Ducks acquire Henrique, send Vatanen to Devils

Center Adam Henrique, forward Joe Blandisi and a third-round pick in the 2018 NHL Draft were acquired by the Anaheim Ducks in a trade with the New Jersey Devils on Thursday for defenseman Sami Vatanen and a conditional third-round draft pick.

Henrique, 27, has 14 points (four goals, 10 assists) in 24 games this season. He's second among Devils forwards with in average ice time at 18:15, including 2:54 per game on the penalty kill, also second among Devils forwards.

The Ducks are missing three centers because of injuries. Ryan Kesler has not played this season because of a hip injury; Ryan Getzlaf has missed 14 games because of facial injuries sustained Oct. 29, and could miss another month; and Rickard Rakell has been out the past three games because of an upper-body injury.

Anaheim next plays at the Columbus Blue Jackets on Friday (7 p.m. ET; FS-O, PRIME, NHL.TV).

Taken by the Devils with a third-round pick (No. 82) in the 2008 NHL Draft, Henrique has 257 points (122 goals, 135 assists) in 455 games.

His biggest moments with the Devils came during the 2012 Stanley Cup Playoffs. He scored in double-overtime in Game 7 of the Eastern Conference Quarterfinals to eliminate the Florida Panthers, and his overtime goal in Game 6 of the Eastern Conference Final eliminated the New York Rangers and put the Devils into the Stanley Cup Final for the first time since 2003.

Henrique is in the fifth season of a six-year contract with an average annual value of $4 million, according to CapFriendly.com, and can become an unrestricted free agent after the 2018-19 season. If the Ducks sign Henrique to a contract prior to making their third-round pick in the 2019 NHL Draft, that pick will be sent to the Devils. If the Ducks sign Henrique after using that selection, their third-round pick in the 2020 NHL Draft will be sent to the Devils. If Henrique does not re-sign with the Ducks, no pick will be traded.

Blandisi, 23, has 14 points (three goals, 11 assists) in 19 games with Binghamton, the Devils' American Hockey League affiliate. He had nine points (three goals, six assists) in 27 games with the Devils last season.

Vatanen, 26, has four points (one goal, three assists) and a minus-6 rating in 15 games this season, and was third on the Ducks in average ice time at 21:06 per game. He missed the first seven games of the season recovering from offseason shoulder surgery. He could make his Devils debut at the Colorado Avalanche on Friday (9 p.m. ET; ALT, MSG+ 2, NHL.TV).

"In acquiring Sami, we bring on a right shot, top-four defenseman who can play in all situations," Devils general manager Ray Shero said. "This move also gives us contract certainty on the back end for the next two-plus years. When acquiring a defenseman like Vatanen, you have to give back quality assets or players in return. That is the case in this situation with Adam and Joe. Adam has been a key member of our organization for nearly 10 years since he was drafted. His contributions both on and off the ice will always be appreciated by our organization and fans. For Joe, this is a great opportunity with a quality organization like Anaheim and I am happy for him."

Selected by the Ducks in the fourth round (No. 106) of the 2009 NHL Draft, Vatanen has 126 points (33 goals, 93 assists) in 280 games. He's in the second season of a four-year contract with an average annual value of $4.875 million, according to CapFriendly.com.

Oilers place Talbot on injured reserve

Goaltender Cam Talbot was placed on injured reserve by the Edmonton Oilers on Thursday with an upper-body injury.

Talbot was injured during a 3-2 overtime win to the Arizona Coyotes on Tuesday, Oilers coach Todd McLellan said Wednesday. Talbot finished the game and made 29 saves.

Talbot is 10-10-1 with a 3.00 goals-against average and .903 save percentage in 22 games, all starts. He finished fourth in Vezina Trophy voting last season after leading the NHL with 44 victories and 73 appearances, finishing with a 2.39 GAA.

He is eligible to return on Dec. 7.

The Oilers (10-13-2) are seventh in the Pacific Division after advancing to the Western Conference Second Round last season. They play the Toronto Maple Leafs at Rogers Place on Thursday (9 p.m. ET; TVA Sports, SNW, TSN4).

Edmonton called up goaltender Nick Ellis from Bakersfield of the American Hockey League. Ellis, 23, is 5-5-1 with a 2.82 GAA and .914 save percentage in 11 games.

Price leads Canadiens to 3rd straight win, 2-1 over Senators

Associated Press
MONTREAL (AP) — As poorly as Carey Price played early in the season, he is making up for it now.

Price made 27 saves for his third win in three starts since he missed 10 games with a lower body injury, helping the Montreal Canadiens beat the slumping Ottawa Senators 2-1 on Wednesday night.

The star goaltender, who began the season 3-7-1 with a 3.77 goals-against average, is 3-0-0 and has allowed only two goals on 102 shots since he returned last week.

“He’s been our best player,” forward Andrew Shaw said. “He’s calm, he’s cool, he’s making big-time saves and working hard for us.

“We’re trying to do the same for him. Even when they dump it in he’s like a third defenseman for us, moving the puck and getting it out of our end.”

Jonathan Drouin scored on his first NHL penalty shot and Phillip Danault also had a goal for Montreal, which ended a three-game homestand.

Mark Stone scored his 14th goal for Ottawa, which has lost seven straight games for its longest drought since also going 0-6-1 from Jan. 21 to Feb. 7, 2012.

The Senators have not won since sweeping a pair of games from Colorado in Stockholm, Sweden, on Nov. 10-11.

The Senators had chances, but couldn’t score on three power plays in the second period.

“We played pretty well right from the start of the game,” forward Zack Smith said. “You could tell it was two desperate teams. ... If we had capitalized on any one of the power plays we would have won. But same thing. A couple of missed assignments. A couple of lapses, and that’s the NHL. That will cost you the game.”

Ottawa goalie Mike Condon, pressed into service by Montreal when Price missed most of the 2015-16 season with an injury, started against his former team for the first time and finished with 29 saves.

“I moved on pretty quickly after everything happened,” Condon said of facing the Canadiens. “It’s always fun coming into this building. ... It’s always lively and there’s lots of energy so it was great to come back. I just wish we could have got a better outcome.”

The Senators struck short-handed when Stone intercepted Alex Galchenyuk’s pass at the right point, skated in alone and beat Price with a backhander 4:02 into the game.

Drouin tied it 2:56 into the second on a penalty shot after he was hooked from behind on a breakaway by Cody Ceci. Drouin beat Condon with a low wrist shot off a post. The last Canadiens player to score on a penalty shot was Dale Weise against Boston on Nov. 13, 2014.

“It was actually kind of nerve-wracking,” said Drouin, who had not taken a penalty shot since junior hockey. “I had two moves in my head and decided to shoot at the last second. ... It was a cool moment.”

Danault darted to the net to one-time Andrew Shaw’s feed past Condon at 5:14 for his first goal in 15 games.

NOTES: Senators defenseman and captain Erik Karlsson has not scored a point in his last seven games. ... Canadiens D Shea Weber missed a fifth straight game with a lower-body injury. Coach Claude Julien said Weber will make the trip to Detroit but is not certain to play. ... The Canadiens paid tribute to Mark Recchi in a pregame ceremony for his induction into the Hockey Hall of Fame. His name and number were added to the ring of honor at the Bell Centre. Video tributes were read on the scoreboard from former teammates Saku Koivu and Vincent Damphousse. Recchi scored 120 goals in 346 games in five seasons in Montreal in the 1990s. His picture will go up in the dressing room with the team’s 47 other Hall of Famers.

UP NEXT

Senators: At the New York Islanders in the second game of a seven-game trip.

Canadiens: At Detroit on Thursday night to open a home-and-home set.

MacKinnon scores in OT to give Avalanche 3-2 win over Jets

By BRENT W. NEW
Associated Press

DENVER (AP) — Nathan MacKinnon and the Colorado Avalanche had their initial celebration in overtime cut short. Less than a minute later, MacKinnon got the party going again.

The 22-year-old scored a power-play goal 59 seconds into overtime after he had a goal waved off 30 seconds earlier, and the Avalanche beat the Winnipeg Jets 3-2 on Wednesday night.

MacKinnon reveled with his teammates when his shot hit a Jets player and went into the net 29 seconds into the extra period. But replay showed that Colorado’s Tyson Barrie was offside.

Thirty seconds later, he hit the back of the net again — and this one counted.

“We kept our composure well,” MacKinnon said. “We didn’t want to panic. Stuff happens.”

Alexander Kerfoot had a goal and an assist and Nikita Zadorov also scored for the Avalanche, who improved to 8-2-1 at home this season. MacKinnon also had an assist and finished November with 20 points — five goals and 15 assists — in 12 games.

Semyon Varlamov stopped 31 shots in his first game since Nov. 18 because of an illness.

“We know this is one of the best teams in the league at this point,” Avalanche coach Jared Bednar said of Winnipeg. “We needed to rise to the occasion and I thought our guys did that.”

Bryan Little and Josh Morrissey scored for the Jets, and Connor Hellebuyck made 23 saves. Winnipeg is 7-2-1 in its last 10 games.

Little put Winnipeg ahead 2-1 at 4:08 of the third. Nikolaj Ehlers beat the Colorado defense during 4-on-4 play and put the initial shot on Varlamov before Little tipped a rebound chance under the goalie’s glove.

Zadorov tied it for the Avalanche with 8:03 remaining, setting up MacKinnon’s winner in OT.

“I think, 2-1, you’d like to be able to close it out,” Jets coach Paul Maurice said. “It was a hard, grinding game. It just wasn’t a sharp game.”

Winnipeg opened the scoring 8:43 into the first period on Morrissey’s third goal of the season. The defender let loose just in front of the blue line to beat Varlamov for his first goal since Oct. 26.

The Jets came into the game 11-1-2 this season when scoring first.

The Avalanche tied it on Kerfoot’s power-play goal with 6:37 left in the opening period. During a strange sequence, MacKinnon put a shot on Hellebuyck from inside the circle and J.T. Compher tipped the rebound in front to Kerfoot. Kerfoot’s backhander hit the back of the net just as Hellebuyck shook off his mask and helmet after a strap came loose.

Hellebuyck quickly pleaded his case to officials but the goal stood. The rule states play should be stopped immediately if a goalie has lost his mask and/or helmet unless the opposing team has an impending scoring opportunity.

