BOSTON (AP) — David Pastrnak scored his 49th goal, Tyler Bertuzzi had a goal and an assist and the Boston Bruins overcame a sluggish performance to beat the Montreal Canadiens 4-2 on Thursday night for their fifth straight victory.
Jake DeBrusk scored on a breakaway, David Krejci put home on a rebound midway through the third period and Jeremy Swayman stopped 29 shots for the Bruins, who managed 21 shots and went 0 for 5 on the power play.
While they were denied a chance to clinch the Atlantic Division when Toronto beat Florida, the Bruins improved to 55-11-5 and remained on pace to break the league record of 62 wins in a season.
Nick Suzuki and Kirby Dach each scored power-play goals against Boston’s No. 1 penalty kill, Suzuki added an assist and Jake Allen made 17 saves in Montreal’s 10th loss in 12 games.
The 932nd meeting between the Original Six rivals and their only matchup in Boston this season was chippy. There were 31 penalty minutes in the first period, including a game misconduct against the Bruins’ A.J. Greer after his crosscheck to the face of Mike Hoffman as they awaited a face-off.
MAPLE LEAFS 6, PANTHERS 2
SUNRISE, Fla. (AP) — Brothers Eric and Marc Staal of the Florida Panthers declined to wear special Pride-themed warmup jerseys ahead of the team’s loss to Toronto.
The jerseys were part of Florida’s Pride night game in support of the area’s LGBTQ community, and the brothers cited their religion as the reason for their decision. While the Staal brothers declined to participate, Russian goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky was one of the Panthers who went ahead with the Pride-themed jerseys.
Auston Matthews had two goals for Toronto, and Matt Murray made 33 saves. Mitchell Marner and William Nylander each had a goal and an assist, and John Tavares finished with three assists. The Maple Leafs won for the third time in four games, bouncing back nicely after a 7-2 loss to the New York Islanders on Tuesday night.
Matthew Tkachuk and Nick Cousins scored for the Panthers. Bobrovsky made 21 saves in the team’s second straight loss.
FLYERS 5, WILD 4, SO
PHILADELPHIA (AP) — James van Riemsdyk scored the only goal in a shootout and Philadelphia Flyers beat Minnesota for coach John Tortorella’s 700th career victory.
Tortorella is 700-573-181 in 1,454 games as an NHL head coach. His 700 wins rank 12th in NHL history and his career games rank ninth in NHL history. He led Tampa Bay to the Stanley Cup in 2004 and is in his first season coaching the Flyers. Tortorella joined Peter Laviolette as the second American-born coach to win 700 games.
Scott Laughton, Joel Farabee, Rasmus Ristolainen and Tyson Foerster scored for the Flyers.
Matt Boldy had two goals for the Wild, and Oskar Sundqvist and Marcus Foligno also scored.
CAPITALS 6, BLACKHAWKS 1
WASHINGTON (AP) — John Carlson had a goal and an assist in his return from a fractured skull and Washington beat Chicago.
Alex Ovechkin and Nicklas Backstrom also had a goal and an assist, helping Washington (34-31-8) move within four points of Pittsburgh for the second wild card in the Eastern Conference.
Nikita Zaitsev scored for Chicago in the third period, and Anton Khudobin made 22 saves in his first NHL game since Jan. 15, 2022, with Dallas. It was Zaitsev’s first goal since April 3 for Ottawa.
The Blackhawks went 0 for 5 on the power play in their third straight loss. They were coming off a 5-0 loss at Colorado on Monday night.
RANGERS 2, HURRICANES 1
RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — Adam Fox ended a 24-game stretch without a goal and New York edged Carolina.
Fox scored at 4:01 of the third period and the Rangers forged a split of a two-game set this week among Metropolitan Division contenders. Artemi Panarin also scored and assisted on the goal-ahead goal. Mika Zibanejad had two assists for the Rangers. Igor Shesterkin made 29 saves for New York, which has points in eight of its last nine games (7-1-1).
Sebastian Aho had Carolina’s goal and Frederik Anderson stopped 14 shots. The Hurricanes could have clinched an Eastern Conference playoff spot with a victory.
PREDATORS 2, KRAKEN 1, SO
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Matt Duchene and Philip Tomasino scored in the shootout to lead Nashville past Seattle.
