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.

 

 

 

Logan O’Connor scored twice and Nathan MacKinnon extended his home point streak to a franchise-record 25 games as the Colorado Avalanche rolled to a 5-1 win over the Los Angeles Kings on Friday.

Cale Makar and Josh Manson also scored for the Avalanche, who won for the 11th time in 14 games.

MacKinnon had a goal and an assist to move past Tampa Bay’s Nikita Kucherov for the NHL scoring lead with 84 points. He has points in 12 consecutive games overall and his 25-game home streak ties him with Bobby Orr in 1974-75 for the second-longest home streak to open an NHL season.

Kevin Fiala scored the lone goal for the Kings, who have lost 13 of 15 after starting the season 20-7-4.

Marchessault scores 3 in Knights’ win

Jonathan Marchessault registered his second hat trick of the season and Adin Hill stopped 36 shots to lead the surging Vegas Golden Knights to a 5-2 win over the New York Rangers.

Keegan Kolesar and Sheldon Rempal also scored, and Ivan Barbashev had three assists as Vegas improved to 5-0-1 in its last six games.

Blake Wheeler and Kaapo Kaako had goals for the Rangers, who have lost nine of 13 this month (4-7-2).

Hill has stopped 76 of 80 shots in two starts since returning from an injury that sidelined him over a month.

Red-hot Reinhart lifts Panthers in shootout

Sam Reinhart scored the deciding goal in the shootout after scoring his 36th goal of the season in regulation as the Florida Panthers defeated the Pittsburgh Penguins, 3-2.

Reinhart continued his career-best 12-game point streak with his 13th goal during that span. He ranks second in the NHL in goals behind only Toronto’s Auston Matthews (39).

Reinhart’s goal was his league-best 19th on the power play, matching a franchise record, shared by Scott Mellanby and Pavel Bure. Reinhart also has goals in a franchise-record eight straight road contests.

Evgeni Malkin scored the tying goal for Pittsburgh with 41.5 seconds left in regulation. The Penguins have one win in their last six games (1-2-3).

Darnell Nurse scored 80 seconds into overtime and the Edmonton Oilers matched a franchise record with their ninth straight victory, 3-2 over the Detroit Red Wings on Thursday.

Connor McDavid and Zach Hyman had the other goals for the Oilers, who also won nine in a row late last season and in 2001. They can break the team mark on Saturday night in Montreal.

McDavid extended his point streak to nine games and notched the 906th of his career, pulling him into a fourth-place tie with Glenn Anderson on the team’s all-time list.

Hyman is also red hot with eight goals and four assists in his last eight games.

Andrew Copp and Olli Maata scored for the Red Wings, who have points in four straight (3-0-1).

Panthers score late in overtime to continue streak

Sam Reinhart scored with less than a second left in overtime as the Florida Panthers rallied to extend their winning streak to nine games, 3-2 over the slumping Los Angeles Kings.

Matthew Tkachuk scored the equaliser with 2:18 remaining in regulation and Sam Bennett also tallied for the Panthers, who have the third-longest winning streak in franchise history.

Florida won 12 straight games in the 2015-16 season, then had their other two longest streaks in 2021-22 – eight consecutive wins to open that season, then 13 in a row toward the end of that season.

Reinhart has goals in five straight games, tallying 13 in his last 11 contests.

Los Angeles is winless in seven in a row (0-3-4).

Kraken win 8th straight

Joey Daccord stopped 25 shots and the Seattle Kraken defeated the Washington Capitals 4-1 for their franchise record-tying eighth consecutive win.

Tye Kartye, Adam Larsson, Justin Schultz and Alex Wennberg scored for the Kraken, who are 10-0-2 in their last 12 games. They haven’t had a regulation loss since Dec. 10.

Daccord improved to 7-0-0 in his last eight games, with an eye-popping .966 save percentage during that span.

Kartye and Larsson became the 15th and 16th players to score for Seattle during this streak.

Max Pacioretty scored his first goal of the season for Washington, which has lost seven of nine (2-5-2).

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.

 

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.

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