“I have a helmet on my forehead and it was about to fall off,” Hellebuyck said. “I don’t know, it’s a little dangerous to me.”

The Avalanche finished 2 of 5 on the power play, while Winnipeg was 0 for 4.

NOTES: Colorado D Anton Lindholm, who’d been out with a broken jaw since Nov. 4, celebrated his 23rd birthday with a return to the lineup. ... G Steve Mason suffered a concussion Saturday against the San Jose Sharks and was designated for injured reserve. ... The Avalanche assigned D Chris Bigras and D Andrei Mironov to AHL San Antonio and recalled Duncan Siemens, who was a healthy scratch Wednesday. ... LW Gabriel Landeskog began his four-game suspension for his crosscheck against Calgary on Saturday.

UP NEXT

Jets: Host Las Vegas on Friday night.

Avalanche: Host New Jersey on Friday night.

Gibson rebounds from rough outing, leads Ducks past Blues

By STEVE OVERBEY
Associated Press

ST. LOUIS (AP) — Anaheim goalie John Gibson has been pulled from a hockey game before. So he knew exactly how to react after a rough outing: No panic, no worries.

“It’s going to happen to everybody. It’s part of the game,” Gibson said after making 37 saves in the Anaheim Ducks’ 3-2 victory over the St. Louis Blues on Wednesday night.

Antoine Vermette had two goals and Kevin Roy also scored for the Ducks, who jumped out to a 3-0 lead and held on to snap a four-game losing streak.

Gibson, who was pulled after giving up four goals on 22 shots in a 7-3 loss at Chicago on Monday, calmly refocused and came out with one of his best efforts of the season to improve to 8-9-1.

“We need him and we wanted to come out and play well in front of him,” Vermette said. “Tonight, he stood up big for us.”

Gibson stopped the first 36 shots he faced before giving up two goals to Kyle Brodziak in the final 3:48. Brodziak scored with 17 seconds left to bring the Blues within one.

Anaheim coach Randy Carlyle knew his veteran goalie would respond well.

“When you get thumped like we did the other night in Chicago, you look for a response,” Carlyle said. “(He) gave us A-quality goaltending.”

Jake Allen finished with 27 saves for the Blues, who had won four of their previous five.

Vermette snapped an 11-game scoreless drought with his first multigoal game since Nov. 25, 2015.

“It’s nice, but at the end of the day you just want to win,” Vermette said. “We’ll take it. It came at a good time tonight.”

Vermette deflected in a shot off his right glove just 4:17 into the game for the Blues.

Roy and Vermette each had power-play goals in a span of 2:28 early in the second for a 3-0 cushion.

The short-handed Ducks were playing without several key offensive players, including leading-scorer Rickard Rakell, who missed his third straight game with an upper-body injury.

“We’re facing a strange situation with a lot of adversity,” Vermette said. “We’re taking a lot of pride as a group and trying to battle through it.”

Gibson’s biggest save came midway through the second period when he stopped Jaden Schwartz on a breakaway.

The Blues had won their last four home games against the Ducks, but looked flat throughout most of the contest.

“A game like tonight, penalty kill could have found a way to win a game for us,” said Brodziak, who is on the PK unit. “Instead, we found a way to lose a game.”

The Blues still lead the Western Conference with 35 points.

“I don’t think we got to our game at all tonight,” St. Louis winger Alexander Steen said. “We didn’t play the way we had played previously and it bit us.”

NOTES: St. Louis C Patrik Berglund made his season debut after missing the first 24 games with a dislocated left shoulder. ... The Ducks have scored first in 11 of 25 games. ... St. Louis still has points in 12 of its last 15 home games against Anaheim.

UP NEXT

Ducks: Continue a six-game road trip at Columbus on Friday.

Blues: Host the Los Angeles Kings on Friday.

Rask helps Bruins hold off Lightning, 3-2

By KEN POWTAK
Associated Press

BOSTON (AP) — Tuukka Rask heard the question about personally needing to string together some wins and didn’t hesitate to answer.

“I need them. I need them,” he said, smiling, after the Boston Bruins hung on for a 3-2 win over the Tampa Bay Lightning on Wednesday night.

Rask made 19 saves to snap his four-game losing streak, providing a solid effort with coach Bruce Cassidy facing some fans’ desire to play backup Anton Khudobin more.

“We need both goaltenders to be good for us to excel as a team,” Cassidy said. “Tuukka needs his reps as well. He’s a good goalie. He made those big saves and we got him that extra goal.”

Charlie McAvoy and Riley Nash scored first-period goals as the Bruins totally controlled the opening 20 minutes and into the second.

“You’re watching the shot clock and you try not to — it was like 30-6 or something,” Rask said. “You knew they were going to come.”

Boston outshot the Lightning 32-12 through two periods.

Torey Krug also scored and Brad Marchand assisted on the first two goals for the Bruins, who opened a 3-0 lead to post their fifth win in six games. Boston improved to 13-3 in its last 16 at home against the Lightning.

Steven Stamkos and Andrej Sustr scored for the Lightning, and Andrei Vasilevskiy made 33 saves. Tampa Bay, which entered the game with the NHL’s best record, lost for the third time in four games following a season-high five-game winning streak.

Criticized lately for his uneven play combined with recent solid performances by backup Khudobin, Rask raised his record to just 4-8-2 this season. Khudobin is 7-0-2.

Rask flashed his pad to block Ryan Callahan’s tip from in close late in the game.

The Bruins came out strong in the opening period, firing 19 shots on goal en route to a 2-0 lead after one.

“We looked like a team that was coming off a back-to-back in the first period,” Stamkos said. “We didn’t have our legs. They came out hard. They dominated us.”

McAvoy snapped off a shot from the right circle that slipped through a crowd of players and past Vasilevskiy to make it 1-0 at 7:27. Originally, it was waved off for goaltender interference with Boston’s Patrice Bergeron and Brad Marchand at the edge of the crease, but Cassidy challenged the call and it was overturned.

Nash fired a wrister that sailed over Vasilevskiy’s left shoulder with 2:47 left.

Vasilevskiy faced nearly as many shots in the first as he did the entire game a night earlier when he stopped 24 in his sixth career shutout, a 2-0 victory at Buffalo.

“We have to find a way to get a better start,” Lightning forward Chris Kunitz said.

Ryan Spooner set up Krug’s goal that made it 3-0 early in the second. After the Bruins kept the puck in Tampa Bay’s zone for a lengthy stretch, Spooner backhanded a pass that Krug one-timed inside the right post.

Sustr snapped a shot from the right point that sailed into the net past a group of players and by Rask’s glove midway into the second. Stamkos one-timed Nikita Kucherov’s pass for a power-play goal in the third after Brandon Carlo was whistled for interference 46 seconds into the period.

NOTES: The Bruins equaled their most shots on goal in a period this season in the first. They matched their second period at the Los Angeles Kings on Nov. 16. ... Boston F David Backes returned to the lineup after missing nearly a month following surgery to remove part of his colon. Marchand also returned after missing six games with an undisclosed injury, but C David Krejci was out with an undisclosed upper body injury. ... Tampa Bay has scored a power-play goal in five straight games. ... A male fan seated about 10 rows back at center ice was hit in the head with a puck in the opening period and walked from his seat to seek medical attention with his hand over his forehead.

UP NEXT

Lightning: Host the Sharks on Saturday in the opener of a four-game homestand.

Bruins: At the Flyers on Saturday in the first of two straight road games.

Kopitar scores 2, Quick stops 23 shots, Kings beat Wings 4-1

By LARRY LAGE
Associated Press

DETROIT (AP) — Jonathan Quick made some spectacular saves to keep the Los Angeles Kings within a goal and they took advantage of the opportunity to come back and win.

Dustin Brown and Anze Kopitar scored 2:10 apart late in the second period to put the Kings ahead and they went on to beat the Detroit Red Wings 4-1 on Tuesday night.

Quick made 23 saves, including some sprawling stops in the second period that kept the Kings within a goal.

“He made at least two saves on what looked like sure goals in the second period, and that changed the whole game,” Kings defenseman Drew Doughty said. “We were giving up way too many chances, but he kept us in the game.”

After Brown and Kopitar puts the Kings ahead, they pulled away in the third. Adrian Kempe scored early in the period and Kopitar’s second goal of the game gave Los Angeles a three-goal cushion with 7-plus minutes left.

Kopitar leads the Kings with 11 goals, one fewer than he had all of last season.

“I’m feeling good this year, and maybe that’s the whole difference,” he said. “I’m confident about my game in a way that I wasn’t last season. I played a lot of hockey last year before the season even started, with the Olympic qualifiers and the World Cup. I was tired before we even got going, and I had a bad year.”

The Red Wings started strong, but couldn’t recover when they failed to get another shot past Quick.

“He does it against lots of people, lots of nights,” Detroit coach Jeff Blashill said. “A lot of credit goes to him, but I still think we can get more net presence.”

Detroit’s Mike Green broke a scoreless tie late in the first period and Jimmy Howard finished with 32 saves.

“I had a few chances that I just have to put in the net,” Gustav Nyquist said. “He’s a good goalie who makes some of those crazy saves. We had enough chances to score more than one goal.”

The Kings have won two straight after losing three in a row and seven of eight.

“We’ve got a lot of work to do before we are the team we want to be, but this was a big performance by everyone on our team,” Los Angeles coach John Stevens said. “It wasn’t just the top lines. It was everyone.”

The Red Wings have lost five straight, one shy of their season-long skid from last month, after winning six of the previous nine games.

NOTES: Green ended an 18-game scoring drought and Red Wings captain Henrik Zetterberg extended his streak without a goal to 18 games. “Obviously, it’s not fun when you don’t score,” Zetterberg said. “So I take big responsibility in that.” ... Los Angeles began a four-game road trip. ... After most of the fans had left Little Caesars Arena, a few of them chanted, “Fire Hol-land! Fire Hol-land,” referring to the team’s general manager Ken Holland.

UP NEXT

Kings: Play Thursday night at Washington.

Red Wings: Host Montreal on Thursday night.

“We better have urgency on Thursday,” Blashill said.

Isles rout Canucks 5-2

By DENIS P. GORMAN
Associated Press

NEW YORK (AP) — Coach Doug Weight knows his New York Islanders have shown they are a good team through the first part of the season.

