Holtby leads the NHL in victories and is considered the Capitals’ team MVP by coach Barry Trotz and captain Alex Ovechkin. He left late in the second period when he was bothered by dehydration issues, but Trotz said it was not a serious problem.

”I think it’s playing a little bit yesterday, flying, all those things,” Trotz said. ”I don’t think there’s anything other than that.”

Holtby made 20 saves to pick up his league-leading 29th win, and backup Philipp Grubauer stopped all 11 shots he faced as the Capitals beat the Rangers 5-2. It was the second consecutive day Grubauer replaced Holtby, though Saturday night it was because Washington was losing to the Buffalo Sabres.

Grubauer didn’t know what was wrong with Holtby. But with 2:18 left in the second period of a one-goal game, he couldn’t stop to think about it.

”He didn’t get hit, so I was like, `What happened?”’ Grubauer said. ”But at that point I can’t worry too much. It’s not always nice to see something like that happen. You don’t always know how severe it is or what exactly happened. I hope he’s OK and I think he’s OK.”

The 26-year-old has dealt with dehydration in the past. Holtby overcame heat and dehydration to beat the Detroit Red Wings at Joe Louis Arena in March 2012.

Teammates were relieved to hear that Holtby was not injured. Winger Justin Williams, who recorded his second career hat trick, quipped, ”Get him an IV.”

More than that, the Capitals were glad Grubauer shut the door on the Rangers after replacing Holtby.

”Yes impressed but just expected,” Williams said. ”To come in halfway through a game that you don’t think you’re playing, on back-to-back days, shows that he’s ready – mentally ready.”

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Hertl’s shot beat his former teammate Antti Niemi, with the goaltender making his return to San Jose to warm applause.

The slumping Stars remained a point behind idle Chicago and four points ahead of St. Louis, who won in overtime against Montreal.

In other key results, two divisional leaders lost: Washington was convincingly beaten by a Buffalo team which had been struggling on home ice, and Ottawa came from two goals down in the third period to stun Los Angeles.

San Jose’s Marc-Edouard Vlasic scored twice and Chris Tierney also netted to give the Sharks three straight home wins for the first time since last January.

Ales Hemsky, Tyler Seguin and Jason Spezza scored for the Stars, who have lost six of seven overall and seven straight on the road.

St. Louis’ Jori Lehtera scored 2:04 into overtime to give the Blues a 4-3 win against Montreal.

Brian Elliott made a career-high 46 saves, Ty Rattie tied the game with 5:25 left, and Robby Fabbri and Paul Stastny also scored for the Blues.

P.K. Subban, Max Pacioretty and Tomas Plekanec scored for the Canadiens, who have won only five of their past 20 games to slide from the top of the Atlantic Division to fifth.

Buffalo handed Washington goaltender Braden Holtby a rare loss by beating the Capitals 4-1.

Evander Kane had a goal and an assist, Chad Johnson stopped 33 shots, while Phil Varone, Tim Schaller and Cody Franson also scored for the Sabres, who had lost their previous six home games.

Marcus Johansson scored the sole goal for the Capitals.

Holtby had gone 23 games without a loss in regulation time.

Ottawa scored three goals in just over five minutes of the third period to rock Los Angeles and record a 5-3 win.

Bobby Ryan and Jean-Gabriel Pageau scored 26 seconds apart early in the third and Mike Zibanejad put the Senators ahead with 6:50 to play.

Alex Chiasson also scored and Mark Borowiecki added an empty-net goal.

Jeff Carter, Tyler Toffoli and Vincent Lecavalier scored for the Kings.

Nashville halted a run of five successive losses by downing Minnesota 3-0.

Backup goalie Carter Hutton replaced Pekka Rinne and made 29 saves for his third career shutout.

Eric Nystrom, Roman Josi and Filip Forsberg scored for the Predators, who handed the Wild a fourth straight defeat.

The New York Rangers beat Philadelphia 3-2 after a shootout, giving goalie Henrik Lundqvist a 20th win for the 11th straight season. He joins Martin Brodeur and Tony Esposito as the only goalies to have done that, and the Swede is the first to do it in his opening 11 seasons.

New Jersey goaltender Cory Schneider made 38 saves for his fourth shutout of the season, leading the Devils to a 2-0 win against Arizona.

Boston’s Brad Marchand scored with 47 seconds left to lift the Bruins to a 3-2 win over Toronto.

Columbus also had a late winner, with Jack Johnson scoring with 1:07 left off an opponent’s skate to give the Blue Jackets a 2-1 win against Colorado.

