ST. PAUL, Minn. — Connor Bedard scored a goal and defenceman Alex Vlasic made a game-saving stop as time ran out on Thursday night as the Chicago Blackhawks beat the Minnesota Wild 2-1 to snap the NHL's longest active point streak for one team against another.
Ilya Mikheyev also scored and Spencer Knight made 28 saves for the Blackhawks, who were 0-18-1 in their last 19 games against Minnesota. Chicago’s last victory over the Wild was on Dec. 15, 2019.
Nico Sturm scored for the Wild and Jesper Wallstedt stopped 24 of 26 shots he faced.
With Wallstedt pulled for an extra attacker, the Wild nearly tied it in the final seconds. Knight got a piece of Quinn Hughes’ shot, but the puck trickled behind him in the crease. Before a Minnesota player could get to it, the 6-foot-6 Vlasic swept his stick into the crease and tucked the puck beneath his goalie.
BRUINS 6, JETS 1
BOSTON — Lukas Reichel had a goal and an assist in his debut, Jeremy Swayman made 22 saves and Boston beat Winnipeg to end a two-game losing streak.
David Pastrnak scored his 27th goal of the season and had an assist. Viktor Arvidsson and Pavel Vacha also each had a goal and assist, and Fraser Minten and Jonathan Aspirot added late goals.
Fighting for one of the final Eastern Conference playoff spots, the Bruins finished in regulation for only the second time in seven games. They were coming off overtime losses at New Jersey on Monday night and Montreal on Tuesday night.
Jonathan Toews ended Swayman’s shutout bid on a tip-in at 5:38 of the third. Connor Hellebuyck stopped 22 shots for Winnipeg.
SENATORS 3, ISLANDERS 2
OTTAWA — Brady Tkachuk scored with 11.1 seconds left to give Ottawa a victory over New York.
Tkachuk controlled the loose puck in the crease and squeezed it past goalie Ilya Sorokin for the comeback victory.
New York dropped out of a playoff position in the tight Eastern Conference, while Ottawa closed within four points of the Islanders.
RED WINGS 3, CANADIENS 1
DETROIT — Alex DeBrincat scored the go-ahead goal with 3:25 remaining and assisted on Detroit’s two other goals, lifting the Red Wings to a victory over Montreal.
DeBrincat scored the winner on a backhander after stealing the puck from defenceman Mike Matheson in the Canadiens’ zone. J.T. Compher scored earlier in the period and Andrew Copp added an empty-net goal with 16.8 seconds remaining.
John Gibson made 32 saves for the Red Wings, who won for the second straight game following a three-game losing streak. Detroit recorded back-to-back victories for the first time since a three-game winning streak in mid-January.
The Red Wings also won the season series, 2-1 and pulled even with the Canadiens in the Atlantic Division standings in the tight Eastern Conference playoff race.
BLUE JACKETS 6, RANGERS 3
COLUMBUS, Ohio — Adam Fantilli scored twice, including an empty-net goal with 2:54 remaining, and Columbus beat New York, keeping alive hopes for their first playoff berth since the 2019-20 season.
Columbus extended its point streak to 11 games and takes over third-place in the Metropolitan Division thanks to the New York Islanders’ 3-2 loss in Ottawa.
Boone Jenner had a goal and an assist, and Isac Lundestrom, Conor Garland and Damon Severson also scored. Zach Werenski’s three assists give him 52 on the season and his second career 70-plus point season, tying him with Artemi Panarin for the most in team history. Jet Greaves made 22 saves for Columbus, which has won three straight.
Mika Zibanejad and Alexis Lafreniere each had a goal and an assist, and Vincent Trocheck also scored for New York, which had its two-game road win streak snapped. Igor Shesterkin finished with 31 saves.
PREDATORS 3, KRAKEN 1
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Filip Forsberg scored a goal and added two assists and Justus Annunen made 25 saves to lead Nashville to a victory over Seattle in a matchup of teams vying for a Western Conference wild card.
Ryan Ufko and Ryan O’Reilly also scored for the Predators, winners of two straight.