He still sees room for improvement.

“We can get better,” Doug Weight said after the New York Islanders’ 5-2 win over the Vancouver Canucks on Tuesday night.

Calvin de Haan and Jordan Eberle scored goals one minute apart in the first period, Andrew Ladd, Anders Lee and John Tavares also scored goals for New York, and rookie center Mathew Barzal recorded the primary assist on Eberle’s goal.

Eberle now has goals in three straight games and recorded his 400th NHL point as New York improved to 15-7-2 overall and 8-0-2 at Barclays Center.

“It’s part of the learning curve in figuring out what we need to do, night in and night out to win hockey games or to give ourselves the best chance to win,” Ladd said. “We’ve done that the last little while.”

Jaroslav Halak made 22 saves for the Islanders.

Whereas the Islanders were brimming with confidence, the Canucks are looking for answers after dropping to 11-10-4 with its third straight loss, all to the three teams in the New York City area.

“It’s frustrating,” said Bo Horvat, who along with former Islander Thomas Vanek scored for the Canucks.

Anders Nilsson stopped 31 shots. “You’re not playing the way you have to be the last three games. It hurts in the standings. The division is so tight. And we need all the wins we can get.”

The game was the first NHL meeting for Barzal and Canucks rookie right winger Brock Boeser. Barzal entered the game with 23 points (six goals and 17 assists) in 23 games while Bowser had 22 points (11 goals and 11 assists) in 21 games. Barzal finished with an assist while Boeser did not record a point.

“I met him a couple years ago at the (draft) combine,” Barzal said of Boeser. “Really nice kid. Having a heck of a season so it was fun competing against him. He’s a heck of a player and hope he has a good season.”

For all intents and purposes, New York put the game away in the opening period as the Islanders went into the first intermission with a 3-1 lead, thanks to de Haan’s first of the year with 3:18 left in the period and Eberle’s 10th of the season exactly one minute later.

Instead of sitting on their two-goal lead, New York kept attacking in the second period, and it paid off when Lee scored his 13th of the season at 3:46. Vancouver cut the deficit in half on Horvat’s shorthanded goal at 6:33.

“It was 3-1 after the first and I didn’t think we played that bad. They second they dominated us,” Canucks defenseman Chris Tanev said. “We didn’t really push back.”

New York never trailed as Ladd opened the scoring with his 6th goal of the season on shorthanded breakaway at 5:16. Vanek tied the game with his sixth on the power play 58 seconds later with a tap-in.

Tavares’ goal 13:35 into the third ended the scoring.

New York outshot Vancouver, 36-24. The Canucks finished the game 1 for 2 on the power play, and killed all three Islanders power plays.

“They’re a good team. They create a lot with their speed and their skill and their defense being part of the attack,” Canucks coach Travis Green said of the Islanders, before assessing his team. “We had some guys who looked a little tired. We didn’t play quick enough. When you don’t play quick you don’t put yourself in positions to defend. You don’t take away time and space.

“We deserved to lose.”

NOTES: Daniel Sedin did not record a point and remains stuck on 998 for his career. His brother Henrik is the only player in Canucks history to record 1,000 points with the team. ... The game was the first against the Islanders for Travis Green as coach of the Canucks. Green, 46, played 388 games over six seasons for New York, recording 92 goals, 145 assists and 237 points. ... Anthony Beauvillier replaced Casey Cizikas as the center on New York’s fourth line. Cizikas suffered a lower body injury in the Islanders’ 2-1 win over the Senators Saturday night in Ottawa. The Islanders scratched defensemen Ryan Pulock and Dennis Seidenberg.

UP NEXT

Canucks: Conclude six game road trip Thursday night in Nashville.

Islanders: Host Ottawa Friday night.

Booed off the ice: Sharks send Flyers to 9th straight loss

By MIKE CRANSTON
Associated Press

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — The boos picked up steam in the second period. The “Fire Hakstol” chants became louder in the third.

When the Philadelphia Flyers’ ugly 3-1 loss to the San Jose Sharks was over Tuesday night, players held a closed-door meeting, general manager Ron Hextall was insisting they’re still a playoff team and coach Dave Hakstol was shaking off calls for his job.

Mired in a nine-game losing streak — its longest skid in nearly in 10 years — things are getting ugly in Philadelphia.

“Nobody said this was going to be easy,” Hakstol said. “If you don’t want to be in this spot, it’s a choice. That’s how I react to it. There are high expectations in this market.”

Joe Thornton scored the go-ahead goal late in the first period, Chris Tierney and Marc-Edouard Vlasic also scored and Logan Couture had two assists for the Sharks, who kicked off a four-game trip with their second straight win.

“The toughest game is always the first one,” Thornton said. “Three-hour time change, you get here late, dinner late, everything is kind of off. So this first game is huge for us.”

Claude Giroux scored 48 seconds in before the Flyers were blanked the rest of the way by backup Aaron Dell, who made 22 saves.

“They can chant whatever they want. We’re in this together,” Giroux said of his coach. “We’re all in the same boat here. It’s not on him, it’s on everybody.”

Thanks to blown leads and overtime and shootout defeats, Flyers are 0-4-5 since their last win, Nov. 9 against Chicago. It’s the longest streak since an 0-8-2 stretch in February 2008.

After a players-only meeting postgame, Hextall addressed reporters.

“If we were playing poorly, I’d be the first to say, ‘We’re playing poorly.’ I would be,” he said. “We’re not playing poorly. To look objectively at our team right now and to say we’re playing poorly, no. Are we shooting ourselves in the foot at times? Yes, we are. Critical mistakes at critical times, yes.”

San Jose was without top goaltender Martin Jones, who sustained an unspecified injury near the end of his shutout of Winnipeg on Saturday. Jones traveled and is expected to play on the trip.

After Giroux’s 11th goal, Dell looked sharp. Tierney tied it from the right circle at 10:29, and then Thornton’s 5-on-3 goal with 1:18 left in the first period put the Sharks ahead 2-1.

Vlasic scored with 3:56 left in the second period as the Sharks improved to 6-2-1 on the road.

“Our style is good for the road, but I think our style is good for wherever we are playing,” Vlasic said.

It marked the seventh time in nine games the Flyers have blown a lead during their skid. And undisciplined play continues to be a problem.

Philadelphia took three penalties in 3 minutes late in the first period. Then while trailing 2-1, the Flyers went on the power play early in the second period, only to have it negated 9 seconds later when Jakub Voracek tripped Tomas Hertl.

On the second day of a back-to-back, backup Michal Neuvirth made 31 saves for the Flyers, who showed little energy in the third period. They had just one shot on goal until Hakstol pulled Neuvirth for an extra attacker with about 3 minutes left.

“I don’t have answers for you,” Giroux said.

The Sharks earned a split in the season series after losing on opening night to the Flyers 5-3 behind Wayne Simmonds’ hat trick. Simmonds has scored just four goals in 24 games since.

“We get booed every once in a while,” said Simmons, who took two penalties. “But when we’re getting booed the whole game, it’s pretty embarrassing.”

NOTES: Sharks F Joonas Donskoi left in the second period with an injury. . Sharks C Melker Karlsson (upper body) returned after a four-game absence and played on the fourth line. . Flyers D Radko Gudas served the sixth game of his 10-game suspension for slashing.

UP NEXT

The Sharks play at Florida on Friday.

The Flyers host Boston on Saturday before a three-game trip to western Canada next week.

Malgin’s late goal lifts Panthers to 5-4 win over Rangers

By VIN A. CHERWOO
Associated Press

NEW YORK (AP) — Denis Malgin helped the Florida Panthers avoid a bad loss and get consecutive wins for just the third time this season.

Malgin scored with 1:09 left and the Florida Panthers recovered after giving up two three-goal leads to beat the New York Rangers 5-4 Tuesday night.

Malgin — called up on Monday and playing in his seventh game for Florida this season — beat Rangers goalie Ondrej Pavelec from the inside edge of the left circle for his first of the season.

“I think he went down and it was his fourth game in five days,” said the Panthers’ Jonathan Huberdeau, who had a goal and an assist. “Then he comes up and scores the winning goal. That’s pretty impressive.”

Aleksander Barkov, Jamie McGinn and Micheal Haley also scored — all in the first period when Florida built a 3-0 lead — to help the Panthers win for the third time in four games. James Reimer finished with 33 saves.

“We found a way against a team that probably dominated us for the most part,” Panthers coach Bob Boughner said. “It’s a nice feeling when you can find ways to win those games.”

Chris Kreider had two goals and an assist, Pavel Buchnevich added a goal and two assists, and J.T. Miller also scored for the Rangers, who snapped an eight-game winning streak at home and lost for just the third time in their last 13 games overall. David Desharnais had three assist to help New York tie it after trailing 3-0 and 4-1.

Rangers starter Henrik Lundqvist gave up three goals on six shots before he was pulled late in the first period. Pavelec came on and stopped 19 of the 21 shots he faced.

“I wasn’t able to come up with one extra save,” Pavelec said. “It’s disappointing because we battled back. ... We were all over them and we were working hard to get back.”

New York was playing without defenseman and captain Ryan McDonagh for the fourth straight game, and leading-scorer Mika Zibanejad was a late scratch due to an upper body injury.

With Florida leading 4-3, Reimer denied a backhand attempt by Jimmy Vesey about 5 1/2 minutes into the third and Boo Nieves couldn’t convert on a pass in front. Rick Nash then hit a post about 9 minutes in.

“Obviously, that’s a really good team over there and they come in waves,” Reimer said. “It was just a great character win from our guys tonight.”

Kreider then tied it with his second goal of the game and 10th of the season with 6:32 remaining as he got a pass from Desharnais from the right side of the net and poked it past Reimer.

Miller pulled the Rangers to 3-1 at 4:04 of the second. Mats Zuccarello’s initial shot from the left side deflected off a Panthers defenseman’s stick and Miller fired it past Reimer for his fourth.

Huberdeau restored the Panthers’ three-goal lead about 4 1/2 minutes later as he beat Pavelec after a scramble in front.