Edmonton’s Teddy Purcell scored in the shootout, giving the Oilers a 2-1 victory against Calgary.

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Elliott made a career-high 46 saves with Mike Liut, Curtis Joseph and Grant Fuhr watching and Jori Lehtera scored in overtime to help the St. Louis Blues beat the Montreal Canadiens 4-3 on Saturday night.

”When those guys are watching you kind of want to play good out there,” Elliott said. ”… It was special for me to play in front of those guys. I watched a lot of games. I was outside playing street hockey pretending I was them a lot of years and for them to be here and watch this game it meant a lot to me. Guys coming through and getting the W was pretty special.”

The Blues honored Liut, Joseph and Fuhr in a pre-game ceremony. Elliott wore a special mask and pads to honor Joseph, who like Elliott grew up in Ontario and also played at the University of Wisconsin.

”He was amazing,” Joseph said. ”He did great.”

Ty Rattie tied it with 5:25 left for St. Louis, and Robby Fabbri and Paul Stastny also scored. The Blues have won three of four after enduring a five-game losing streak.

P.K. Subban, Max Pacioretty and Tomas Plekanec scored for Montreal, and Mike Condon finished with 18 saves. The Canadiens have lost three straight and four of their last five. They are 5-15 since Dec. 1.

”We’re making every goalie look amazing right now,” Pacioretty said. ”We put up three goals though. You score three goals you give yourself a good chance to win a game. We put up a lot of shots, we put three goals and we’ve just got to tighten it up till the very end.”

The Blues scored just 34 seconds in when Fabbri collected his own rebound after Condon couldn’t locate the puck. It was the rookie’s 11th of the season. Vladimir Tarasenko and Lehtera had the assists on the goal, which was challenged by the Canadiens for goalie interference but upheld.

The Canadiens outshot the Blues 17-9 in the first period.

Montreal tied it 3:41 into the second period with a power-play goal by Subban. The defenseman fell as he shot the puck, but it deflected off Tarasenko’s stick and trickled past Elliott.

Pacioretty’s 18th of the season, on a rebound, gave the Canadiens a 2-1 lead with 9:36 remaining in the second period.

The Blues tied it with 8:29 left in the second on Stastny’s goal. Colton Parayko took a long shot that deflected off the stick of Montreal’s Tomas Fleischmann and was then tipped in by Stastny for his fourth goal.

The teams combined for 15 penalties in the second period, including a 10-minute misconduct for the Blues’ Kevin Shattenkirk.

Montreal had 22 shots on goal in the second period, but then had just nine in the third and one in overtime.

”Tons of scoring chances,” Canadiens coach Michel Therrien said. ”You can’t ask for a better effort.”

Plekanec made it 3-2 with 6:09 left in the third with a slap shot from the high slot. Pacioretty and Brendan Gallagher assisted on the goal.

Then Rattie tied it with his second goal in two games since being recalled from the American Hockey League. His shot from the slot deflected off the stick of Mark Barberio and past Condon.

The Blues then won it 2:04 into overtime after Fabbri stole the puck in the neutral zone, skated in on Condon and then Lehtera slipped the puck between Condon’s legs for his sixth of the season.

”You can’t waste a performance like that,” Rattie said of Elliott. ”Ells was on his game and he wanted it. I think when they scored that third goal, it was even keel on the bench which was huge. Lucky enough that we tied it up and then great play in overtime to finish it off.”

NOTES: On Friday, Montreal traded D Jarred Tinordi and F Stefan Fournier to the Arizona Coyotes for D Victor Bartley and F John Scott. The Canadiens assigned F Sven Adrighetto and Daniel Carr to the St. John’s IceCaps and recalled Jacob De La Rose. … Montreal F Dale Weise returned after missing four games with an upper-body injury. … The attendance of 19,501 was the Blues’ 11th sellout of the season.

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The Ducks announced the swap of two struggling 27-year-old forwards after their 4-2 victory over Dallas.

Hagelin had four goals and eight assists in 43 games during his first season with the Ducks, who expected steady scoring from the Swede. Anaheim acquired Hagelin in a summer trade with the New York Rangers for Emerson Etem, and then signed him to a four-year, $16 million contract.

The speedy Hagelin struggled to find a scoring groove with the Ducks, who have the NHL’s lowest-scoring offense by far this season. Hagelin has played in every game this season for Anaheim, and he had an assist while playing 15:03 against the Stars in the Ducks’ seventh win in 10 games.

Perron is a three-time 20-goal scorer, but he has only 16 points in 43 games this season with the Penguins. He is in a 19-game goal drought since Dec. 1 despite playing on a line with Sidney Crosby lately.

