TAMPA, Fla. (AP) – Tyler Johnson scored three goals and the Tampa Bay Lightning snapped a 10-game losing streak to the Pittsburgh Penguins with a 4-3 win Tuesday night.
Tampa Bay, 3-5-1 in the last nine games, also got a goal and two assists from Nikita Kucherov. Ondrej Palat had three assists in the Lightning’s first win over Pittsburgh since Nov. 17, 2011.
Johnson scored twice in the first and extended the Lightning’s lead to 4-0 at 2:37 of the second with a 2-on-1 goal against Jeff Zatkoff, who replaced Marc-Andre Fleury earlier in the period.
Patric Hornqvist, Chris Kunitz and Kris Letang scored for the Eastern Conference-leading Penguins, who have 13 players out due to illness or injury. It was Pittsburgh’s first regulation loss to an Atlantic Division team (16-1-5) since a 5-1 defeat Jan. 20 against Florida.
RANGERS 4, CAPITALS 2
NEW YORK (AP) – Rick Nash and Martin St. Louis each scored twice, Henrik Lundqvist made 30 saves and New York extended its winning streak to seven games with a victory over Washington.
The game matched two of the NHL’s hottest teams in their final outing before the Christmas break. Washington had won three in a row, picking up points in nine straight games (7-0-2).
Mats Zuccarello and Derick Brassard had two assists apiece for the Rangers.
Evgeny Kuznetsov and Alex Ovechkin scored for the Capitals in the first meeting of the season between the Metropolitan Division rivals.
BRUINS 5, PREDATORS 3
BOSTON (AP) – Loui Eriksson and Brad Marchand scored two goals apiece and Patrice Bergeron had three assists for Boston in a win over Nashville.
David Krejci also scored for the Bruins, who held the Predators to 10 shots through the first two periods. Tuukka Rask made 22 saves for Boston.
Calle Jarnkrok and Taylor Beck each had a goal and an assist for Nashville. Beck’s goal 6:48 into the third period pulled the Predators to 4-3, but Rask didn’t let anything else by him as Boston won for the third time in four games.
CANADIENS 3, ISLANDERS 1
UNIONDALE, N.Y. (AP) – Carey Price made 37 saves, and Andrei Markov and Brendan Gallagher scored second-period goals as Montreal cooled off New York.
Markov, in his 800th NHL game, and Gallagher beat backup goalie Chad Johnson 5:17 apart to erase a 1-0 deficit. Montreal has won five of six, with Price allowing two goals or fewer in each game during that span.
David Desharnais scored with 1:11 left to make it 3-1 for the Canadiens, who mustered only 21 shots.
Kyle Okposo scored in the first period for the Islanders. Johnson made 18 saves as No. 1 goalie Jaroslav Halak took a maintenance day and didn’t dress for the game. New York, which had won four straight overall, fell to 13-4 at home and 10-2 in its last 12 at Nassau Coliseum.
JETS 5, BLACKHAWKS 1
CHICAGO (AP) – Mathieu Perreault scored two goals while extending his point streak to eight games, and Winnipeg routed the listless Chicago Blackhawks.
Bryan Little also had his team-best 13th goal as Winnipeg stopped Chicago’s eight-game home winning streak. The Jets are responsible for two of the Blackhawks’ four regulation home losses, also winning 1-0 at the United Center on Nov. 2 in their first meeting of the season.
Winnipeg (18-10-7), one of the NHL’s biggest surprises, won for the third time in four games, bouncing back from an overtime loss to Philadelphia on Sunday.
It was the Blackhawks’ worst loss of the season; they have only three losses by more than one goal. Chicago (23-10-2) had won 14 of 17 overall.
Marian Hossa scored his seventh goal in the second period, but the Blackhawks struggled to generate quality chances. Jets goalie Michael Hutchinson finished with 38 saves.
HURRICANES 2, DEVILS 1, SO
NEWARK, N.J. (AP) – Chris Terry scored the only goal of the shootout and Anton Khudobin came up big late in winning for the first time this season as the goal-starved Carolina Hurricanes defeated New Jersey.