The Rangers then scored twice in a 1:50 span to pull within one. First, Kreider came from behind the net on the right side and passed it in front to Buchnevich, who tapped it past Reimer from the left side for his ninth at 9:26. Buchnevich then sent a pass from the right side to a streaking Kreider in front and he beat Reimer for his ninth with 8:44 remaining in the middle period.

Kevin Hayes appeared to tie it with 4:11 to go in the second, but the officials waved off the goal for goaltender interference due to incidental contact by Nash on Reimer. Rangers coach Alain Vigneault challenged the interference call, but it stood after a video review.

“I think that we might have gotten a little bit of a break there,” Boughner said. “There was initial contact before the incidental contact, and I think that’s what they were concentrating on more than anything.”

Barkov got Florida on the scoreboard on a deflection of a shot by Huberdeau during a power play 5:50 into the game. It was his eighth and came on the Panthers’ first shot on goal.

McGinn doubled Florida’s lead at 9:34, firing a shot from outside the left circle past Lundqvist.

Haley made it 3-0 with 3:13 left from the left circle for his first of the season. Lundqvist, who started for the 13th straight game, was then pulled in favor of Pavelec.

NOTES: Kreider now has 99 goals and 99 assists in his career. ... New York won the first meeting, 5-4 in OT at Florida on Nov. 4. The teams will conclude the season series March 10 at Florida. ... Panthers D Keith Yandle played in his 658th consecutive game, moving 21 behind Vancouver’s Henrik Sedin for seventh place in NHL history. Yandle had two assists against his former team, giving him two goals and six assists in 13 games this month. ... After appearing in nine of the Panthers’ first 12 games, Reimer was playing for just the third time in 12 game since Nov. 2.

UP NEXT

Panthers: Host San Jose on Friday night to open a stretch of four of five at home.

Rangers: Host Carolina on Friday night to close a four-game homestand.

Vasilevskiy gets shutout as Lightning snap two-game skid

By JONAH BRONSTEIN
Associated Press

BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP) — The NHL’s highest-scoring team leaned on its defense to snap a two-game losing streak.

Andrei Vasilevskiy made 34 saves in his second shutout of the season, and the Tampa Bay Lightning got goals from defensemen Mikhail Sergachev and Dan Girardi in a 2-0 victory over the Buffalo Sabres on Tuesday night.

“When you’re on a little bit of a slide, we’re just trying to get back to basics,” Lightning forward Tyler Johnson said. “Keep it simple, get pucks to the net and get some of those dirty goals.”

Tampa Bay is off to the best start in franchise history (17-5-2) but had lost consecutive games for the first time this season.

Vasilevskiy leads the NHL with 16 wins and has six career shutouts in 101 starts.

“He’s one of, if not the best goalie in the world right now,” Johnson said.

Robin Lehner stopped 24 shots for the Sabres, who were held scoreless for the second straight game and have lost nine of 10.

“It wasn’t a bad performance but not good enough,” Lehner said. “Good enough is not enough right now. We need to claw back. We need to do something special.”

The Sabres pulled Lehner to gain an extra attacker for the final 4:09 of the game.

“We have to have some attitude when we start the game,” Sabres coach Phil Housley said. “This is our home rink. We’ve got to get out and establish a forecheck, show more emotion on the ice.”

Lightning captain Steven Stamkos, the NHL’s leading scorer, went without a goal for the fifth straight game and has added just one point to his league-high tally during that stretch. Linemate Nikita Kucherov had an assist for his second point in five games and is now one point behind Stamkos for the NHL lead with 35.

“They’ve produced at such a high rate, there are going to be games or little spurts where you’re not going to get a point,” Lightning coach Jon Cooper said. “The big thing is we won the game and they didn’t score.”

Sergachev scored his sixth goal of the season on a power play to give the Lightning a 1-0 lead late in the first period. The rookie’s wrist shot from the right circle deflected in off the stick of Buffalo’s Johan Larsson.

Tampa Bay has scored a power-play goal in nine of its last 10 games and leads the NHL in conversion rate.

Girardi, the longtime New York Rangers defenseman, got his first goal with the Lightning midway through the second period. His slap shot from the top of the right circle bounced in off Buffalo’s Marco Scandella.

“That’s in our game plan. You have to get your ‘D’ involved,” Cooper said. “But I liked that Stammer was at the net and that’s what you have to do. You have to take away the goalie’s eyes.”

NOTES: Sabres D Rasmus Ristolainen went to the locker room late in the second period after being shoved into the net by Tampa Bay’s Braydon Coburn but was able to return. “He got a little stinger there but was fine coming back,” Housley said. Ristolainen was playing in his third game after missing nine with an upper-body injury. ... Lightning F J.T. Brown missed his third straight game with an undisclosed injury. ... The Sabres have not gotten a goal from a defenseman all season. ... The Lightning have beaten the Sabres in five straight meetings and are 8-0-1 in their last nine trips to Buffalo. ... The Sabres went scoreless on three power-play chances and are now 0 for 18 over the past seven games.

UP NEXT

Lightning: At Boston on Wednesday night.

Sabres: Host Pittsburgh on Friday night.

Blue Jackets score twice in shootout to top Hurricanes 3-2

By ROBERT DENHARD
Associated Press

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Joonas Korpisalo doesn’t get many starts as the backup to the league’s top goalie, Sergei Bobrovsky. On the ice for the Blue Jackets for the first time in three weeks, he made it count.

Korpisalo made 29 saves in regulation and overtime, and Cam Atkinson and Artemi Panarin scored in the shootout to give Columbus a 3-2 win over the Carolina Hurricanes on Tuesday night.

Korpisalo maintained solid positioning as Carolina misfired on its two shootout attempts.

“I thought it was going to be fun. I like shootouts,” said Korpisalo, who made his fifth start. “The boys scored both goals and the easy part was left for me.”

Bobrovsky, a two-time Vezina trophy winner, leads the league this season in save percentage and goals-against average. Korpisalo has twice been sent to Columbus’ AHL affiliate to see game action.

“I liked our game. I thought everybody contributed, and I’m thrilled for Korpy,” Blue Jackets coach John Tortorella said. “For him to get a win — I guess as your second goalie — and where he’s going back and forth to Cleveland to stay sharp, I’m thrilled for him. I think the organization handled it so well.”

Zach Werenski had a goal and an assist, and Josh Anderson also scored for the Blue Jackets, who won their first game after their season-best six-game winning streak ended. Columbus has won five in a row at home.

Noah Hanifan scored in the first period for Carolina, and Brock McGinn tied it midway through the third. Scott Darling had 36 saves for the Hurricanes, who had gone 6-3-1 in their past 10 games.

Columbus outshot Carolina 5-2 in overtime.

“The third period was our best period,” Hurricanes coach Bill Peters said. “It was a battle all night. We didn’t execute very well, but then the best part of our execution and the best part of our game was the third.”

Down a goal and starting to find more open ice in the third period, McGinn sent a shot from the slot past Korpisalo for his sixth goal this season.

Anderson put Columbus on the board early in the opening period with his team-leading ninth goal, converting a 2-on-1 one-handed feed from Pierre-Luc Dubois.

The Hurricanes took advantage of an odd-man break of their own when Columbus defenseman Scott Harrington got caught up the ice. Hanifan finished it off with his fourth at 7:41.

Columbus struck quickly again in the second period to pull ahead 2-1 when Werenski placed a wrist shot from the right circle over Darling’s glove. Alexander Wennberg, out the last six games with an injury, pulled up inside the blue line and sent a cross-ice pass to set up Werenski.

“Great goaltending, that’s the key right there,” Wennberg said. “When it comes down to getting the extra point, they’re huge. Every game makes a difference.”

NOTES: Tortorella became the third coach to win 100 games for Columbus. ... Carolina kicked off a stretch of playing 10 of 12 games on the road. ...The Blue Jackets are 8-0-1 in games beyond regulation.

UP NEXT

Columbus: The Blue Jackets host Anaheim on Friday.

Carolina: The Hurricanes visit the Rangers on Friday.

Rinne makes 37 saves, Predators beat Blackhawks 3-2

By JIM DIAMOND
Associated Press
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Filip Forsberg has scored on many different goalies, but Tuesday night was the first time he collected a goal against one with the same name on the back of his jersey.

Forsberg opened Nashville’s scoring against Chicago goaltender Anton Forsberg, Pekka Rinne made 37 saves, and the Predators beat the Chicago Blackhawks 3-2.

“Yeah, it was,” Filip Forsberg said with a laugh when asked if that was his first goal against another Forsberg. The two Swedish players are not related.

Auston Watson and Roman Josi also scored goals for the Predators, who have won 10 of 12.

“It’s a division game, and we’ve kind of created a little bit of a rivalry for sure over the years,” Rinne said. “It means a lot not only in this locker room but in the standings too. It’s a huge win.”

Tommy Wingels and Lance Bouma had the goals for Chicago, which had its two-game winning streak snapped.

Chicago made its first appearance in Nashville since the Predators swept them in last spring’s opening round of the playoffs.

With Nashville clinging to a one-goal lead late in the third, Rinne made his best save of the night when he denied Nick Schmaltz’s backhand from just outside the crease on a shorthanded breakaway. He later denied WIngels with the left pad in the game’s final minute.

Watson also blocked three shots off the stick of former Predator Cody Franson in the game’s final six seconds.

“That was awesome,” Nashville coach Peter Laviolette said. “He’s a guy that the puck always seems to find him. ... There’s an art to that, and it was on full display at the end of the game.”

Filip Forsberg scored at 3:16 of the first when Anton Forsberg stopped his initial attempt from the high slot, and the rebound deflected off the right skate of Arvidsson, who was stationed just outside the Chicago crease. The puck drifted to the right, where Nashville’s top goal scorer tapped in his 12th of the season.

“I shot it and it hit him in the stomach, I think, and obviously he tried to spin and it hit his skate and went right to me,” Fillip Forsberg said. “It was fortunate, but at the same time, we were both in the good area where pucks might find us.”

Chicago tied it nearly two minutes later when Alex DeBrincat sent a pass to Wingels skating through the slot, where he redirected the puck over the glove of a diving Rinne.

“For the most part, we played a pretty good road game. That being said, the only thing that matters is the two points,” Wingels said. “While we are happy with some aspects, the biggest thing is we didn’t come away with two points.”

Anton Forsberg made 28 saves.