Kiefer Sherwood scored for Nashville in regulation, and Juuse Saros made 27 saves in regulation and overtime. Saros also denied both Kraken attempts in the shootout. Nashville earned its second straight since a three-game slide. It hosts Seattle again on Saturday.
Daniel Sprong scored for Seattle, and Joey Daccord made 23 stops in regulation and overtime.
The Kraken had won six straight road games. They have gone to overtime in four of the last six games overall.
SENATORS 7, LIGHTNING 2
OTTAWA, Ontario (AP) — Alex DeBrincat and Brady Tkachuk each scored two goals and Ottawa cruised past Tampa Bay.
DeBrincat added an assist, and Derick Brassard, Erik Brannstrom and Austin Watson also scored for Ottawa, which earned its first 35-win season since 2015-16. Mads Sogaard made 27 saves.
Brayden Point and Mikhail Sergachev scored and Brian Elliott stopped 28 shots for the Lightning, who are on a three-game losing streak and have been outscored 15-6 during that stretch.
BLUES 4, RED WINGS 3
DETROIT (AP) — Sammy Blais scored the go-ahead goal, Joel Hofer made 27 saves and St. Louis held off Detroit.
Alexey Toropchenko, Brayden Schenn and Jake Neighbours also scored for St. Louis, which avenged a loss to Detroit on Tuesday night.
Simon Edvinsson, the sixth pick of the 2021 draft, scored his first career goal in his third NHL game as Detroit took a 2-0 lead just 1:28 into the game. Jake Walman and Alex Chiasson also scored for Detroit. Magnus Hellberg and Alex Nedeljkovic combined for 18 saves.
CANUCKS 7, SHARKS 2
VANCOUVER, British Columbia (AP) — Andrei Kuzmenko scored his 35th goal, a Canucks franchise record for a first-year player, to lead Vancouver to a rout of San Jose. The Russian forward, who also had an assist, topped the 34 goals scored by Pavel Bure in 1991-92.
J.T. Miller, Dakota Joshua, Conor Garland and Phillip Di Giuseppe also each had a goal and an assist, and Vasily Podkolzin and Sheldon Dries scored for Vancouver. Tyler Myers had a pair of assists and Thatcher Demko made 17 saves.
Tomas Hertl and Andrew Agozzino scored for the struggling Sharks, who are winless in their last eight games (0-5-3). San Jose has not won in regulation since beating Seattle 4-0 on Feb. 20.
STARS 3, PENGUINS 2
DALLAS (AP) — Joe Pavelski scored the tiebreaking goal on a third-period power play and the Stars overcame Sidney Crosby’s first career goal in Dallas.
Roope Hintz and Jamie Benn also scored as the Stars moved a point ahead of Minnesota atop the Central Division with the Wild’s 5-4 shootout loss in Philadelphia.
Crosby’s 548th career goal was the 35-year-old’s first in 10 games at the home of the Stars and gave him at least one in each of the other 31 NHL arenas. Despite the loss, the Penguins held on to the final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference because of Florida’s 6-2 loss to Toronto.
JETS 3, DUCKS 2
ANAHEIM, Calif. (AP) — Adam Lowry scored the tiebreaking goal with 9:13 to play and Winnipeg topped Anaheim.
Kyle Connor scored his 28th goal and Connor Hellebuyck made 18 saves for the Jets, who opened a three-game California road trip with their third victory in four games.
After Frank Vatrano tied it for Anaheim early in the third with a power-play goal, Lowry put the Jets back ahead with a short redirection of a pass from Brenden Dillon for his third goal in four games.
Mason Appleton scored the first goal for Winnipeg, which has beaten Anaheim in five straight meetings.
GOLDEN KNIGHTS 3, FLAMES 2
CALGARY, Alberta (AP) — Logan Thompson made 37 saves and Vegas beat Calgary.
Nicolas Roy scored for Vegas in his return from an 18-game absence. Jonathan Marchessault and Michael Amadio also scored. In avenging their 7-2 home loss to the Flames last week, the Golden Knights earned their seventh win in eight games and improved to 16-3-2 in their last 21 overall.
Thompson exited late in the third period for an undisclosed reason. Jonathan Quick played the final 6:07 of the contest and made five saves.
Milan Lucic and Nazem Kadri scored for Calgary (32-26-15). Jacob Markstrom stopped 29 shots in his 11th start in the last 12 games.
—
AP NHL: https://www.apnews.com/hub/NHL and https://www.twitter.com/AP_Sports
The Associated Press