Ron Hainsey scored in the third period to tie the game for Carolina, which won for only the second time in 10 games (2-7-1). The Hurricanes have just 13 goals during that stretch and Hainsey’s appeared to go in off his leg on a night when Carolina fired 33 shots at Cory Schneider.
Stephen Gionta scored for the Devils, who are 3-8-5 in their last 16 games. Schneider made 32 saves.
Khudobin, who had 18 saves, stopped Scott Gomez, Mike Cammalleri and Adam Henrique in the shootout before Terry beat Schneider with a forehand. Khudobin is 1-8-2 in 11 starts.
FLYERS 5, WILD 2
ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) – Wayne Simmonds scored the go-ahead goal late in the second period, lifting Philadelphia over Minnesota for its third straight win.
Vincent Lecavalier, Claude Giroux, Sean Couturier and Michael Raffl also scored for the Flyers, who have won the first three games of an eight-game road trip that spans 15 days.
Marco Scandella and Charlie Coyle scored for Minnesota, losers of four in a row.
Simmonds broke a 2-all tie with his team-leading 15th of the season at 15:22 of the second period, beating goalie Darcy Kuemper high after teammate Brayden Schenn battled along the boards to secure the puck.
The Flyers are 6-1-3 in their last 10 games.
MAPLE LEAFS 4, STARS 0
DALLAS (AP) – Jonathan Bernier made 43 saves for his second shutout of the season as Toronto beat Dallas.
James van Riemsdyk had a goal and two assists for the Maple Leafs, who snapped a three-game losing streak.
The Stars’ four-game winning streak ended when they were shut out for the first time since Jan. 9 at New Jersey.
Nazem Kadri opened the scoring with a goal 55 seconds into the game, and assisted when van Riemsdyk scored at 6:21 of the second period.
Phil Kessel had two assists, the second on Tyler Bozak’s power-play goal at 10:30 of the second. Mike Santorelli finished the scoring with an empty-net goal.
Bernier’s save total was one short of his season high. He has nine career shutouts.
RED WINGS 6, SABRES 3
DETROIT (AP) – Tomas Tatar had a pair of power-play goals in the third period and Detroit ended a six-game slide with a victory over Buffalo.
Tatar’s 13th goal of the season gave the Red Wings the lead for good with 8:20 to play. Johan Franzen scored a few minutes later to pad the lead for Detroit, which hadn’t won since Dec. 7. Tatar’s second goal came in the final minutes.
Stephen Weiss, Danny DeKeyser and Henrik Zetterberg also scored for Detroit, which got 10 saves from Petr Mrazek.
Nicolas Deslauriers, Chris Stewart and Andre Benoit had goals for the banged-up Sabres, who were missing eight regulars due to injuries or illness. Michal Neuvirth returned from an illness and had 33 saves.
COYOTES 5, OILERS 1
EDMONTON, Alberta (AP) – Sam Gagner had two goals and two assists against his former team as Arizona handed Edmonton its eighth consecutive defeat and 19th in 20 games.
Martin Erat, Keith Yandle and Brandon Gormley also scored for the Coyotes, who won for the third time in their last 13 games – with all three victories coming against Edmonton. Arizona (12-18-4) swept the five-game season series.
The Coyotes extended their point streak against Edmonton to 18 games, the longest in franchise history against one opponent. Their last loss in regulation to the Oilers came on Jan. 25, 2011.
Justin Schultz had a goal for the plummeting Oilers (7-21-7), who fell to 1-17-6 against Western Conference opponents.
AVALANCHE 5, BLUES 0
DENVER (AP) – Semyon Varlamov returned from an injury and stopped 26 shots in his second shutout of the season, leading Colorado past slumping St. Louis.
Jarome Iginla, Alex Tanguay and Ryan O’Reilly each had a goal and an assist for Colorado, which has won three in a row and is 4-0-2 in its last six games. The Avalanche (13-13-8) reached .500 for the first time this season.
Varlamov, who had missed six straight games with a groin injury, faced only seven shots in the first period and eight halfway through the game. He made 12 saves in the third to earn his 15th career shutout.
Jake Allen allowed five goals on 31 shots before being replaced by Martin Brodeur to start the third period for the Blues, who have lost three straight.
Erik Johnson and fellow defenseman Zach Redmond also scored for Colorado.
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