Watson made it 2-1 at 3:48 of the second when Matt Irwin’s shot from the left point was off the mark but deflected off Watson’s body and into the Chicago net. Officials upheld the goal after a challenge by the Blackhawks, who thought Watson had interfered with Anton Forsberg.

“It’s close. I looked at it,” Chicago coach Joel Quenneville said. “It could have gone either way, but it was one of those decisions that it could have gone our way too.”

Josi scored a power-play goal at 2:32 of the third with a slap shot from above the left faceoff circle.

Nashville entered Tuesday with the league’s best home power play conversion rate at 41.5%. The Predators were 1-4 in the game with the man advantage.

Bouma cut the lead to 3-2 midway through the third from the lower part of the right faceoff circle.

NOTES: Nashville has scored at least one power-play goal in each of its 11 home games. ... The Predators are 9-1-1 at home. ... Blackhawks RW Patrick Kane failed to record a point in the game, ending his point-scoring streak at seven games. ... Chicago is 2-5-0 against fellow Central Division teams. ... Tennessee Titans tight end Delanie Walker attended the game.

UP NEXT:

Blackhawks: Host Dallas on Thursday.

Predators: Host Vancouver on Thursday.

Nugent-Hopkins stars in OT as Oilers edge Coyotes 3-2

Associated Press

EDMONTON, Alberta (AP) — Not a lot has gone right for the Edmonton Oilers this season, but they caught a couple of breaks on Tuesday night.

Ryan Nugent-Hopkins scored 4:20 into overtime as the Oilers defeated the Arizona Coyotes 3-2 for their second win in a row. The Coyotes had the best chances in overtime, ringing two shots off the crossbar, but a late turnover led to Nugent-Hopkins getting a breakaway and scoring his ninth goal of the season.

“I had to come up with a couple of big saves there and got lucky a couple of times off the post, but those are the bounces that haven’t been going our way so it’s nice to get a couple of those,” said Oilers goalie Cam Talbot, who made 29 saves, four in overtime. “I think we definitely have to build off it, but we can’t get too complacent.

“After we string a win or two together we seem to come out in the next game a little flat. We have to build off this and come out strong next game and build off that momentum moving forward.”

Zack Kassian and Matt Benning also scored for the Oilers, who have only won two straight games on one other occasion all season.

“It’s nice for our confidence right now,” Nugent-Hopkins said. “In each of our last two games we came back from being down a goal. We are showing a lot more fight, a lot more resilience right now. It should go a long way for our team.”

Christian Fischer and Oliver Ekman-Larsson scored for the Coyotes, who have lost three of their last four games.

“Their three goals were just breakdowns,” Fischer said. “I think for the most part we probably out-chanced them and limited their top guys. But three-on-three is anybody’s game and it all it takes is one bad bounce or a missed shot wide. We got a point and we move on and go to Calgary.”

Fischer showed a great second effort to lift his own rebound over outstretched Oilers goalie Cam Talbot during a scramble in front to give Arizona an early lead. It was the 17th time in 25 games this season that Edmonton has trailed 1-0.

Kassian finally converted on one of many breakaways this season, beating Coyotes goalie Scott Wedgewood for his first goal of the campaign to tie the game 1-1 with 3:30 left in the first.

Arizona regained the lead with 49 seconds left in the second period as Ekman-Larsson’s power-play point blast beat Talbot.

Benning’s shot hit a defender in front and deflected into the Arizona net to send the game to extra time with 5:35 left in the third period.

The Coyotes had the best chances in overtime, ringing two shots off the crossbar, but a late turnover led to Nugent-Hopkins getting a breakaway and scoring his ninth goal of the season.

Notes: It was the first of four meetings between the teams this season, with the next coming on Jan. 12 in Arizona. . With four wins in their six games before facing Edmonton, the Coyotes had won more in that stretch than in their first 20 games. They had also won three straight on the road. . Although it was just the 10th NHL game of his career, it was the second time Arizona’s Dylan Strome had played in a game against older brother Ryan, a forward with the Oilers. . Coyotes defenseman Niklas Hjalmarsson suffered an upper-body injury and did not return.

UP NEXT:

Coyotes: are at Calgary on Thursday.

Oilers: host Toronto on Thursday.

Faksa’s first career hat trick leads Stars to 3-0 win

By W.G. RAMIREZ
Associated Press
LAS VEGAS (AP) — The Vegas Golden Knights were looking to make more history Tuesday night.

Instead, it was Dallas Stars center Radek Faksa hitting the jackpot in Sin City.

Faksa scored three goals and Ben Bishop registered his second shutout of the season, as the Stars defeated the Golden Knights 3-0.

“Those were huge goals for us,” said Faksa, who scored all of his goals in the second period. “For sure I’m happy with the goals. The most important thing, though, is the team win.”

The Knights, who had won eight straight on their home ice, tying the mark set by the Toronto Arenas in 1917-18, were looking to set the record for most consecutive home wins by a team in its inaugural season.

Vegas came into the game ranked second in the NHL in goals per game with 3.68 and fifth in goals with 81, but Bishop was stellar all night, stopping 34 shots for the Stars. He recorded his first shutout as a member of the Stars on Nov. 10 against the New York Islanders.

“It’s one of our better games on the road,” said Bishop, who was traded from the Los Angeles Kings in May. “You want to be better on the road. The first period was important, trying to keep the team in there, and the second period we wanted to take over. It’s a big win with two important games on the road. We’ll enjoy this tonight and get ready for Chicago.”

The Stars snapped a four-game road losing streak, as the night belonged to both Bishop and Faksa, who hadn’t scored more than a goal in a game this season.

With both teams down a man in the second period, Faksa took a pass from Dan Hamhuis and beat Vegas goalie Malcolm Subban with a one-timer, to give the Stars a 1-0 lead.

Faksa notched his second goal of the night when he took advantage of traffic in front of the net to sneak one past Subban’s left skate, and off the inside of the post.

Seconds later, the Stars caught the Knights sleeping at the blue line, and using a 3-on-1 break, Faksa punched one past Subban for his first career hat trick.

Subban stopped 27 shots.

“We challenged (Faksa’s) line two days ago to play against heavier groups,” Stars coach Ken Hitchcock said. “Rather than match their line with our line, we wanted to push them up and play with top players. They took the challenge head-on. We’ve asked them to take on added responsibility. I think they’ve earned it. I think we can do what we did tonight, and that’s wear teams down.”

Vegas missed first-line forward David Perron, who was listed as a scratch. Perron is tied for third on the Knights with 19 points.

“He’s an important player for us, there’s no doubt,” Vegas coach Gerard Gallant said. “He makes our team go some nights, and he’s one of our top six forwards, so when you miss a guy like that it’s going to hurt you. Definitely tonight we missed David Perron. I think their D did a real good job tonight, boxing us out, keeping us away from the front of the net. We had some scoring chances, but not a whole lot of great ones. We probably had six or seven minutes where we made some mistakes and it cost us.”

With the loss, and the Kings’ 4-1 win over the Detroit Red Wings, Vegas and Los Angeles are tied atop the Pacific Division with 31 points.

NOTES

The Stars have designated their current two-game tour a dad’s trip, as 15 players have their fathers with them. ... Vegas C Cody Eakin was selected in Expansion Draft from the Stars. ... Knights C William Karlsson had his career-high five-game goal streak snapped. ... Vegas was shutout for the first time in franchise history.

UP NEXT

Dallas: gets one day off before playing in Chicago on Thursday

Vegas: travels to play Minnesota on Thursday

NHL fines Blackhawks' Kane, Wild's Dumba $5K each for separate incidrnts

The NHL handed out fines Tuesday to Chicago Blackhawks winger Patrick Kane and Minnesota Wild defenseman Matt Dumba for seperate incidents. Both players were docked $5,000, the maximum allowable fine under the CBA. The money from both fines goes to the Players' Emergency Assistance Fund.

Kane's fine was for a slash on Anaheim Ducks winger Nick Ritchie during the Blackhawks' 7-3 win over Anaheim Monday. Kane was assessed a minor penalty for slashing.

Dumba was fined for unsportsmanlike conduct after squirting a water bottle at Winnipeg Jets' forward Matt Hendricks. Dumba was assessed a minor penalty for unsportsmanlike conduct.

Pens recall goaltender DeSmith from AHL, could be due to Murray's injury

The Pittsburgh Penguins have recalled goaltender Casey DeSmith from the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins of the American Hockey League, it was announced today by executive vice president and general manager Jim Rutherford.

This obviously means that Pens starting goalteder Matt Murray may miss some time between the pipes. Murray was hurt in Pittsburgh's game last night against the Philadelphia Flyers.

Murray exited with 4:21 left in the second period after Philadelphia’s Jakub Voracek crashed into him during a breakaway. The 23-year-old two-time Cup winner managed to skate off under his own power before limping down the runway clearly favoring his right leg. Murray will be re-evaluated on Tuesday.

Since returning to WBS earlier this month, the 6-foot-1, 181-pound DeSmith had assumed the top goaltending chores, compiling a 9-2-1 record, 2.29 goals-against average and a .924 save percentage in 12 AHL appearances. He helped backstop the WBS Penguins to the top record in the AHL at the time of his recall.

DeSmith, 26, logged his first NHL action with the Penguins earlier this season. He made his NHL debut on October 29 in Winnipeg against the Jets.

- Joey Gucciardo

McCann gets winner, Luongo ties record, Panthers 3, Devils 2

By MIKE FARRELL
Associated Press

NEWARK, N.J. (AP) — Roberto Luongo joined an exclusive club, becoming only the second goalie to win 200 games with two different teams

He made 23 saves Monday night as Florida beat the New Jersey Devils 3-2 for Luongo’s 200th victory as a Panther.

He also won 252 with Vancouver. The other netminder to accomplish the feat was Hall of Famer Patrick Roy with 289 wins for Montreal and 262 for Colorado.

Luongo downplayed the feat.

“That’s stuff that I’ll look at when it’s all said and done,” Luongo said. “Right now, when you’re in the moment, you don’t want to think too much about those things. Other than you guys reminding me on a daily basis, I don’t really think about it.”

His goal is helping the struggling Panthers gain traction in the standings to make a postseason push.