The physical left wing spent his first six NHL seasons with St. Louis. Perron posted a career-best 57-point season in 2013-14 for Edmonton, which traded him to Pittsburgh last January for a 2015 first-round pick and Rob Klinkhammer.

Clendening has five points in 30 career NHL games with Pittsburgh, Vancouver and Chicago since making his NHL debut with the Blackhawks last season. He appeared in nine games for the Penguins this season, getting one assist.

Perron will be an unrestricted free agent this summer, giving financial flexibility to the Ducks. Clendening will be a restricted free agent.

Anaheim’s next game is at home against Los Angeles on Sunday night. The Penguins host the Hurricanes on Sunday.

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Horvat also had two goals against Carolina in a 3-2 win nine days earlier and has scored four of his eight goals this season against the Eastern Conference foe.

Linden Vey also scored and Jacob Markstrom made 38 saves for Vancouver.

Carolina’s John-Michael Liles made it 2-2 with 2:10 left in the third period. Kris Versteeg also scored for the Hurricanes, and Cam Ward made 19 saves.

Vey put the Canucks ahead with his first goal of the season, beating Ward stick side from the left circle on an unassisted rush with 6:46 left in the first.

Versteeg tied it on a power play with 1:33 left in the first, blasting the puck past Markstrom glove side from the right circle with Jaccob Slavin assisting.

Carolina outshot the Canucks 19-5 in the second period.

Horvat put the Canucks ahead again at 9:32 of the second by ripping the puck over Ward’s left shoulder. Taylor Fedun got the assist in his first NHL game this season.

Liles tied it on a tough-angle goal from the left side, with Andrej Nestasil on the assist.

Friday marked the first game back for Hurricanes left wing Nathan Gerbe after spending 25 games on injured reserve with an ankle injury.

NOTES: It was the 800th NHL game for Hurricanes defenseman Ron Hainsey. … Carolina was not assessed a penalty in the game. Vancouver was sent to the box twice. … Carolina D Brett Pesce (lower body) was out, while LW Chris Terry was a healthy scratch. … Vancouver RW Derek Dorsett missed the game with illness and D Yannick Weber was a healthy scratch. … Vancouver RW Radim Vrbata was a member of the Hurricanes from late in the 2002-03 season to early in the 2005-06 campaign. … The Hurricanes visit Pittsburgh for the opener of a two-game trip on Sunday. … Vancouver visits the New York Islanders on Sunday in the third game of its six-game East Coast trip.

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”Scotty’s safe,” Quenneville quipped.

He’s the only one. Quenneville won his 783rd game, Corey Crawford made 39 saves in his Montreal hometown, and the Blackhawks beat the Montreal Canadiens 2-1 on Thursday for their ninth straight win.

Quenneville broke a tie with Al Arbour, but was still far from Bowman’s record of 1,244 wins.

”It’s pretty amazing,” said Toews, who has won three Stanley Cups under Quenneville in Chicago. ”There’s been a lot of great coaches, and the amount of wins he has is so rare.

”To be part of it is something special. I’ve played for him pretty much my entire career and it means a lot to be part of something like that. The success we’ve had in the playoffs goes with it.”

Crawford starred in front of family and friends. The goalie is from nearby Chateauguay, Quebec, and is 4-2-0 in six career meetings with the Canadiens.

The Blackhawks haven’t lost since Dec. 27, against Carolina, and will try to make it 10 straight in Toronto on Friday.

Meanwhile, the Washington Capitals won their fifth straight game, the Islanders beat the Rangers 3-1 in the New York derby, and the Carolina Hurricanes won their season-high fourth game.

On the night Alex Ovechkin was honored for his 500th goal, fellow Russian forward Evgeny Kuznetsov had two goals and an assist as Washington beat the Vancouver Canucks 4-1.

Kuznetsov scored his 14th and 15th goals of the season and set up Tom Wilson on a night the Capitals got a rare goal from defenseman Karl Alzner and 29 saves from Braden Holtby.

Brock Nelson and Nick Leddy scored 2:24 apart early in the third period to rally the Islanders past the Rangers 3-1.

Jaroslav Halak stopped 34 shots to beat Rangers goalie Henrik Lundqvist for the eighth straight time, including five wins with the Islanders.

Jeff Skinner had a goal and an assist as Carolina beat the St. Louis Blues 4-1.

Calvin Pickard stopped 27 shots for his first NHL shutout, and Matt Duchene scored 51 seconds in as Colorado beat New Jersey 3-0. The Devils haven’t won at the Pepsi Center since March 2008.

