RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — Brady Skjei and Sebastian Aho scored as the Carolina Hurricanes beat the Toronto Maple Leafs 2-1 on Sunday night for their sixth win in seven games.
Frederik Andersen made 31 saves and earned his sixth straight win since returning from injury on March 7 as the Hurricanes picked up points in their seventh straight game.
Nicholas Robertson scored and Joseph Woll stopped 41 shots for Toronto, which had a two-game winning streak halted.
The Maple Leafs had a late power play after a Brent Burns’ tripping penalty, and pulled Woll for an extra skater, but failed to score. Toronto finished 0-for-4 on the power play.
Skjei needed just 66 seconds to get the Hurricanes on the scoreboard in the first period. His shot from the point, through three Toronto players, went under Woll’s glove and into the net. Jordan Staal and Jordan Martinook assisted.
Aho made it 2-0 on the power play at 13:55 in the first. His wrist shot from the left circle bounced in off of the skate of Toronto defenceman Jake McCabe. Jake Guentzel and Burns picked up assists.
Elsewhere in the NHL on Sunday:
AVALANCHE 5 PENGUINS 4 (OT)
DENVER (AP) — Jonathan Drouin scored his second goal of the game 54 seconds into overtime, and Colorado rallied from a four-goal deficit to beat Pittsburgh for their ninth straight win.
Nathan MacKinnon extended his point streak to 18 games with a goal and two assists. MacKinnon has at least a point in 34 straight home games, second all-time behind Wayne Gretzky’s 40-game streak in 1988-89. Sean Walker and Yakov Trenin also scored for Colorado.
Drouin, who also had an assist, won it when he beat Pittsburgh goaltender Alex Nedeljkovic for his 14th goal of the season. Nedeljkovic, who had 21 saves, was replaced by Tristan Jarry at 5:17 of the third after a collision with Casey Mittelstadt. Jarry had four saves and allowed the tying goal.
Sidney Crosby had a goal and three assists for his third four-point game, Bryan Rust, Jesse Puljujarvi and Pierre-Olivier Joseph also scored for the Penguins
Crosby assisted on Pittsburgh’s first two goals, stealing the puck from Mikko Rantanen and feeding Rust for a goal with 4:49 left of the first period that gave the Penguins a 2-0 lead.
SENATORS 5 OILERS 3
OTTAWA, Ont. (AP) — Defenceman Jakob Chychrun broke a tie with 3:03 left with his second power-play goal of game to help Ottawa beat Edmonton.
With Edmonton’s Mattias Ekholm off for holding, Chychrun scored on the second of Ottawa’s three third-period shots, with the third coming on Parker Kelly’s empty-netter.
Tim Stutzle and Drake Batherson also scored and Joonas Korpisalo made 33 saves.
Zach Hyman scored his 50th goal for Edmonton, and Connor McDavid had two assists to push his season total to 91 and join Wayne Gretzky and Paul Coffey as the only Oilers to reach 90.
Adam Henrique and Leon Draisaitl also scored and Calvin Pickard made 11 saves for Edmonton.
CAPITALS 3 JETS 0
WASHINGTON (AP) — Alex Ovechkin scored twice to reach 26 goals this season, Charlie Lindgren stopped all 27 shots he faced and Washington beat Winnipeg to move back into a playoff position.
The Capitals have won four of their past five games, a stretch in which Ovechkin has scored eight goals. He had just eight goals in his first 43 games.
Ovechkin getting hot has fuelled Washington’s surge up the standings and reignited talk of him breaking Wayne Gretzky’s career goals record. He is 46 back.
The offensive explosion in the third period — John Carlson’s tiebreaking goal on a power-play blast 1:21 in and Ovechkin’s two — came after Lindgren was the best player on the ice for much of the afternoon. Lindgren outdueled Connor Hellebuyck, the front-runner for the Vezina Trophy as the NHL’s top goaltender, turning aside several high-quality scoring chances throughout.
The combination of Lindgren’s stellar play and timely scoring added up to the Capitals’ second consecutive victory, after they beat Carolina in a crazy, 7-6 shootout Friday night. They passed Detroit for the East’s second and final wild-card spot ahead of a pivotal showdown with the Red Wings in Washington on Tuesday night.
DEVILS 4 ISLANDERS 0
NEW YORK (AP) — Jack Hughes and Timo Meier each had a goal and an assist, Kaapo Kahkonen made 37 saves in his first shutout of the season and New Jersey beat the New York Islanders.
Alexander Holtz and Chris Tierney also scored for New Jersey. Kahkonen, acquired at the trade deadline, earned his first win as a member of the Devils.
