McAvoy’s 2 goals, Minten’s 9th-round shootout winner lift Bruins past Capitals 3-2
· Yahoo Sports
WASHINGTON (AP) — Charlie McAvoy scored twice and Fraser Minten had the shootout winner as the Boston Bruins beat the Washington Capitals 3-2 on Saturday.
Minten beat Washington’s Logan Thompson with a backhand shot in the ninth round of the shootout to give the Bruins their third win in five games and help Boston gain ground in the Eastern Conference wild-card race.
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Rasmus Sandin had a goal and an assist and Matt Roy also scored for the Capitals, who have lost two of their last three.
After a scoreless first period, the Capitals picked up their pressure to open the second, and it paid off. Just 1:15 minutes into the middle period, Roy fired an 86-mph slap shot past Boston’s Jeremy Swayman and into the top corner to give Washington the lead. It was Roy’s his first goal since Nov. 17, ending a 45-game scoring drought.
Minutes later, McAvoy fired a one-timer through traffic and past Thompson to even the score at 1. McAvoy has points in six straight games and 15 of his last 16 contests overall.
Sandin became the third defenseman to get on the board when his shot from point knuckled past Swayman, giving the Caps a 2-1 edge.
Following a couple of power-play chances for the Bruins, including a 5-on-3 opportunity halfway through the third, McAvoy tied the game by deflecting Pavel Zacha’s shot past Thompson and eventually forcing overtime.
Swayman had 25 saves in the win. Thompson stopped 32 shots in the loss.
SENATORS 2, DUCKS 0
OTTAWA, Ontario (AP) — Linus Ullmark made 23 saves for his second shutout of the season and Ottawa blanked Anaheim.
Michael Amadio and Thomas Chabot scored for Ottawa. Shane Pinto had two assists. It was the 14th shutout of Ullmark’s career. The Senators have won four of five.
Ville Husso stopped 27 shots for Anaheim.
Nick Cousins won a battle along the boards at center which sprung Pinto down the ice. Pinto fed Amadio on a 2-on-1 and he made no mistake, beating Husso short-side 3:54 into the second period.
At the 9:21 mark of the second, the Senators capitalized on a turnover. Pinto intercepted a pass and found Chabot in the high slot for his seventh of the season and second career short-handed goal.
Anaheim challenged for goaltender interference but was unsuccessful.
JETS 3, AVALANCHE 1
WINNIPEG, Manitoba (AP) — Kyle Connor reached 30 goals for a franchise-record eighth time and added an assist, Connor Hellebuyck made 28 saves and Winnipeg beat NHL-leading Colorado.
Connor broke a tie with Ilya Kovalchuk for the most 30-goal seasons in Thrashers/Jets history. Connor has reached the 30-goal mark in every season of his nine-year NHL career except for the 56-game COVID-19 shortened campaign when he had 26.
Alex Iafallo and Cole Perfetti, with an empty-netter, also scored for the Jets. Mark Scheifele had to two assists for push his season total to 51, one more than his previous best.
Martin Necas ended Hellebuyck’s shutout bid with 1:16 left.
Mackenzie Blackwood made 15 saves for the Avalanche. They had won six in a row on the road.
RANGERS 4, WILD 2
ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — Igor Shesterkin made 46 saves and Vladislav Gavrikov had a goal and two assists as New York extended its winning streak to four games with a win over Minnesota.
Noah Laba, Jaroslav Chmelar and Vincent Trocheck also scored for New York, which won for the fifth time in six games despite being outshot 48-18.
Matt Boldy and Danila Yurov scored for the Wild, who dropped their second straight and lost for the third time in four games. Filip Gustavsson had 14 saves.
New York had a 9-6 edge in shots in the opening period and led 2-0. The Wild carried play the rest of the way, outshooting the Rangers 42-9 over the final two periods — including 21-1 in the third, but were unable to solve Shesterkin.
HURRICANES 4, LIGHTNING 2
TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — Sebastian Aho and Andrei Svechnikov each had a goal and an assist and Carolina defeated Tampa Bay.
Carolina coach Rod Brind’Amour coached his 600th career game for the franchise and picked up his 367th career win, the most for a head coach at the 600-game mark, besting Tampa Bay’s Jon Cooper, who set the previous record of 364.
Jordan Martinook broke a third period tie and Frederik Andersen stopped 17 shots. Logan Stankoven added an empty-net goal.
Yanni Gourde and Charle-Edouard D’Astous scored for Tampa Bay, which fell to 3-7 since the Olympic break. Andrei Vasilevskiy finished with 31 saves.
ISLANDERS 3, FLAMES 2
NEW YORK (AP) — Simon Holmstrom scored twice and New York raced to an early lead and held on to beat Calgary.
Casey Cizikas also scored for New York and David Rittich made 30 saves as the Islanders won for the third time in four games.