“Obviously if you’re playing well, you’re going to give your team a chance to win, and those wins and those milestones will come,” Luongo said. “It’s always nice when you reach a certain milestone but the focus is on primarily on winning games and trying to get into the playoffs.”

The Panthers took one small step in that direction as Jared McCann scored the go-ahead goal in a see-saw third period.

Aleksander Barkov and Vincent Trocheck also scored as the struggling Panthers cooled off the streaking Devils who were on a 5-1-2 run coming in. The win was the second in the last five games for Florida.

Rookies Nico Hischier and Jesper Bratt scored for New Jersey and Corey Schneider made 35 saves.

Barkov snapped a scoreless deadlock on the Panthers 30th shot with 2:40 remaining in the second period.

Florida had dominated play and was finally rewarded with Barkov’s shorthanded tally.

He broke into the Devils zone on a 2-on-1 break with Colton Sceviour and opted to keep the puck, beating Schneider just inside the left post.

It was the second straight period in which the Panthers were clearly the better team. The outshot the Devils 31-10 after 40 minutes and clung to a 1-0 advantage.

Things opened up in the third.

Hischier pulled New Jersey even at 2:20. Trocheck got his team-leading 10th at 4:07 on a shot that nicked the post to put Florida back in front at 2-1.

Bratt threw the puck at the crease from a bad angle and wound up with the Devils second goal as it bounced in off the skate of Panthers defenseman Aaron Ekblad at 8:19.

McCann gave the Panthers their third lead of the game, putting in his own rebound at 12:45.

“I haven’t seen the replay but it might have glanced off me and gone in,” Schneider said. “It’s just a bad bounce. We got one for us in the third and they got one. Sometimes you just have to find a way to make saves off bad bounces.”

After not seeing much action through two periods, Luongo made 13 saves in the third to secure the win, and his place in the record book.

“He’s obviously world class goaltender and a future Hall of Famer and everything he does back there kind of makes us a better team,” Trocheck said. “He’s our backbone and whenever he plays like he did tonight in net, it gets us to give it that extra push to have his back.”

The Panthers also dominated the opening period yet came away empty handed. Florida outshot New Jersey 16-3 during the scoreless frame as Schneider was under constant pressure.

Luongo saw little action in his end with New Jersey defenseman John Moore providing two of his club’s few chances. Moore hit the post with a drive from the left post and almost broke the deadlock in the closing seconds only to have Luongo snare his wrister with a sharp glove save.

The three shots tied New Jersey’s season low for a period.

NOTES: The Panthers recalled C Denis Malgin from Springfield of the AHL on Monday. ... Panthers RW Evgenii Dadonov could miss several weeks with an upper-body injury suffered in the third period Saturday in Florida’s 4-1 loss to Chicago. ... Devils LW Marcus Johansson missed a 13th straight game with a concussion. He has resumed practicing and could return during New Jersey’s upcoming three-game road trip.

UP NEXT:

Panthers: At New York Rangers on Tuesday.

Devils: At Colorado on Friday.

Crosby's OT winner lifts Penguins past Flyers; Murray hurt

By WILL GRAVES
Associated Press

PITTSBURGH (AP) — Their young franchise goaltender was in the trainer’s room dealing with a lower-body injury and their struggling cross-state rivals were up two goals. That’s when the Pittsburgh Penguins’ erratic start briefly came into sharp focus during the second intermission on Monday night.

The two-time defending Stanley Cup champions responded with perhaps their best 22 minutes of hockey since raising the Cup in June.

Patric Hornqvist and Bryan Rust scored 39 seconds apart early in the third to tie it, Jake Guentzel’s second of the night evened it again with 64 seconds left in regulation and Sidney Crosby’s deflection 1:48 into overtime lifted the Penguins to an improbable 5-4 victory over reeling Philadelphia.

“In a lot of ways it was a microcosm of our season,” Penguins coach Mike Sullivan said.

Meaning an inconsistent mix of dazzling offense, inexplicable breakdowns on the other end with an injury thrown in for good measure. Matt Murray exited with 4:21 left in the second period after Philadelphia’s Jakub Voracek crashed into him during a breakaway. The 23-year-old two-time Cup winner managed to skate off under his own power before limping down the runway clearly favoring his right leg.

Murray will be re-evaluated on Tuesday. Rookie Tristan Jarry picked up the second win of his career by stopping 8 of 10 shots, spending most of his 25:24 of ice time watching his teammates pound away at Philadelphia’s Brian Elliott.

The Penguins finished with 52 shots in all, the last coming when Crosby deftly redirected Kris Letang’s shot from the point over Elliott and into the net for the 11th overtime winner of his career, tied with Mario Lemieux and Evgeni Malkin for most in franchise history.

“I had a thought that (Letang) might come to me,” Crosby said. “But ultimately it’s up to the guy with the puck to see what’s there. He made a great read and I was happy to see that go in.”

Guentzel and Crosby both finished with three points, and the Penguins have won two straight following a three-game losing streak. Just as important as the victory may have been the way Pittsburgh went about it. After letting the Flyers score three times in the second to go up 3-1, Pittsburgh dominated.

“We came out hard in the third,” Crosby said. “I think we were all pretty disappointed with our second, allowing them to get back in the game and carry the play the whole period. Came out hard, got a big goal early to get us going and then just kind of fed off of that.”

Sean Couturier collected his team-high 14th goal for the Flyers. Shayne Gostisbehere and Travis Konecny each scored their third of the season, but Philadelphia let a two-goal lead going into the third period evaporate for the second time in four days. Michael Raffl’s pretty deke around Jarry put the Flyers up 4-3 with 3:41 left in regulation but it wasn’t enough. Elliot made 47 saves but could do little to stop Crosby’s 10th goal of the season and fourth in his last four games.

Philadelphia is winless in its last eight games (0-4-4), the team’s longest slide since an 0-8-2 stretch in February, 2008.

“We’ve got to finish one of these,” Philadelphia coach Dave Hakstol said. “There’s really not much more to be said other than that. We’ve got to finish one of these. We’re in position night after night and we were in position again tonight.”

The Penguins are in the midst of a stretch in which they play seven of eight at home, a time they hope they can use to make up ground in the Metropolitan Division. Jarry could get a heavier workload than expected if Murray is out an extended period.

“It’s always tough to see a guy go down, but you have to stay focused,” Letang said. “(Regardless of) whoever is in the net, you have to play the right way and play your game.”

NOTES: Penguins C Evgeni Malkin missed his fourth straight game with an upper body injury. ... Pittsburgh D Ian Cole was a healthy scratch for a third consecutive game. ... Crosby has four goals and five assists in his last four games. ... Guentzel has eight goals in his last 11 games. ... The Flyers scratched D Radko Gudas and Fs Taylor Leier and Jordan Weal. ... The Penguins went 1 for 5 on the power play. The Flyers were 1 for 4.

UP NEXT

Flyers: Host San Jose on Tuesday night. Philadelphia beat the Sharks 5-3 in the season opener on Oct. 4.

Penguins: Start a home-and-home series with the Sabres on Friday night in Buffalo. Pittsburgh won the first meeting between the two teams 5-4 in a shootout on Nov. 14.

DeBrincat helps Blackhawks pound Ducks 7-3

By JAY COHEN
Associated Press

CHICAGO (AP) — Alex DeBrincat has terrific hands, good speed and the instincts of an elite scorer.

Even at 5-foot-7, he looks right at home in the NHL.

DeBrincat had three goals and an assist, Patrick Sharp stopped a 16-game scoring drought and the surging Chicago Blackhawks beat the Anaheim Ducks 7-3 on Monday night.

“Pucks were bouncing my way today,” DeBrincat said. “It’s cool to get that over with.”

DeBrincat, who turns 20 on Dec. 18, became the second-youngest player in franchise history to record a hat trick, trailing Jeremy Roenick by four days. He has nine goals and three assists in 11 November games.

“He’s a great player,” Sharp said. “You could tell that in training camp whenever he got the puck. He just has poise with it. He’s looking to make a play. I said earlier he’s playing like he’s in junior hockey still, and that’s a compliment. He’s looking to make those plays. He’s not intimidated with the speed or the pace of the game. You can see the results.”

Nick Schmaltz had a goal and two assists and Artem Anisimov scored his team-high 11th goal as Chicago won for the fourth time in five games. Brandon Saad also scored and Patrick Kane collected three assists, extending his season-high point streak to seven games.

The banged-up Ducks dropped their fourth consecutive game. Ryan Kesler, Ryan Getzlaf and Patrick Eaves remain out with long-term injuries, Rickard Rakell missed his second straight game with an upper-body injury and defenseman Brandon Montour left midway through the third, favoring his right side as he skated off the ice.

Chris Wagner had two goals for Anaheim, and Jakob Silfverberg had a goal and an assist. John Gibson made 18 saves on 22 shots before he was replaced by Ryan Miller in the second period.

“To tell the truth, I thought it was a mercy pull,” Ducks coach Randy Carlyle said. “I told him, we’re not going to leave any goaltender in that situation where we’re going to leave you hanging high and dry like that. We didn’t think that we were playing very well in front of him and I felt that they both should share in the responsibility of the hockey.”

Chicago grabbed control with three in the first period. Sharp beat Gibson on a one-timer at 8:57 for his first goal since Oct. 14. DeBrincat then scored his eighth of the season off a slick pass from Schmaltz, and Saad made it 3-0 when he stole the puck from Derek Grant and banked one in off the left post with 1:49 left in the period.

The Blackhawks were only getting started.

“We played pretty well last game and we think it’s going to be easy,” Wagner said. “I don’t know why we wouldn’t be mentally ready. There’s no rhyme or reason. It’s not going to get any easier. We might as well start competing now in the right way.”

Silfverberg got one back when his centering pass went off the stick of Chicago defenseman Brent Seabrook and in 6:14 into the second. But DeBrincat responded with a rebound goal and then scored again off a pass from Kane, making it 6-2 at 14:14.

Schmaltz added his fourth of the season at 5:48 of the third, tapping in a beautiful pass from Kane.

“It’s fun when we’re playing like that,” Schmaltz said. “Everybody’s having fun and making plays. When you hold on to the puck, it’s a lot of fun.”

Ryan Hartman added two assists for Chicago, and Corey Crawford finished with 25 saves.