New Jersey captain Nico Hischier left the game late in the second period after colliding with New York’s Anders Lee. Lee received a major penalty and a game misconduct. Hischier did return at the start of the third period.
Ilya Sorokin finished with 26 saves for the Islanders, who lost for the seventh time in eight games. New York is four points behind Washington in the race for the second wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference with 11 games left in the regular season.
New Jersey scored three times in a 5:34 span early in the second period.
PANTHERS 4 FLYERS 1
PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Sam Reinhart scored two goals to reach 50 on the season, Brandon Montour added three assists and Florida snapped a four-game losing streak with a victory over Philadelphia.
Vladimir Tarasenko and Carter Verhaeghe also scored for the Panthers, who tied Boston with 97 points atop the Eastern Conference’s Atlantic Division. Florida will host the Bruins on Tuesday night.
Bobby Brink scored for the Flyers.
Both teams were playing the second games of a back-to-back and used their backup goalies. Philadelphia defeated Boston 3-2 on Saturday while the Panthers lost 4-3 in a shootout at the Rangers. Anthony Stolarz made 32 saves for the Panthers while Philadelphia’s Felix Sandstrom allowed three goals on 14 shots.
STARS 4 COYOTES 2
TEMPE, Ariz. (AP) — Miro Heiskanen broke a tie with 5:28 left and Dallas won their fourth consecutive game, beating the Arizona.
Jamie Benn, Tyler Seguin and Matt Duchene also scored, with Duchene getting an empty-netter with 1:30 to play. Duchene also had two assists to help the Stars keep pace with Colorado for the Central Division lead. The Avalanche also won Sunday, giving each team 97 points.
Jake Oettinger made 26 saves for Dallas.
Clayton Keller scored his 30th goal for Arizona. It’s his fifth straight game with a goal, a career best, and he joined Keith Tkachuk (1996-99) and Jeremy Roenick (1999-2001) as Coyotes with consecutive 30-goal seasons.
Nick Bjugstad also scored for the Coyotes.
Arizona had a two-man advantage in the third period when the score was still tied, but Dallas killed it off and completed a season sweep of the Coyotes, having won both previous meetings in Dallas, including Wednesday’s 5-2 victory. Dallas has won nine of its last 11 games.
LIGHTNING 3 DUCKS 2 (OT)
ANAHEIM, Calif. (AP) — Anthony Cirelli scored 59 seconds into overtime on a two-man breakaway to give Tampa Bay a victory over Anaheim, extending the Lightning’s points streak to seven games.
Cirelli and Brandon Hagel had a clear path to the net after Mason McTavish’s pass to Alex Killorn on a rush off ice went off a skate. Cirelli got the loose puck and moved into the offensive zone and passed back to Hagel, who sent it back to Cirelli, who beat Lukas Dostal on the short side.
Anthony Duclair and Luke Glendening also scored for the Lighting, who have the first wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference. Jonas Johansson made 30 saves.
Ross Johnston and Pavel Mintyukov scored for Anaheim. Dostal stopped 25 shots.
CANADIENS 5 KRAKEN 1
SEATTLE (AP) — Alex Newhook scored twice and Montreal sent Seattle to its eighth straight loss.
Kaiden Guhle had a goal and two assists for a career-high three points. Nick Suzuki and Mike Matheson also scored, and Cayden Primeau stopped 36 shots to help Montreal snap a four-game losing streak.
The Canadiens matched their season high for goals despite being outshot 37-17.
Jordan Eberle scored his 16th goal for the Kraken, with Seattle either being shut out or held to one goal in six of the losses during the streak that tied its longest skid of the season.
Philipp Grubauer allowed four goals on six shots before being pulled in favour of Joey Daccord, who had 10 saves.
The Canadiens’ first two shots led to goals.
SABRES 4 FLAMES 1
CALGARY, Alta. (AP) — Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen made 32 saves, Tage Thompson had a goal and an assist and Buffalo beat Calgary.
JJ Peterka, Peyton Krebs and Connor Clifton also scored to help Buffalo improve to 34-33-5 and finish 2-3 on a five-game trip.
Jonathan Huberdeau scored for Calgary, coming off a 4-2 loss at Vancouver on Saturday night. The Flames dropped to 33-32-5.
Peterka gave Buffalo a 2-1 lead with 8:56 left. Thompson stepped out from behind the net to feed Peterka in the slot for his 24th goal.
Thompson extended his points streak to a season-high five games with three goals and four assists. Tuch also has a five-game streak with a goal and six assists.
Dustin Wolf made 25 saves for the Flames.
The Associated Press