Frederick Gaudreau scored and Joey Daccord made 24 saves for the Kraken, who are 2-6 over their last eight games.
With the win, Nashville pulled even with the Kraken, both with 71 points, just outside the wild-card spots.
PANTHERS 4, OILERS 0
EDMONTON, Alberta — Sergei Bobrovsky made 21 saves to earn his fourth shutout of the season as Florida continued to plague Edmonton, emerging with a victory over the Oilers in a rematch of the last two Stanley Cup finals.
Cole Reinhardt, A.J. Greer, Anton Lundell and Carter Verhaeghe scored for the injury-riddled Panthers, who snapped a two-game losing skid.
Sam Bennett, Evan Rodrigues and Mike Benning all had two assist games. The Panthers are almost certain to miss the playoffs and a chance to defend their back-to-back titles.
Connor Ingram made 19 stops in the loss for Edmonton.
The Oilers had a two-game winning streak halted and missed out on an opportunity to move ahead of idle Anaheim into first in the Pacific Division.
LIGHTNING 6, CANUCKS 2
VANCOUVER, British Columbia — Nikita Kucherov and Anthony Cirelli each had a goal and two assists and Tampa Bay beat NHL-worst Vancouver.
Kucherov moved into sole possession of second place in the NHL scoring race with 114 points, one behind Edmonton’s Connor McDavid. Tampa Bay is second in the Atlantic Division, four points behind Buffalo.
Jake Guentzel, Darren Raddysh, Yanni Gourde and Brandon Hagel also scored for the Lightning, and Andrei Vasilevskiy made 19 saves for his NHL-leading 32nd victory.
Liam Ohgren and Linus Karlsson scored for Vancouver, and Kevin Lankinen stopped 24 shots.
MAMMOTH 4, GOLDEN KNIGHTS 0
LAS VEGAS — Karel Vejmelka stopped all 28 shots he faced for Utah, while Vegas counterpart Adin Hill was chased after allowing three goals without making a save in the Mammoth’s victory over the Golden Knights.
Vejmelka had his second shutout of the season and eighth in five NHL seasons to help Utah solidify its hold on the first wild-card spot in the Western Conference. The Mammoth built on a 6-3 home victory over Dallas on Monday night that snapped a four-game losing streak.
Third in the Pacific Division, the Golden Knights lost their second straight to finish a homestand 2-2. It fell apart quickly for Hill.
SABRES 5, SHARKS 0
SAN JOSE, Calif. — Alex Lyon made 23 saves for his 10th straight road victory as Buffalo scored three times in a span of less than two minutes in the second period to beat San Jose.
Sam Carrick scored twice, Rasmus Dahlin had a goal and an assist, and Noah Ostlund and Tage Thompson also scored to help the Sabres win for the 11th time in 12 games. Buffalo moved into a tie with Carolina for the most points in the Eastern Conference.
Lyon posted his seventh career shutout and moved within one road win of the longest streak in NHL history. San Jose’s Evgeni Nabokov and Minnesota’s Devan Dubnyk each won 11 straight on the road.
Alex Nedeljkovic made 11 saves — but none in the three-goal second period — as the Sharks dropped their third straight and remained just outside playoff position in the Western Conference. San Jose became the second team in at least 11 seasons to allow at least three goals in a period without making a save, with Boston doing it last season against Chicago.
FLYERS 4, KINGS 3, SO
LOS ANGELES — Trevor Zegras and Matvei Michkov scored in a shootout to give Philadelphia their fourth victory in five games, over Los Angeles.
Noah Cates had a goal and an assist, Travis Konecny and Travis Sanheim also scored, and Samuel Ersson made 22 saves. The Flyers remained six points behind Boston and Detroit for the two Eastern Conference wild-card spots.
On Wednesday night at Anaheim, Cates scored in overtime in the Flyers’ 3-2 victory over the Ducks.
Adrian Kempe and Artemi Panarin failed on their shootout attempts for Los Angeles, though the Kings still moved into the second wild card in the Western Conference.