NOTES: Carlyle thought Montour would be OK. “He was taking his skates off when I walked in and he was functioning well, so I don’t think there’s anything too major,” he said. ... The Ducks also played without Fs Jared Boll (lower body) and Ondrej Kase (upper body). ... The Blackhawks scratched D Michal Kempny, C Tanner Kero and D Jordan Oesterle. ... Chicago G Anton Forsberg, who likely will start Tuesday against Nashville, celebrated his 25th birthday.

UP NEXT

Ducks: Visit St. Louis on Wednesday night.

Blackhawks: Visit Nashville on Tuesday night.

Price makes 37 saves, Canadiens end Jackets' streak at 6

Associated Press

MONTREAL (AP) — With Carey Price in net, Brendan Gallagher figures other teams must find a two-goal cushion insurmountable.

Price made 37 saves, Gallagher got his 10th goal and the Montreal Canadiens ended the Columbus Blue Jackets’ six-game winning streak with a 3-1 victory Monday night.

“When you’re able to get a two-goal lead, it’s tough to score on Price,” Gallagher said. “The other team has to score three on him, and that’s tough to do on any given night.”

Jonathan Drouin scored in the first period and Andrew Shaw had an empty-net goal for Montreal in Price’s second straight victory since returning from injury.

Rookie Pierre-Luc Dubois scored for the Blue Jackets, who lost for the first time since Nov. 10. Sergei Bobrovsky had allowed just six goals on Columbus’ winning streak but gave up two on 27 shots.

It was the second regulation loss for the Blue Jackets in 10 games against Atlantic Division opponents this season.

Coming off a 3-0 win against Buffalo on Saturday, the Canadiens picked up where they left off.

Montreal scored on its first two shots against Bobrovsky, the league leader in save percentage and goals-against average.

Gallagher capitalized on a giveaway by Cam Atkinson for the first at 3:11 with a sharp-angle shot, his 200th career point. Gallagher had 10 goals in 64 games last season.

Drouin doubled Montreal’s lead with a power-play goal at 8:10. Using Shaw as a screen, Drouin roofed the puck with a slap shot from the faceoff dot for his first goal since Nov. 5, ending an eight-game goalless drought.

Shaw added the empty-netter with 1:24 remaining in the game.

Price followed up his shutout performance against the Sabres with some jaw-dropping stops to deny the Blue Jackets. He sprawled for two quick pad saves on captain Nick Foligno five minutes into the game, the first coming when Price had his back to the puck. Midway through the second period, the Canadiens goalie denied Boone Jenner twice in quick succession from the crease.

“He was unbelievable,” Shaw said. “He battled for us, competed for us and made some big saves. It’s great to have him back.

Columbus outshot Montreal 18-7 in the second period, and Dubois scored at 16:08. He crashed the net and poked a loose puck past Price. Montreal coach Claude Julien challenged the play for goaltender interference, but the goal stood.

“They got two goals in the first and that really got us,” Dubois said. “We fought back, but it was too little too late. The first period really hurt us. Our compete level wasn’t high enough. Bob (Bobrovsky) kept us in the game but we couldn’t get more goals.”

NOTES: Canadiens D Shea Weber missed his fourth consecutive game with a lower-body injury. ... Columbus beat Montreal 2-1 in overtime earlier this month (Nov. 14).

UP NEXT

Blue Jackets: Host Carolina on Tuesday night.

Canadiens: Host Ottawa on Wednesday night.

Jets score 7 straight in 7-2 win over Wild

Associated Press

WINNIPEG, Manitoba (AP) — The Winnipeg Jets are off to their best start ever thanks to a wild finish Monday night.

Linemates Blake Wheeler, Mark Scheifele and Kyle Connor each had a goal and two assists, and the Jets scored seven straight goals to beat the Minnesota Wild 7-2.

Joel Armia, Jacob Trouba, Mathieu Perreault and Bryan Little also scored for the Jets. Armia added an assist.

Connor Hellebuyck made 17 saves for the Winnipeg, which has won four straight and seven of eight at home.

“Down two early, we never thought we were out of this game,” Perreault said. “And we battled back.”

Jason Zucker and Chris Stewart scored for Minnesota. The Wild left Alex Stalock in the entire game, and he stopped 21 shots.

“From about the 13-minute mark of the first period, we just quit playing,” Wild coach Bruce Boudreau said. “It’s easy to say we’re going to watch the video, but it’s a compete level.

“Once the Jets started to play a little bit better it was like ‘woe is me’ and we didn’t compete against them.”

The Jets have won 15 of 24 games this season, the quickest to 15 wins in franchise history.

Minnesota jumped to a 2-0 lead in the first period, but then Winnipeg’s barrage began with two goals in the final six minutes of the opening frame.

Zucker extended his points streak to four games after the Wild took advantage of a turnover just outside Minnesota’s blue line by defenseman Dustin Byfuglien. Three Wild players reversed direction, and Zucker’s backhand beat Hellebuyck at 8:01, giving him two goals and two assists during his streak.

Minnesota had a goal by Zack Mitchell overturned by a coach’s challenge after Charlie Coyle was deemed offside. The Wild scored one that stood just over a minute later when Stewart made it 2-0 at 13:54.

A rebound from Josh Morrissey’s shot from the point ended up on Armia’s stick to get Winnipeg on the board at 15:47. Scheifele made it 2-2 on the power play at 17:15 when he took a cross-ice pass from Wheeler, who was playing his 500th game for the Jets/Atlanta Thrashers franchise.

“It goes fast,” Wheeler said of the 500 games. “It’s crazy. It feels like yesterday we were still in the first season here. That being said, we’ve spit out three kids in those 500 games here.”

Wheeler was traded to Atlanta from Boston in February 2011 and played 23 games with the new club. The Thrashers were then bought and moved to Winnipeg for the 2011-12 season. He’s played 721 NHL career games.

After coming up empty on a pair of power plays early in the second, Winnipeg took the lead when Scheifele fed a quick pass to a rushing Trouba, who beat Stalock as he was trying to move across the crease at 10:57. Perreault scored with a one-timer at 14:19.

NOTES: The Jets had outshot the visitors 17-11 heading into the third. Connor, Little and Wheeler scored in the final period.

UP NEXT

Wild: Host Vegas on Thursday night.

Jets: Play at Colorado on Wednesday night.

Jimmy Vesey lifts Rangers past Canucks in SO, 4-3

By SCOTT CHARLES
Associated Press

NEW YORK (AP) — The Rangers didn’t lead at any point until the seventh round of the shootout. The still managed to earn their fourth straight victory.

Jimmy Vesey scored the tying goal early in the third period and added the winner in the seventh round of a shootout to give New York a 4-3 victory over the Vancouver Canucks on Sunday.

“We have to feel good about what we’ve been doing here the past four weeks,” Rangers goalie Henrik Lundqvist said after his 417th career NHL victory. “We had a tough time but we got it done tonight with a really strong third. But we should definitely feel good about how we’re playing and finding ways to win games. That’s going to help us moving forward.”

Lundqvist made 29 saves to help the Rangers extend their home winning streak to eight games.

Vesey tied it at 5:05 of the third with a nifty forehand-backhand combination for his fifth goal of the season. Rick Nash set up the goal with a spinning pass.

“The third period was our best. It was a little bit of a slow start,” Rick Nash explained who assisted on Vesey’s third-period goal and scored in the shootout. “Good teams find ways to win when they don’t play their best. We found a way to do that.”

Jesper Fast and Michael Grabner also scored for New York. Loui Eriksson, Jake Virtanen and Sam Gagner scored for Vancouver, and Jacob Markstrom stopped 17 shots.

Grabner tied it 19 seconds into the third with his 10th goal of the season, beating Markstrom with a wrist shot. Gagner put the Canucks back in front 41 second later. Tomas Vanek forced a turnover behind the net and fed Gagner in the slot.

“They got one right back and that could hurt you, that can demoralize you,” Shattenkirk said about Gagne’s goal. “We gathered ourselves. We realized we had enough time left to just get one more goal. It didn’t feel as hard as a hill to climb like it was earlier in the game.”

Vancouver opened the scoring at 7:54 of the first when Eriksson snapped a wrist shot past Lundqvist. Rangers forward Paul Carey had trouble controlling an outlet pass from his teammate and turned over the puck. Canucks captain Henrik Sedin assisted to extend his points streak to four games. The Canucks outshot the Rangers 11-4 in the period.

The Canucks made it 2-0 at 7:21 of the second when Jake Virtanen fired a wrist shot over Lundqvist’s glove. The Rangers were unable to clear the puck from the defensive zone, Virtanen pulled it away from the boards and took an uncontested shot.

“We have to find ways to win these games when you’re up a couple goals,” Eriksson said. “It’s tough when they come back and win it like this. It’s something we need to do better.”

Fast scored with 2:20 left in the period on a redirection. Nick Holden earned an assist for his 99th NHL point.

It was only fitting that the Rangers played an extended shootout, 12 years to the day when Marek Malik tallied a creative shootout winner in the 15th round against the Washington Capitals. Lundqvist, in his rookie season, was between the pipes on that day for New York as well.

“I didn’t have it in my mind, that I was going to do it,” Shattenkirk said of the ‘Malik Deke’. “I was just talking to Marc Staal and he was getting a little nervous that he was going to have to go. I told him that if had, he would have had to pull off the Malik.”

NOTES:

Rangers captain Ryan McDonagh missed his third straight game with an abdominal strain. New York center Boo Nieves sat out because of a hip pointer. ... Grabner skated in his 497th game Sunday. Vanek and Grabner rank first and second, respectively, among Austrian-born players in games played, goals, assists, and points in NHL history. ... Canucks defenseman Alexander Edler skated in his 700th career NHL game. ... Canucks defenseman Erik Gudbranson missed his second consecutive game with an upper-body injury. Brandon Sutter suffered an injury against the Devils on Friday, and will miss the remainder of the trip.

UP NEXT:

Canucks: At New York Islanders on Tuesday night.

Rangers: Host Florida on Tuesday night.

Ryan Strome breaks tie, Oilers beat Bruins 4-2

Associated Press

BOSTON (AP) — The Edmonton Oilers headed home trying to build on a big victory.

Ryan Strome broke a tie early in the third period and Cam Talbot made 23 saves in the Oilers’ 4-2 victory over the Boston Bruins on Sunday night.

