NHL roundup: Bobrovsky makes 35 saves, Panthers bury Avalanche 4-0

Feb 10, 2024 | 10:33 PM

SUNRISE, Fla. (AP) — Sergei Bobrovsky made 35 saves in his third shutout of the season, and the Florida Panthers beat the Colorado Avalanche 4-0 on Saturday night.

Carter Verhaeghe, Sam Reinhart, Eetu Luostarinen and Aleksander Barkov scored for the Panthers, who won for the sixth time in seven games. Matthew Tkachuk had two assists.

Colorado star Nathan MacKinnon departed after landing headfirst on the ice with 11:18 to go. He was held off the scoresheet for the third straight game after going pointless in just one game since Nov. 18.

Alexandar Georgiev made 39 saves for the Avalanche in their fourth straight loss.

Barkov scored his first goal since Dec. 16, snapping an 18-game drought. He notched 19 assists in that span, and then added two more on Saturday night.

Elsewhere in the NHL on Saturday:

RED WINGS 4 CANUCKS 3 (OT)

DETROIT (AP) — Jake Walman converted a penalty shot 23 seconds into overtime, lifting the Red Wings to the victory.

Walman was awarded the penalty shot after Quinn Hughes slashed him on a breakaway. He became the fourth defenceman in NHL history to score on an overtime penalty shot, joining Ben Hutton, Andy Greene and Frantisek Kaberle.

Lucas Raymond, Daniel Sprong and Michael Rasmussen also scored for Detroit, which trailed 3-1 after two periods. Patrick Kane recorded an assist in his 1,200th career game, and Alex Lyon stopped 28 shots.

Filip Hronek and Elias Pettersson each had a goal and two assists for the Canucks. Nils Hoglander also scored, and Casey DeSmith made 24 stops.

Canucks defenceman Nikita Zadorov was assessed a match penalty and game misconduct during the second period for striking Raymond in the head. He was suspended by the NHL for two games for the hit.

SENATORS 5 MAPLE LEAFS 3

OTTAWA, ONT. (AP) — Shane Pinto had a goal and two assists, and Ottawa beat Toronto in a game that ended with Maple Leafs defenceman Morgan Reilly cross-checking Ridly Greig for firing a slap shot into an empty net.

Claude Giroux, Vladimir Tarasenko and Josh Norris also scored for Ottawa in its return from a 10-day break. Joonas Korpisalo made 31 saves.

Auston Matthews scored his NHL-leading 42nd goal for Toronto. Matthew Knies and Max Domi also scored and Martin Jones stopped 27 shots.

Greig scored with 5.1 seconds left, racing down the middle and firing a slap shot from short range into the empty net. As the Ottawa player headed back up the boards toward the bench, Reilly hit him high with the cross-check.

Toronto sent out enforcer Ryan Reaves for the final faceoff, but the officials quickly jumped in to prevent a brawl.

CAPITALS 3 BRUINS 0

BOSTON (AP) — T.J. Oshie scored his 299th career goal, Charlie Lindgren stopped 18 shots and Washington snapped a six-game losing streak.

Alex Ovechkin scored his 57th career empty-net goal with 27 seconds remaining, passing Wayne Gretzky for the most in NHL history.

Dylan Strome also scored for the Capitals, who won for the first time since beating St. Louis 5-2 on Jan. 18. It was Lindgren’s third shutout of the season.

Jeremy Swayman stopped 25 shots for the Bruins, who lost for the third time in their last four home games.

PREDATORS 5 COYOTES 4 (OT)

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Ryan McDonagh scored 1:36 into overtime, and Nashville snapped a three-game losing streak.

Nashville’s Ryan O’Reilly, Filip Forsberg, Roman Josi and Tommy Novak each had a goal and an assist. Juuse Saros made 27 saves.

Dylan Guenther, Travis Dermott, Nick Schmaltz and Juuso Valimaki scored for Arizona in its fifth consecutive loss. Jason Zucker had three assists, and Connor Ingram made 32 saves.

In the overtime, Novak carried the puck behind the Arizona net and found McDonagh in the low slot, where he beat Ingram for the win.

JETS 2 PENGUINS 1

WINNIPEG, Manitoba (AP) — Connor Hellebuyck made 35 saves, and Winnipeg stopped a five-game losing streak.

Nino Niederreiter and Mark Scheifele scored to help Winnipeg avenge a 3-0 loss in Pittsburgh on Tuesday night.