Danny DeKeyser scored in overtime as the Detroit Red Wings used two third-period power-play goals to rally from 2-0 down and beat the Arizona Coyotes 3-2. Detroit finished with five wins during a six-game trip.

The Winnipeg Jets also won in overtime, when Blake Wheeler scored 51 seconds in for them to overcome a three-goal third-period collapse to beat Nashville 5-4.

Joe Pavelski and Joonas Donskoi scored for San Jose in the shootout and Martin Jones stopped both Edmonton attempts for the San Jose Sharks to win 2-1 at home, and their fourth straight game. The Oilers fell to 0-3-4 in their last seven road games.

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”A little tired right now,” Lehner said following practice Thursday. ”Some nerves. But excitement is the best word I can think of.”

Lehner was back on the ice in Buffalo some 12 hours after stopping 35 shots in AHL Rochester’s 4-0 loss at Albany. The game capped a three-game minor-league conditioning assignment for the goalie, who had been sidelined since spraining his right ankle in the Sabres 3-1 season-opening loss to Ottawa on Oct. 8.

Lehner went 1-2 and allowed 10 goals.

Without saying when, coach Dan Bylsma said there’s a good chance Lehner will play this weekend. Buffalo plays consecutive home games against Boston on Friday and Washington on Saturday

”I feel like I’m ready. Is it going to be perfect? I don’t know,” Lehner said, noting that he’s still experiencing soreness. ”But I’m going to do my best.”

The injury was a setback for Lehner, who was looking forward to a fresh start after the Sabres gave up a first-round draft pick to acquire him in a trade with Ottawa in June.

What made it worse is the injury occurred after Lehner missed the final two months of last season because of a concussion. Lehner then became expendable in Ottawa after minor-league call-up Andrew Hammond took over the starting job and helped the Senators reach the playoffs.

It has been nearly a calendar year since Lehner played a complete game – a 25-save performance in Ottawa’s 7-2 win over Edmonton on Feb. 14.

”It was a little crushing in the beginning of this year, But I went through it,” Lehner said. ”I’m not supposed to sit at home and come in and work out. That’s not what I’m made for. I like to play hockey. It’s nice to be able to do that again.”

Though somewhat disappointed in his numbers in Rochester, Lehner said he used the playing time as a chance to refine his game.

”I just wanted to get back to being a goalie here, see pucks, start working on some details, make some mistakes so I can correct those mistakes,” he said. ”I feel like I made strides in a very short period of time.”

Lehner will get the benefit of having additional time to recover. The Sabres (17-22-4) have seven more games before getting eight days off between games over the NHL All-Star break.

Minus Lehner, Buffalo went with a two-goalie rotation of backup Chad Johnson and rookie Linus Ullmark, who was demoted to Rochester on Thursday.

Johnson has a 10-12-2 record, while Ullmark went 7-10-2, including wins in his final two games.

The 24-year-old Lehner has a 30-36-13 career record and 2.88 goals-against average since being selected by the Senators in the second round of 2009 draft.

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Andrew Cogliano, Carl Hagelin and Jacob Silfverberg also scored. This was Andersen’s first start since Jan. 1 and gave Anaheim its third win in five games.

Theodore scored on the power play, taking a pass from Ryan Getzlaf and putting a wrist shot under Craig Anderson’s right armpit.

Hagelin and Silfverberg scored soon afterward to finally give an Anaheim offense that has struggled for much of the season some breathing room.

Curtis Lazar scored for Ottawa, and Anderson turned away 34 shots.

Cogliano put the Ducks ahead 7:06 into the second period, reversing the momentum of a stretch that had been dominated by Ottawa. Anaheim capitalized when Kevin Bieksa broke up a promising sequence for the Senators and fed Cogliano, who broke to the other end of the ice to put a wrist shot under a sliding Anderson’s right leg.

It was Cogliano’s fourth goal of the season and broke a 17-game scoreless streak. Cogliano’s 66th goal for the Ducks puts him alone in ninth place on the club’s scoring list, breaking a tie with Matt Cullen.

The Senators tied it 1-1 off a brutal turnover by Getzlaf. Anaheim’s captain attempted a blind, backward pass that was easily picked off by Lazar, gifting him an easy breakaway before notching his third goal of the season.

Ducks coach Bruce Boudreau apparently benched Getzlaf for more than 8 minutes after the giveaway. When he did eventually return to the ice, Getzlaf was centering Anaheim’s fourth line.

