthew Tkachuk scored three straight goals in the third period and Anthony Stolarz stopped 28 shots to propel the Florida Panthers to their eighth consecutive win, 5-1 over the St. Louis Blues.

Tkachuk extended Florida’s lead to 3-1 2:18 into the third period and scored again at 5:57 before completing his fifth career hat trick with an empty-net goal.

Sam Reinhart added his team-leading 29th goal for the Panthers, who have outscored opponents 36-15 during the eight-game streak.

Oilers edge Blackhawks for eighth straight win

Connor McDavid snapped a second-period tie and Stuart Skinner turned aside 25 shots as the Edmonton Oilers won their eighth in a row, 2-1 over the Chicago Blackhawks.

Leon Draisaitl had the other goal to give Edmonton its second eight-game winning streak under coach Kris Knoblauch. The Oilers are 16-3-0 in their last 19 games.

Jason Dickinson scored for the Blackhawks, who have lost six of seven overall and five straight to the Oilers.

 

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