WASHINGTON — Tom Wilson scored his 31st goal of the season, Alex Ovechkin had a pair of assists and Washington beat the defending Stanley Cup champion Florida to win their fourth game in a row and pad their lead atop the NHL.
Wilson set up Connor McMichael’s opening goal in the first period before scoring his own 7 seconds after the ensuing intermission. Dylan Strome scoring 52 seconds later made it eight goals combined between the teams in the first 21 minutes of a high-event game largely lacking in defense.
Anthony Beauvillier, John Carlson and Andrew Mangiapane also scored for the Capitals, who were the first team in the league to clinch a playoff spot and have won nine of their last 10. Logan Thompson made 33 saves to improve to 31-4-5 in his first season with Washington.
Ovechkin had five shots on net but remained at 888 career goals, seven back of breaking Wayne Gretzky’s record.
Sam Bennett, Seth Jones and Jonah Gadjovich scored for the short-handed Panthers, who are without injured winger Matthew Tkachuk and suspended defenseman Aaron Ekblad and are awaiting trade deadline acquisition Brad Marchand to debut. Vitek Vanecek allowed six goals on 31 shots.
RANGERS 5, CANUCKS 3
NEW YORK (AP) — Jonny Brodzinski scored his second goal of the game late in the third period and Igor Shesterkin made 36 saves as the New York Rangers downed the Vancouver Canucks 5-3 on Saturday to snap a three-game losing streak.
Brodzinski rifled his ninth goal of the season past Canucks netminder Kevin Lankinen at 15:47 to give the Rangers the lead 37 seconds after Vancouver’s Brock Boeser tied the contest.
Former Canuck J.T. Miller added an empty-net goal. New York lost to Edmonton, Calgary and Toronto at home this week.
K’Andre Miller and Adam Fox also scored for the Rangers. Alexis Lafreniere had two assists.
Dakota Joshua and Drew O’Connor also scored for the Canucks.
WILD 4, SABRES 1
ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — Marco Rossi, Justin Brazeau, Mats Zuccarello and Frederick Gaudreau scored, and the Minnesota beat Buffalo.
Comfortably in the Western Conference first wild-card spot, Minnesota moved within two points of third-place Colorado in the Central Division. The Wild finished a season-long seven-game homestand 4-2-1.
Filip Gustavsson improved to 6-2-1 in March by making 20 saves. He has a 1.65 goals-against average, a .941 save percentage and two shutouts this month.
JJ Peterka scored and Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen stopped 17 shots for Buffalo, which lost its second straight game and is 3-8-1 in its past 12 outings.
STARS 3, FLYERS 2, OT
DALLAS (AP) — Defenseman Thomas Harley scored his second goal of the game nine seconds into overtime, giving the Dallas a win over the Philadelphia.
Defenseman Esa Lindell also scored for the Stars, who are 9-0-1 in their last 10 home games. Jake Oettinger made 22 saves to record his seventh consecutive home win and 32nd overall, third in the NHL. Harley’s second score was the fifth regular-season overtime goal of his career.
Travis Konecny and Ryan Poehling scored for the Flyers, who are 0-3-1 in their last four games and 1-8-1 in their last 10.
Poehling, a boyhood friend of Oettinger in Lakeville, Minnesota, won the opening faceoff in OT. The puck came back to Flyers goalie Samuel Ersson, who entered in the second period with a 2-0 deficit and played 40 minutes of shutout hockey stopping 15 shots. Ersson’s clearing attempt to Travis Sanheim just to the right of the net was intercepted by Jason Robertson, who fed Harley for the fastest overtime goal in franchise history.
BLUES 4, BLACKHAWKS 1
ST. LOUIS (AP) — Alexey Toropchenko had a goal and an assist and goalie Joel Hofer made 26 saves, leading St. Louis to a win over the Chicago.
Robert Thomas, Nathan Walker and Zach Bolduc also scored for St. Louis. Hofer improved to 4-0-1 in his last five starts as the Blues won their fifth straight and remain in sole possession of the second wild-card spot in the Western Conference.
Ilya Mikheyev scored for the Blackhawks. Arvid Soderblom stopped 21 shots as Chicago slipped to 0-6-1 in its last seven games.
Thomas batted the airborne puck in at 15:13 of the second period for a 1-0 lead. The Blues went up 2-0 when Toropchenko beat Soderblom from the right side of the crease at 17:20.
Chicago cut the lead to 2-1 on an unassisted short-handed goal by Mikheyev at 19:06.
The Blues added two goals in the final period. Walker scored off a pass from Toropchenko at 1:12. Bolduc scored at 7:43.
KINGS 7, HURRICANES 2
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Andrei Kuzmenko had a goal and an assist for his first points for Los Angeles since being acquired in a trade, and the Kings pummeled Carolina.
Anze Kopitar, Tanner Jeannot, Quinton Byfield and Kevin Fiala also had a goal and an assist, Adrian Kempe and Trevor Moore scored, and the Kings won their fifth straight on home ice. David Rittich made 34 saves.
Dmitry Orlov and Mark Jankowski scored and Pyotr Kochetkov made 18 saves for the Hurricanes, who had their eight-game winning streak emphatically snapped.
FLAMES 4, ISLANDERS 3, OT
NEW YORK (AP) — Nazem Kadri scored at 3:51 of overtime and Calgary beat the New York Islanders.
Matt Coronato had two goals and Jonathan Huberdeau had a goal and two assists for Calgary in its third straight win. Dan Vladar finished with 26 saves.
