Geekie, Williams lead Hurricanes beat Penguins 6-2
PITTSBURGH (AP) — Morgan Geekie scored twice and added an assist in his NHL debut, Justin Williams added two third-period goals and the Carolina Hurricanes surged past the Pittsburgh Penguins 6-2 on Sunday.
Jake Gardiner added a goal and an assist and Jaccob Slavin also scored for the Hurricanes, who pulled into a tie with the New York Islanders for the second wild card in the Eastern Conference.
Alex Nedeljkovic stopped 28 shots to earn the second win of his career for Carolina.
Patrick Marleau and Evgeni Malkin scored for Pittsburgh and Tristan Jarry finished with 30 saves but the listless Penguins capped a miserable weekend at home by losing for the second time in 24 hours to teams they’re scrapping with for positioning in the crowded Metropolitan Division.
BLUE JACKETS 2, CANUCKS 1
VANCOUVER, British Columbia (AP) — Elvis Merzlikins made 26 saves in his return after missing four games with a concussion, and Columbus held off Vancouver.
Emil Bemstrom and Eric Robinson scored to help the Blue Jackets move two points ahead of Carolina and New York Islanders for the top Eastern Conference wild card.
Elias Pettersson got the goal for the Canucks, who are tied with the Predators and Jets for the second wild card in the West. Vancouver currently holds the spot with one more win than Nashville and a game in hand on Winnipeg.
RED WINGS 5, LIGHTNING 4
DETROIT (AP) — Robby Fabbri scored the winning goal in a shootout as Detroit snapped a 16-game losing streak against Tampa Bay in the regular season.
Fabbri opened the scoring in similar fashion, beating goalie Curtis McElhinney on a breakaway in the first period as well. Anthony Mantha had a goal and three assists for the Red Wings, who won despite blowing a 4-2 lead in the third period. Dylan Larkin and Tyler Bertuzzi also scored for Detroit.
Brayden Point scored two goals, and Carter Verhaeghe and Pat Maroon had one apiece for the Lightning, who completed an unusual weekend in which they beat the team with the NHL’s best record (Boston) on Saturday night and then lost a day later to a Detroit team with by far the league’s worst mark.
Mikhail Sergachev scored for the Lightning in the shootout, but Larkin tied it. In the third round, Detroit goalie Jonathan Bernier denied Nikita Kucherov. Then Fabbri tucked the puck past McElhinney with a backhand.
BLUES 2, BLACKHAWKS 0
CHICAGO (AP) — Jake Allen stopped 29 shots for his second shutout and St. Louis won for the ninth time in 10 games.
Robert Bortuzzo and Alex Pietrangelo scored for the Central Division-leading Blues, who killed four Chicago power plays as they rebounded from a 4-2 home loss to lowly New Jersey on Friday. Jaden Schwartz had two assists.
Allen was tested only in spurts in his 21st career shutout. The Blues swept their season series from the Blackhawks, winning all four game and outscoring Chicago 16-8.
Corey Crawford had 24 saves in his ninth straight start as Chicago lost its second straight following a four-game winning streak.
GOLDEN KNIGHTS 5, FLAMES 3
CALGARY, Alberta (AP) — Shea Theodore scored the tiebreaking goal with 1:10 remaining and Vegas recovered after giving up a three-goal lead.
Nick Holden had a goal and an assist for the Golden Knights, who regained top spot in the Pacific Division over idle Edmonton. Tomas Nosek, Max Pacioretty and Jonathan Marchessault also scored for Vegas.
Making his third start for Vegas since being acquired from Chicago at the trade deadline, Robin Lehner made 19 saves to improve to 3-0-0 with his new team.
Milan Lucic had a goal and an assist for the Flames, who had won three straight. Dillon Dube and Matthew Tkachuk also scored for Calgary. David Rittich had 27 saves to fall to 0-6-1 in his last seven home starts.
WILD 5, DUCKS 4
ANAHEIM, Calif. (AP) — Kevin Fiala scored his second goal of the game with 59 seconds remaining on the clock in overtime and Minnesota beat Anaheim.
Alex Galchenyuk, Victor Rask, and Mats Zucarello also scored, and the Wild reclaimed the first wild card in the Western Conference. Minnesota has won eight of its past 11 games and seven of eight on the road.
Devan Dubnyk made 22 saves in his first start Feb. 23 after Alex Stalock started the previous seven games.
Jakob Silfverberg had two goals and an assist, Christian Djoos and Danton Heinen also scored, but the Ducks fell short of matching a season-high three-game win streak. Ryan Miller made 25 saves.
AVALANCHE 4, SHARKS 2
SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) — Nathan MacKinnon and Gabriel Landeskog each had a goal and two assists and Colorado’s top line overwhelmed San Jose.
MacKinnon and Landeskog scored the first two goals for the Avalanche and then set up Vladislav Namestnikov for the go-ahead score midway through the second period to give Colorado its 10th win in its past 11 road games.
Former Sharks forward Joonas Donskoi added a goal in the third and Pavel Francouz made 22 saves to keep the Avalanche two points behind St. Louis in the race for first place in the Central Division with a game in hand.
Joe Thornton, Melker Karlsson and Noah Gregor scored for the Sharks, who lost their third straight game to end a six-game homestand. Martin Jones made 20 saves.