Prior to Cogliano’s goal, Ottawa looked more likely to be the first team on the scoreboard coming out of the first intermission. Clayton Stoner nearly backhanded the puck into his own goal on a Senators’ power play, forcing Andersen to make a desperation save. Zack Smith grabbed the loose puck and tried for a wraparound, only to be denied by Hampus Lindholm.

Scoring chances in the opening period were few and far between, with one of the best coming in the first minute. Cogliano couldn’t get a shot off on Josh Manson’s terrific cross-ice pass and Nate Thompson was unable to jam the redirected puck in under Anderson. Getzlaf had a promising break that started in the Ducks’ zone but was also unable to produce a shot.

Anaheim outshot Ottawa 12-9 in a period where bad feelings got the better of good hockey.

The chippiness really got going in the final minutes with Chris Neil pinning Perry against the Ottawa bench and refusing to let him off the ice. A fight between Manson and Mark Borowiecki soon followed, with Manson landing two hard shots to the delight of the crowd before officials stepped in. That brawl in the final minute failed to relieve the tensions, with Ryan Kesler and Kyle Turris exchanging words and shoves as the period came to an end.

Patrick Maroon and Neil also exchanged blows less than a minute after Lazar scored.

NOTES: Ottawa scratched G Andrew Hammond, D Jared Cowen, D Fredrik Claesson and F Alex Chiasson. Hammond (personal) left the team on Monday and could return as early as Thursday. … Anaheim scratched D Korbinian Holzer and F Jiri Sekac. … Ottawa will have two days off before facing Los Angeles on Saturday. … Anaheim continues its eight-game homestand Friday night against Dallas.

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The Sharks added Torres to the active roster Wednesday and immediately assigned him to the Barracuda of the AHL.

Torres was suspended for half the season for an illegal check to the head of Anaheim’s Jakob Silfverberg in an exhibition game. It was the fifth suspension of Torres’ career.

Torres is also working his way back from a knee injury that sidelined him all of last season but coach Peter DeBoer said he believes Torres can contribute to the Sharks down the stretch.

San Jose also placed forward Danius Zubrus on injured reserve.

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Brent Seabrook also scored for Chicago, which was without center Artem Anisimov due to an illness. Corey Crawford made 41 saves and Marian Hossa added two assists on his 37th birthday.

The Blackhawks closed out a perfect four-game homestand hours after they announced a three-year extension with Quenneville that runs through the 2019-20 season.

Quenneville, the only active coach with three Stanley Cup titles, also moved into a tie with Al Arbour for second on the NHL list with his 782nd victory, trailing only Scotty Bowman (1,244).

In other games, Tampa Bay beat Colorado in Denver for the first time in over a decade 4-0, Ty Rattie netted his first NHL goal to lead St. Louis past New Jersey 5-2, and rookie Max Domi’s hat trick rallied Arizona past Edmonton 4-3 in overtime for its fourth straight win.

Ben Bishop stopped 21 shots for his second shutout of the season and Steven Stamkos scored twice to help Tampa Bay to its first win in Denver since March 2004.

Ondrej Palat added a goal and two assists, and Tyler Johnson scored late as the Lightning wrapped up a 3-1 road trip.

In St. Louis, Patrik Berglund scored twice, including the go-ahead goal in the second period, and Rattie deflected a shot from Kevin Shattenkirk early in the third for St. Louis, which won in regulation for the first time since Dec. 22.

St. Louis also won its fifth in a row against New Jersey, which lost for the fourth time in five games.

Arizona’s Oliver Ekman-Larrson’s goal with nine seconds left in overtime to lead the Coyotes to victory.

Louis Domingue made 25 saves for his fourth victory in a row. Ekman-Larrson assisted on all three goals that accounted for Domi’s first NHL hat trick. Domi hadn’t scored since Dec. 4 when he had two goals at Buffalo.

Elsewhere, Brian Gionta had a goal and an assist as Buffalo scored three times in the first period and hung on to beat Minnesota 3-2.

Jamie McGinn and Rasmus Ristolainen also scored for the Sabres, who won their second straight after losing six in a row. Linus Ullmark made 28 saves.

San Jose’s Joe Pavelski scored his 22nd goal of the season and added an assist to help the Sharks defeat Winnipeg 4-1.

San Jose was playing its third game in four nights and won them all.

Carolina’s Jeff Skinner scored a power-play goal 3:02 into overtime to lift the Hurricanes over Pittsburgh 3-2, and Brock Nelson scored a hat trick to take over the Islanders team lead in goals and Thomas Greiss made 18 saves in New York’s 5-2 victory over Columbus.

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