“I don’t know why we make life so hard on ourselves,” Strome said. “The challenge is consistency and hopefully we can find that here.”

Edmonton has the second worst record in the Western Conference and has won consecutive games only once this season.

“We finished the trip off the way we wanted to,” Oilers coach Todd McLellan said. “We have to break the spell now and put two together.”

Strome scored 2:07 into the third when he took a pass from Leon Draisaitl and wristed a shot from point blank range over goalie Tuukka Rask’s shoulder.

Draisaitl added an empty-netter with 51 seconds remaining. The Oilers won for the second time in six games and beat Boston for the sixth straight time after dropping the previous 13.

“You hope that guys can gain some confidence,” Oilers forward Milan Lucic said.

Patrick Maroon and Adam Larsson also scored for the Oilers.

David Pastrnak and David Krejci scored for Boston. Rask stopped 32 shots in his first appearance in five games after backup Anton Khudobin had led the Bruins to four straight victories.

“He (Rask) played well but we only scored two goals,” Pastrnak said. “It’s hard to score goals when we don’t shoot enough and we just didn’t do all the things we have done during our four wins.”

Krejci converted a feed from Riley Nash to tie it at 2 with 4:29 remaining in the second period.

Maroon and Larsson scored less than five minutes apart midway through the second period to give Edmonton a 2-1 lead.

Pastrnak had a power-play goal at 14:03 of the first to snap Boston’s 0-for-17 drought with the man advantage.

“We lacked energy and I couldn’t kick start us,” Bruins coach Bruce Cassidy said. “We got the early power-play goal but couldn’t extend the lead and that’s disappointing playing at home.” Rask made 32 saves but has dropped four straight.

NOTES: Talbot won his second consecutive start for Edmonton after allowing 10 goals in his previous two starts. ... Torey Krug had two assists for Boston. ... Boston lost for the first time in six tries with both Krejci and Patrice Bergeron in the lineup. ... Talbot and Klefbom returned to the lineup after missing the previous game with the flu.

UP NEXT

Oilers: Host Arizona on Monday night.

Bruins: Host Tampa Bay on Tuesday night.

Hurricanes slip past Predators 4-3 in shootout

By KYLE GLASER
Associated Press
RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — When it came time for Sebastian Aho and Teuvo Teravainen to face Juuse Saros in a shootout, they knew what to do against their fellow countrymen.

“A little bit of Finn on Finn there,” Carolina coach Bill Peters said. “They know Saros ... and I said to (Aho) ‘You own this guy?’ and he said ‘Yeah, I do.’ Teuvo said the same thing.”

Aho and Teravainen scored in the shootout and the Hurricanes earned a 4-3 victory over the Predators on Sunday.

Aho beat Saros with a wrist shot over his blocker on Carolina’s second attempt.

After Hurricanes goalie Scott Darling stopped Filip Forsberg’s second attempt for Nashville, Teravainen lifted a backhand over Saros’ left shoulder for the winner.

Josh Jooris, Victor Rask and Justin Williams scored in regulation for the Hurricanes, who snapped a two-game skid. Darling finished with 32 saves.

Viktor Arvidsson, Mattias Ekholm and Craig Smith scored for the Predators. Saros made 33 saves and Nashville had its four-game winning streak end.

“I thought they were a little quicker than us,” Predators coach Peter Laviolette said. “We had our looks and our chances.”

The shootout capped a back-and-forth matchup. Jooris opened the scoring in the first period when he got behind the Predators defense and finished with a nifty backhand through Saros’ legs that trickled across the goal line.

Arvidsson evened it for Nashville when he beat Noah Hanifin one-on-one near the right faceoff circle with a highlight-reel move where maneuvered the puck between his legs, and then fired a wrister over Darling’s left shoulder into the upper corner of the net.

Ekholm gave the Predators their first lead with a power-play goal midway through the second period. But Rask stuffed home a loose rebound in the crease just over a minute later to tie the score at 2-2.

Williams put the Hurricanes back on top in the third period with a power-play goal, stuffing home a deflected shot he had originally knocked down from Derek Ryan. Williams appeared to enter the crease before the puck on the play, but his goal was allowed to stand.

“It’s tough to tell,” Williams said. “I think I was where I needed to be and I was able to bang one in.”

Smith tied it for Nashville with 8:45 remaining when he found an open spot along the back post and buried a pass from Kevin Fiala.

The Predators had a chance to win on a power play in overtime, but the Hurricanes blocked four consecutive shots, including two by Joakim Nordstrom, to keep it tied.

“The penalty kill was unbelievable with those guys blocking shots,” Peters said. “That goes a long ways. That’s how you win games.”

NOTES: Rask had a goal and an assist for his first multi-point game since opening night. ... Saros recorded an assist on Arvidsson’s first-period goal. It was the Predators goalie’s second career assist. ... Hurricanes F Lee Stempniak (upper body injury) missed his 20th game. ... F Miikka Salomaki and F Cody McLeod were scratched for the Predators. ... D Klas Dahlback and F Phillip Di Giuseppe were the Hurricanes’ healthy scratches.

UP NEXT:

Predators: Return home and face the Chicago Blackhawks on Tuesday to start a four-game homestand.

Hurricanes: Visit the Columbus Blue Jackets on Tuesday to begin a quick two-game road swing.

Rangers unveil 2018 Winter Classic uniform

The New York Rangers unveiled their uniform for the 2018 Bridgestone NHL Winter Classic against the Buffalo Sabres at Citi Field on Jan. 1 (1 p.m. ET; NBC, SN, TVA Sports, NHL.TV). Their Original Six heritage, their 90-plus years of history in New York and the intrastate rivalry with the Sabres served as key influences in the design.

The jersey features the Rangers' color scheme of red, white and blue, though navy blue replaces their traditional royal blue as a nod to the roots of the game outdoors. The stairstep font is inspired by the diagonal "RANGERS" lettering worn in the late 1920s. The red "NY" is a tribute to the intrastate rivalry with the Sabres.

The uniform's nameplate and numbers are white and designed to align graphically to the crest. The sleeve and waist striping is inspired by New York's uniforms of the early 1930s, with the higher placement of the sleeve stripes and the solid white collar a staple of that era.

The pants remain red, but the detailing along the sides and around the leg opening is a simplified version of their current pant piping, reflecting the simpler design aesthetic of the jersey and socks.

The Sabres and Rangers will each play in the Winter Classic for the second time. Buffalo lost 2-1 in a shootout to the Pittsburgh Penguins in the inaugural event at Ralph Wilson Stadium on Jan. 1, 2008. The Rangers defeated the Philadelphia Flyers 3-2 at Citizens Bank Park on Jan. 2, 2012.

Devils forward Palmeri out 4-6 weeks with broken right foot

The New Jersey Devils announced on Wednesday that RW Kyle Palmeri will miss 4-6 weeks with a broken right foot he sustained when taking a show at the Wild on Nov. 20.

The Devils also said Palmeri is and will be working out off ice and evaluated by medical staff during that time.

Palmeri, 26, has recorded four goals and five assists in 13 appearances this season, and has one goal and one assist in his past five games.

Sabres unveil 2018 Bridgestone NHL Winter Classic uniform

Our #WinterClassic jersey 🔥🔥 pic.twitter.com/eoAw5JQ9Po

— Buffalo Sabres (@BuffaloSabres) November 22, 2017

By Sabres PR

The Buffalo Sabres today unveiled the team's uniform for the 2018 Bridgestone NHL Winter Classic® outdoor regular-season game against the New York Rangers at Citi Field in New York on Jan. 1, 2018.

The uniform combines design concepts from the franchise's early years with modifications of the team's current logo and elements from the team's 40th anniversary jersey to create a unique look that recalls the Sabres' 48 years of history.

"The NHL Winter Classic is a celebration of hockey's rich history and we wanted our jersey to signify that with a tribute to the early days of Sabres hockey," Sabres President Russ Brandon said. "This uniform combines our franchise's great historical look with some new elements to celebrate the uniqueness of the event."

Buffalo will wear a primarily white jersey with blue and gold accents and a slightly modified version of the team's traditional crest, which features a charging buffalo between two crossed swords. In addition to minor illustration adjustments to the logo's buffalo and swords, the initials "NY" have been added as a marker of the interstate matchup. The crest itself is executed in felt and faux leather materials as a nod to historical "hockey sweater" material construction.

The shoulders and collar are contrasted in blue, which is in line with many of the team's past white uniforms, and the collar is executed in a modern adaptation of sweater knit rib material. The blue throughout the uniform has shifted from the Sabres' current navy blue to a royal blue reflective of the team's original color scheme from the 1970s. The jersey striping was inspired by the team's 40th anniversary uniform. However, when applied to the white body, each pair of blue stripes has a contrasting gold stripe between them instead of the white ground color.

The pants are also blue, matching those of classic Sabres uniforms, and feature a vertical gold stripe along the sides. The white accent pant stripe from previous uniforms has been removed to better align the color patterning to the jersey and sock color patterning.

In addition to the crest, the uniform features three secondary marks. The first is a newly designed shoulder patch that has abstracted the Buffalo from the crest and filled it with the team's name, and is executed in a throwback chenille material. The second is a pair of crossed swords, also abstracted from the crest. This mark, which appears on the pants, has featured on Buffalo's helmet in recent years. Lastly, the Buffalo script wordmark featured on the team's 40th anniversary jersey is located on the helmet.

The jersey's number design is derivative of the one worn on the team's 40th anniversary uniform. The numbers on the official game jerseys are executed in felt with unique tonal stitching detail, in homage to how numbers were applied in the early days of hockey. Nameplate letterforms were inspired by the ones the team wore on their uniforms in the mid-1970s.

The Sabres will face the Rangers in the 2018 Bridgestone NHL Winter Classic® on New Year's Day at Citi Field, home of the New York Mets. The game will be broadcast live on NBC, Sportsnet and TVA Sports at 1 p.m. ET. The 2018 Bridgestone NHL Winter Classic® continues the tradition the League established in 2008 of hosting a regular-season outdoor game at the onset of the new year, with this year's edition marking the 10-year anniversary of the first NHL Winter Classic® in Buffalo. Fans can join the conversation on social media by including the hashtag NHL #WinterClassic.