Nikita Kucherov scored the game-winner during a shootout, and the streaking Tampa Bay Lightning overcame Frans Nielsen’s hat trick to edge the host Detroit Red Wings 6-5 on Tuesday.
Dec 1, 2018; Sunrise, FL, USA; Tampa Bay Lightning right wing Nikita Kucherov (86) skates with the puck as Florida Panthers defenseman Keith Yandle (3) defends in the second period at BB&T Center. Mandatory Credit: Robert Mayer-USA TODAY Sports
Tampa Bay, which has the NHL’s best record, has won four straight and seven of its past eight. The Lightning won the shootout 2-1 after erasing a two-goal, third-period deficit.
Mathieu Joseph had two goals and an assist, and Steven Stamkos, J.T. Miller and Cedric Paquette also scored in regulation for Tampa Bay. Edward Pasquale made his NHL debut as the Lightning’s goaltender. He made 19 saves and two more during the shootout.
Nielsen collected his second career hat trick and the Wings’ first since 2016. Gustav Nyquist scored the other two regulation goals for Detroit.
Maple Leafs 4, Sabres 3 (OT)
Auston Matthews’ goal with less than three seconds remaining in overtime gave visiting Toronto the win over Buffalo.
Matthews capped off a three-point performance with his second goal of the night, taking a drop pass from Kasperi Kapanen and beating Sabres goalie Linus Ullmark to give Toronto its fifth consecutive victory.
After missing more than a month with a shoulder injury, Matthews now has five goals in three games since his return to the ice. He has 15 goals in 14 total games this season. Matthews also scored the game’s opening goal, and he picked up an assist on Patrick Marleau’s game-tying effort in the third.
Jets 3, Islanders 1
Jacob Trouba and Adam Lowry scored in a 22-second span early in the third period for Winnipeg, which capped a perfect Big Apple road trip by beating host New York.
Nikolaj Ehlers scored an empty-netter with 2.1 seconds left for the Jets, who beat the New Jersey Devils 4-3 in overtime Saturday and edged the New York Rangers by the same score in the shootout Sunday. Winnipeg has won four in a row overall.
Connor Hellebuyck made 27 saves for the Jets, and Thomas Greiss recorded 21 saves for the Islanders. Anders Lee scored early in the third period for New York to break a scoreless tie before the Islanders scored three times.
Penguins 6, Avalanche 3
Patric Hornqvist’s third-period natural hat trick on a night when Pittsburgh gave away ballcaps lifted the Penguins to a 6-3 win over visiting Colorado.
The Penguins built a 3-0 lead on goals by Jake Guentzel, Evgeni Malkin and Derick Brassard in the first period before Colorado tied it with second-period goals from Tyson Barrie, Carl Soderberg and Matt Nieto.
Hornqvist notched the fastest hat trick in Penguins history, 2:47. He scored on a rebound for a power-play goal at 6:11, on a shot from the left circle at 7:32 and on a shot from the slot at 8:58.
Panthers 5, Bruins 0
Roberto Luongo returned from the injured list and earned a shutout, and Mike Hoffman scored two goals as host Florida routed Boston at Sunrise, Fla.
Panthers winger Jonathan Huberdeau extended his streak to six straight multi-point games. He had one goal and two assists, and he has three goals and 11 assists during his streak.
Mike Matheson and Evgenii Dadonov had Florida’s other goals. Aleksander Barkov had three assists, and Keith Yandle had two.
Golden Knights 5, Capitals 3
Nate Schmidt scored his first two goals of the season, including the game-winner on a power play with 1:25 remaining, and Vegas defeated Washington in Las Vegas in the first meeting between the teams at T-Mobile Arena since the Caps clinched their first Stanley Cup on June 7.
Schmidt fired a wrist shot from the top of the slot past the glove hand of Washington goalie Braden Holtby to break a 3-3 tie, then added an empty-net goal with 6.9 seconds left to seal the victory.
Cody Eakin had a goal and an assist and Pierre-Edouard Bellemare and Ryan Reaves also scored goals for Vegas, which won for the sixth time in seven games. Jakub Vrana scored two goals and Alex Ovechkin also scored for Washington, which had a four-game road winning streak snapped.
Flames 9, Blue Jackets 6
Calgary’s Sean Monahan and Johnny Gaudreau each recorded two goals and two assists as the Flames erased a three-goal deficit by scoring five times in the second period in a wild victory at Columbus.
Elias Lindholm, Matthew Tkachuk, Noah Hanifin, T.J. Brodie and Austin Czarnik also had goals for the Flames.
Columbus’ Cam Atkinson had a hat trick to extend his point streak to 11 games — the league’s longest active stretch. Zach Werenski, Josh Anderson and Nick Foligno added goals for the Blue Jackets, who lost their second straight.
Wild 3, Canucks 2
Ryan Suter and Jason Zucker scored power-play goals less than a minute apart in the second period as Minnesota defeated host Vancouver.
Zach Parise also scored for the Wild, who went 3-for-3 with the man advantage. Devan Dubnyk made 29 saves for Minnesota, which snapped a season-high three-game losing streak.
Josh Leivo and Tyler Motte scored for Vancouver, which has won just once in its past 13 games (1-10-2). The Canucks’ Anders Nilsson stopped 25 shots but dropped his sixth consecutive start.
Canadiens 5, Senators 2
Max Domi scored twice and added an assist, and Jonathan Drouin had a goal and two assists as host Montreal scored three times in the second period to pull away from Ottawa.
Artturi Lehkonen and Brendan Gallagher also scored for the Canadiens, whose three-goal burst boosted them to just their second win in the past eight games. Carey Price stopped 28 shots for the Canadiens.
Dylan DeMelo and Mark Stone scored for the Senators, who had won their three previous games. Ottawa goaltender Craig Anderson made 36 saves.
Coyotes 2, Kings 1
Rookie Adin Hill made 25 saves and improved to 4-0-0 with a .977 save percentage since he was recalled as Arizona extended its winning streak to four games by edging host Los Angeles.
Lawson Crouse scored a short-handed goal in the first period, and Nick Schmaltz added a power-play goal in the second for the Coyotes. Alec Martinez ended Hill’s bid for his second shutout in five days when he scored off a backhand feed from Anze Kopitar at 14:15 of the third period.
The Kings briefly thought they tied the score with 55.4 seconds left, but it was immediately ruled that Dustin Brown played the puck with a high stick. Jonathan Quick made 18 saves for Los Angeles.
—Field Level Media