Mikael Backund and Blake Coleman scored for Calgary, which slipped to 2-5-1 in its last eight games. Devin Cooley started in the net for the Flames and allowed three goals on 10 shots in the first period. Dustin Wolf replaced Cooley to start the second period and finished with 17 saves.
Holmstrom gave the Islanders a 2-0 lead with his first goal of the game when he collected a pass from Luke Schenn and scored on a shot over Cooley’s blocker at 16:35 of the first. It was Schenn’s first assist at UBS Arena since being acquired by the Islanders from St. Louis at the trade deadline.
DEVILS 6, KINGS 4
NEWARK, N.J. (AP) — Jack Hughes scored the go-ahead goal with 2:29 to play and Jake Allen made 27 saves as New Jersey edged Los Angeles.
Hughes put the Devils ahead 5-4 in the seesaw game with a power-play goal. Nico Hischier scored twice and Cody Glass, Arseny Gritsyuk and Timo Meier — with a last minute empty-netter — also scored.
Anze Kopitar scored twice for Los Angeles — to establish a Kings franchise points record — and Artemi Panarin and Taylor Ward also scored.
Ward had put the Kings ahead 3-2 at 11:43 of the middle period after Kopitar and Panarin scored in less than two minutes as Los Angeles battled back from an early 2-0 deficit.
But Gritsyuk tied the contest just 25 seconds into the third.
Hischier’s second goal put New Jersey ahead at 12:42 of the third before Kopitar scored to tie it again.
Glass scored his career-best 15th goal at 7:56 of the first, beating Anton Forsberg with a fluttering shot. Hischier made it 2-0 at 11:04. Forsberg had 22 saves.
SABRES 3, MAPLE LEAFS 2, SO
BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP) — Jack Quinn scored the tying goal and also connected in a shootout, Alex Tuch ended the tiebreaker and Buffalo beat Toronto to rebound from its first loss since the Olympic break.
Buffalo was coming off a 2-1 home loss to Washington on Thursday night that ended an eight-game winning streak. The Atlantic Division-leading Sabres stretched their advantage over second-place Tampa Bay to four points and remained two points behind Carolina in the Eastern Conference.
Toronto played its first game since captain Auston Matthews’ season-ending knee injury. Matthews tore the medial collateral ligament in his left knee Thursday night at home in a 6-4 victory over Anaheim on a knee-on-knee hit from Radko Gudas. Gudas was given a major penalty and ejected, then suspended five games for kneeing.
Defenseman Owen Power also scored for Buffalo, and Alex Lyon stopped 16 shots.
Max Domi scored for Toronto in his 800th NHL game. Dakota Joshua also scored, and Joseph Woll made 30 saves.
SHARKS 4, CANADIENS 2
MONTREAL (AP) — Macklin Celebrini had two goals and an assist to lead San Jose to a win over Montreal.
Collin Graf had a goal and two assists and Mario Ferraro also scored for San Jose, which ended Montreal’s three-game winning streak. John Klingberg finished with two assists, and Alex Nedeljkovic stopped 25 shots.
Cole Caufield and Nick Suzuki scored for Montreal, and Noah Dobson had two assists. Jakub Dobes made 17 saves.
The Canadiens held third place in the Atlantic Division, four points behind the division-leading Buffalo Sabres with two games in hand, heading into Saturday’s games.
The Sharks were one point shy of the Los Angeles Kings for the Western Conference’s second wild-card spot, with two fewer games played.
BLUE JACKETS 2, FLYERS 1, SO
PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Kirill Marchenko scored his 25th goal and lifted a backhander over Dan Vladar in the third round of a shootout to give Columbus a victory over Philadelphia.
The Blue Jackets extended their points streak to nine games as they fight Detroit for the second wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference. They are 5-0-4 during the streak.
Marchenko opened the scoring on a wrist shot 4:21 into the first period. Alex Bump tied it on a tip with 9:36 left in the period.
Jet Greaves made 18 saves for Columbus. Vladar stopped 27 shots.
STARS 3, RED WINGS 2, OT
DALLAS (AP) — Defenseman Thomas Harley scored 2:05 into overtime to give streaking Dallas a win over Detroit.
Wyatt Johnston had a goal and an assist, and Michael Bunting also scored for the Stars. Jake Oettinger stopped 22 of 24 shots. Harley scored his seventh OT goal in regular-season games.
The Stars are 14-0-1 in their last 15 games, matching the longest point streak in club history. Their 1998-99 Stanley Cup team had a streak of 12 wins and three ties.
Simon Edvinsson and Lucas Raymond scored for the Red Wings, who rallied from a 2-0 deficit in the third period but dropped their third straight (0-2-1). John Gibson made 21 saves.
Bunting’s goal, on a power play for a 2-0 lead in the second period, was his first since being acquired from Nashville on March 5.
Dallas has won four straight and owns the second-most points in the league, three behind Central-leading Colorado.