Bo Horvat, Marc Gatcomb and Kyle MacLean scored for the Islanders. Maxim Tsyplakov and Noah Dobson each had two assists, and Marcus Hogberg had 31 saves as New York snapped a three-game win streak but extended its point streak to five games (3-0-2).
Hogberg denied Morgan Frost on a breakaway shortly before Kadri scored the winning goal.
Huberdeau, playing in his 900th career NHL game, scored the tying goal with 2:22 remaining — just 29 seconds after MacLean gave the Islanders a 3-2 lead late in the third period.
UTAH HOCKEY CLUB 6, LIGHTNING 4
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — Logan Cooley had two goals and an assist and Alexander Kerfoot also scored twice to lead the Utah Hockey Club to a 6-4 victory over the Tampa Bay Lightning on Saturday.
Josh Doan and Nick Schmaltz also had goals, and Karel Vejmelka made 22 saves for Utah.
Brayden Point had two goals for the Lightning, and Anthony Cirelli and Jake Guentzel also scored. Brandon Halverson made 19 stops in his first career NHL start.
PREDATORS 5, MAPLE LEAFS 2
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Filip Forsberg had two goals and an assist, Luke Evangelista had a goal and two assists, and Nashville snapped a four-game losing streak with a win over Toronto Maple Leafs.
Michael Bunting and Kieffer Bellows also scored goals, Fedor Svechkov had two assists and Juuse Saros made 24 saves for Nashville.
Mitch Marner had a goal and an assist, John Tavares also scored and Joseph Woll made 27 saves for Toronto, which had its three-game winning streak ended. Auston Matthews had two assists.
Toronto had a two-goal lead in the first with Tavares and Marner scoring less than four minutes apart.
Bunting halved the Toronto lead with a power-play goal 1:39 into the second. The goal was Bunting’s first as a Predator following his trade to Nashville from Pittsburgh.
Bellows made it 2-2 at 9:15 of the second.
Forsberg gave Nashville its first lead with 46.6 seconds remaining in the second.
Evangelista added an insurance goal midway through the third with an assist from Forsberg.
SENATORS 3, DEVILS 2
NEWARK, N.J. (AP) — David Perron scored a power-play goal to cap Ottawa’s three-goal second period, and the Senators held on to beat the New Jersey.
Brady Tkachuk and Drake Batherson also scored to help the Senators win for the seventh time in their last nine games. Linus Ullmark finished with 25 saves.
Nico Hischier and Erik Haula scored for the Devils, who have lost three of four. Jake Allen had 16 saves.
AVALANCHE 5, CANADIENS 4, SO
MONTREAL (AP) —Brock Nelson scored the shootout winner in the fourth round as Colorado spoiled a third-period comeback try by Montreal.
Colorado’s Charlie Coyle also scored in the shootout. Patrik Laine scored for Montreal.
Nelson had a goal and an assist in regulation, and Martin Necas, Sam Malinski and Ryan Lindgren also scored for Colorado (43-25-3). Mackenzie Blackwood stopped 25 shots.
Montreal’s Joshua Roy and Juraj Slafkovsky — with his second of the game — scored 30 seconds apart midway through the third to cut Colorado’s lead to 4-3. Christian Dvorak tied the game at 13:32.
Slafkovsky took a holding penalty with 2:25 remaining in OT, putting Colorado on the power play. But, Montreal killed off the man advantage.
Sam Montembeault made 33 saves for Montreal, which lost its second straight yet extended its point streak to six games.
GOLDEN KNIGHTS 6, RED WINGS 3
LAS VEGAS (AP) — Tomas Hertl scored his second hat trick this month and Vegas knocked off Detroit.
Jack Eichel had a goal and three assists while Nicolas Roy and Mark Stone also scored for Vegas, which got 28 saves from Adin Hill.
Lucas Raymond, Patrick Kane and Alex DeBrincat scored for the Red Wings. Cam Talbot had 30 saves.
Hertl scored twice in the first period to erase an early 1-0 deficit. His first goal came on the power play with 8:13 left when Stone flipped a pass across the front of the net and Hertl was there for the deflection.
Hertl’s second came with 3:28 left off another tip-in. His third, also on the power play, came at the 8:02 mark of the second.
OILERS 5, KRAKEN 4
EDMONTON, Alberta (AP) — Ryan Nugent-Hopkins scored three goals for his fourth career hat trick, and Edmonton held on to beat Seattle.
Adam Henrique and Jeff Skinner also scored, and Mattias Ekholm and Darnell Nurse each had two assists for the Oilers, who moved to 4-0-1 in their last five games despite playing without star forwards Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl. Stuart Skinner finished with 27 saves.
Kaapo Kakko had two goals, and Jaden Schwartz and Andre Burakovsky also scored for the Kraken, who have lost two straight. Jared McCann and Jani Nyman each had two assists, and Joey Daccord finished with 24 saves.
SHARKS 3, BRUINS 1
SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) — Lucas Carlsson scored the go-ahead goal — his first of the season — with 3:23 left in the game and San Jose topped Boston.
William Eklund and Barclay Goodrow also scored and Alexander Georgiev made 22 saves for the Sharks.
Casey Mittelstadt scored the lone goal for Boston, which lost its fifth straight. Joonas Korpisalo had 19 saves.
Eklund’s 16th goal, which matched his career high, came at 2:13 of the second off a crossing pass from Macklin Celebrini to put San Jose up 1-0.
Boston tied it at 16:50 of the second when Mittelstadt scored off a turnover.
After Carlsson’s goal put the Sharks back up, Goodrow scored an empty-netter to seal the win.
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