Yanni Gourde and Nikita Kucherov each had three points as the Tampa Bay Lightning cracked the 60-win plateau with a 5-2 road victory over the Ottawa Senators on Monday.
Apr 1, 2019; Uniondale, NY, USA; Toronto Maple Leafs center John Tavares (91) attempts a shot onNew York Islanders goaltender Robin Lehner (40) during the third period at Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum. Mandatory Credit: Dennis Schneidler-USA TODAY Sports
The Lightning became just the third team in NHL history to win 60 games in a season, following the 1995-96 Red Wings’ 62 wins and 1976-77 Canadiens’ 60 wins in the pre-overtime era. With three games remaining on the schedule, Tampa Bay (60-15-4, 124 points) still has a chance of breaking Detroit’s record.
Gourde collected an assist and scored twice for his first multi-goal outing of the season. Kucherov notched three assists, marking the 18th time in what could be an MVP season that the forward has had at least three points in a single game. And Steven Stamkos scored late in the third period to give the star center 15 points (eight goals, seven assists) in his past nine games.
Ottawa got goals from Brady Tkachuk and Max Veronneau. Craig Anderson gave up five goals on 26 shots in his 400th appearance for the Senators.
Maple Leafs 2, Islanders 1
John Tavares scored against his former team in the third period and Toronto clinched a playoff berth with a close win in Uniondale, N.Y.
Defenseman Calle Rosen scored his first career NHL goal and Frederik Andersen made 28 saves for the Maple Leafs, who averted a season sweep by New York and moved within four points of second-place Boston in the Atlantic Division.
Jordan Eberle scored to extend his goal-scoring streak to three games for the Islanders, who fell for the second time in six contests to remain just two points ahead of third-place Pittsburgh in the Metropolitan Division.
Panthers 5, Capitals 3
Roberto Luongo — three days short of his 40th birthday — made 27 saves, and host Florida held on in a wild finish to defeat Washington.
The Capitals scored three goals — by Evgeny Kuznetsov, Nicklas Backstrom and Jakub Vrana — in the final 10 minutes to cut into what had been a 4-0 deficit.
Vrana scored with 2:21 left to make it 4-3, and the Capitals then pulled rookie backup goalie Pheonix Copley for an extra attacker. However, Florida escaped when Vincent Trocheck scored an empty-net goal with 27 seconds left, his second tally of the night.
Blues 3, Avalanche 2 (SO)
Jordan Binnington had 24 saves through overtime and three more in a shootout, and Ryan O’Reilly scored the shootout winner against his former team as St. Louis beat visiting Colorado to complete a sweep of the four-game season series.
The win moved St. Louis into a tie with Nashville for second place in the Central Division, with the Blues holding the first tiebreaker with three games remaining for both teams.
Gabriel Landeskog had a goal and an assist, Alexander Kerfoot also had a goal, and Philipp Grubauer had 25 saves for the Avalanche, who earned a valuable point to increase their lead over Arizona to two points for the final wild-card spot in the West. Both teams have three games remaining.
Jets 4, Blackhawks 3 (OT)
Jack Roslovic scored twice, and Kevin Hayes tallied the overtime winner as Winnipeg claimed a road victory over Chicago that restored the Jets’ lead for the top spot in the Central Division.
Goalie Connor Hellebuyck made 25 saves for the Jets, who snapped a three-game losing skid. Winnipeg is two points ahead of the St. Louis Blues and Nashville Predators for first place in the Central. All three teams have three games remaining in the regular season.
The Blackhawks remained mathematically alive by forcing overtime in a crazy game that saw a Jets goal overturned with three minutes left in regulation and Dylan Strome force the extra frame with his 19th goal with 2:20 left in the third.
Flames 7, Kings 2
Derek Ryan scored twice while Mark Jankowski netted one goal and two assists as visiting Calgary leaned on some of its more unusual suspects one night after securing top spot in the Western Conference and still throttled Los Angeles.
The Flames sat out their top four defensemen — Mark Giordano, TJ Brodie, Travis Hamonic and Noah Hanifin — as well as second-line forwards Mikael Backlund and Matthew Tkachuk, yet goalie David Rittich needed to make just 23 saves. Calgary has won three straight and nine of its past 12.
Ryan and Sam Bennett — who left the game after taking a late and high hit from Kurtis MacDermid in the second period — traded first-period goals with Kyle Clifford and Dustin Brown, who was honored prior to the game for becoming the Kings franchise leader in games played last week. Anze Kopitar assisted Brown’s goal in his 1,000th NHL game for Los Angeles.
Devils 4, Rangers 2
Connor Carrick scored with 4:10 left in the third period for host New Jersey, which outlasted New York in Newark, N.J.
The deciding goal was set up by an impressive individual effort by Drew Stafford, who briefly lost control of the puck in the neutral zone but got it back by reaching back and stealing it from Rangers center Vladislav Namestnikov. Stafford then raced up the ice and deked as if he was going to shoot before passing into the slot to Carrick, who fired a shot into the far end of the net.
Joey Anderson iced the victory with an empty-netter with 1:09 left for the Devils, who received first-period goals from Miles Wood and Travis Zajac in winning their home finale. New Jersey finished 20-14-7 at home. Brett Howden scored in the first period and Filip Chytil added the game-tying goal in the second period for the Rangers.
Golden Knights 3, Oilers 1
Jonathan Marchessault scored what proved to be the winning goal on a breakaway in the second period, and Malcolm Subban finished with 18 saves as host Vegas ended a team-record, five-game losing streak with a victory over Edmonton.
Cody Eakin and Pierre-Edouard Bellemare also scored goals for Vegas, which already had clinched third place in the Pacific Division and a first-round Stanley Cup playoff matchup with the San Jose Sharks. Subban, playing in his ninth consecutive game, improved to 14-2-1 all-time at T-Mobile Arena.
Edmonton’s Connor McDavid tied his career high with his 41st goal. The Oilers were officially eliminated from the Stanley Cup playoff race during the game when Avalanche picked up a point in their shootout loss at St. Louis.
—Field Level Media