Bryan Rust scored for Pittsburgh, and Tristan Jarry made 29 saves. Sidney Crosby’s nine-game point streak ended.

HURRICANES 1 DEVILS 0 (OT)

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — Sebastian Aho scored 3:40 into overtime to give Carolina the win.

Aho knocked a rebound of a Martin Necas shot out of mid-air and past New Jersey goalie Vitek Vanecek. It was Aho’s 11th career overtime goal, extending his franchise record.

Vanecek finished with 31 saves, and Carolina’s Pyotr Kochetkov made 34 stops. 

The Hurricanes have won five of their past six games. The Devils have lost seven of 10.

FLYERS 3 KRAKEN 2

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Sean Couturier scored the go-ahead goal for Philadelphia early in the third period.

Scott Laughton and Ryan Poehling also scored for the Flyers, who have won all three of their games since the All-Star break. Philadelphia entered the break on a five-game losing streak. 

Tomas Tatar and Jared McCann scored for the Kraken, who were playing their first game since Jan. 30 due to a combination of the All-Star break and the club’s bye week. Seattle lost six of eight entering the break. The Flyers held the Kraken to just two shots in the third period and 19 for the contest.

Seattle played without defenceman Justin Schultz, who was absent due to “personal reasons,” according to coach Dave Hakstol.

LIGHTNING 4 BLUE JACKETS 2

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Brandon Hagel had a goal and two assists, and Tampa Bay stopped a two-game slide.

Nicholas Paul had a goal and an assist for Tampa Bay, and Andrei Vasilevskiy stopped 33 shots. Anthony Cirelli and Steven Stamkos also scored.

Boone Jenner scored twice in the third period to get Columbus within a goal, both with assists from Johnny Gaudreau. Elvis Merzlikins had 33 saves for the Blue Jackets, who have dropped their last two home games.

BLUES 3 SABRES 1

BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP) — Joel Hofer stopped 33 shots, Jake Neighours scored twice and St. Louis got the win on the road.

Jordan Kyrou also scored for St. Louis in its first game since a 1-0 loss to Columbus on Jan. 30.

Kyle Okposo was credited with Buffalo’s lone goal after he was the last Sabres player to touch the puck before Blues defenceman Matthew Kessel banked his clearing attempt off the skate of teammate Oskar Sundqvist and into the net.

Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen stopped 23 shots and dropped to 6-5 in his past 11 starts despite allowing 19 goals over that span.

STARS 3 CANADIENS 2

MONTREAL (AP) — Tyler Seguin scored twice and Matt Duchene had two assists, lifting the Stars to the win.

Thomas Harley also scored as Dallas improved to 8-2-1 in its last 11 games. Mason Marchment added two assists, and Jake Oettinger made 18 saves.

Nick Suzuki had a goal and an assist for Montreal, which had won two of three. Juraj Slafkovsky also scored, Mike Matheson had two assists and Cole Caufield extended his point streak to a career-high 11 games.

Canadiens goaltender Sam Montembeault stopped 35 shots in his second straight start.

FLAMES 5 ISLANDERS 2

NEW YORK (AP) — MacKenzie Weegar recorded his first career hat trick, and Calgary extended its season-high win streak to four games. 

Jonathan Huberdeau and Blake Coleman also scored for the Flames. Jacob Markstrom finished with 35 saves and an assist in the third game of a four-game road trip.

Semyon Varlamov made 19 saves in his 600th NHL game, but the Islanders’ two-game winning streak was snapped. Brock Nelson and Jean-Gabriel Pageau scored for New York.

KINGS 4 OILERS 0

LOS ANGELES (AP) — David Rittich stopped 27 shots for his first shutout in nearly three years, Quinton Byfield had two goals and an assist and Los Angeles gave Jim Hiller a victory in his first game as an NHL head coach.

Hiller was named interim coach for the rest of the season after Todd McLellan was fired on Feb. 2. The Kings had only three wins in their last 17 games going into the All-Star break.

Pierre Luc-Dubois and Trevor Lewis also scored for Los Angeles. Rittich got his fifth career shutout, and his first since Feb. 22, 2021, at Toronto when he was with the Calgary Flames.

Stuart Skinner made 22 saves for Edmonton, which has dropped two of three since a 16-game winning streak that was one shy of tying the NHL record.

The closest the Oilers came to scoring on Rittich was midway through the second period when Corey Perry’s shot hit the crossbar.

AP NHL: https://apnews.com/hub/nhl

The Associated Press