Matt Calvert and Brandon Dubinsky each had a goal and assist to lead the Columbus Blue Jackets to a team-record eighth straight win — and the longest active streak in the league — with a 5-2 victory over the Philadelphia Flyers on Thursday night in the franchise’s 1,000th game.
Jack Johnson, Derek MacKenzie and Nathan Horton also scored for Columbus.
Sergei Bobrovsky, last season’s Vezina Trophy winner as the league’s top goalie, made 26 saves in his first game against his former club.
Photo: Kelvin Kuo-USA TODAY
Brayden Schenn and Vincent Lecavalier scored for the Flyers, playing the second of an unscheduled back-to-back set after a snowstorm in Philadelphia pushed their game, a 3-2 loss to Carolina, to Wednesday.
DUCKS 2, KINGS 1
In Anaheim, California, Patrick Maroon scored the tiebreaking goal on a wraparound late in the second period and the Ducks beat the Kings 2-1 in the prelude to the clubs’ landmark outdoor game this weekend.
Frederik Andersen made 30 saves for Anaheim as the Southern California rivals warmed up for their meeting at Dodger Stadium today with a physical, hard-hitting meeting dominated by the Ducks’ defense.
Dustin Penner scored a power-play goal in the National Hockey League (NHL)-leading Ducks’ 20th victory in 23 games.
Anze Kopitar scored early in the first period and Jonathan Quick stopped 19 shots for the Kings, who have lost four straight.
BLUES 2, RANGERS 1
St Louis defenseman Kevin Shattenkirk scored the tiebreaking power-play goal early in the third period and the Blues got the best of the Rangers in New York.
Alexander Steen also had a goal for the Blues before leaving late in the second period with a lower-body injury. David Backes had two assists and Jaroslav Halak made 34 saves in beating New York’s Henrik Lundqvist in a matchup of Olympic goalies.
New York’s Rick Nash scored his sixth goal in four games — netting at least one in each — but Shattenkirk took advantage of Nash’s slashing penalty, scoring 9 seconds into the power play at 3 minutes, 9 seconds.
Lundqvist made 23 saves in his return from a one-game absence caused by the flu.
HURRICANES 5, SABRES 3
In Buffalo, New York, Alexander Semin had two goals and defenseman Andrej Sekera added a score at 9:50 of the third to lift the Hurricanes over the Sabres.
Jeff Skinner also scored for the Hurricanes, who overcame three one-goal deficits. Jiri Tlusty sealed the win by scoring into an empty net with one second remaining.
Cody Hodgson, Tyler Ennis and Brian Flynn scored for Buffalo, who dropped to 0-3-2 in their past five games.
PENGUINS 6, ISLANDERS 4
Rookie defenseman Olli Maatta scored the go-ahead goal early in the second period and Evgeni Malkin added an insurance score in the third as the Penguins held on for a wild win over the Islanders in Uniondale, New York.
The Islanders had a five-on-three power play for 50 seconds late in the third, but could not score against backup Jeff Zatkoff, who made 30 saves for the Eastern Conference-leading Penguins (36-13-2).
Brandon Sutter scored an empty-net goal for the Penguins, who trailed 2-0 early and also got goals from Chris Kunitz, Sidney Crosby and Kris Letang.
Michael Grabner, Brock Nelson, Josh Bailey and Kyle Okposo had goals for the Islanders.
WILD 2, BLACKHAWKS 1
In Saint Paul, Minnesota, Jason Pominville and Matt Cooke scored first-period goals, Darcy Kuemper made 33 saves and the Wild beat the Blackhawks.
The Wild, who lost to Chicago in five games in the first round of the playoffs last season, have won three of four against the Blackhawks this season.
Patrick Kane spoiled Kuemper’s shutout bid when he scored his 24th goal of the season with 31.2 seconds left to bring the Blackhawks to within one. However, Kuemper stopped one final flurry in the last 10 seconds and Zach Parise cleared the puck from Minnesota’s zone to run out the clock.
LIGHTNING 4, SENATORS 3, SO
Nikita Kucherov scored the lone shootout goal and the Lightning beat the Senators in Tampa, Florida.
Kucherov beat Craig Anderson on the first shot during the shootout. Lightning goalie Ben Bishop stopped all three shots he faced.
Tyler Johnson, B.J. Crombeen and Ondrej Palat scored in regulation for the Lightning, who had lost each of their previous five home games (0-3-2) by one goal.
Erik Karlsson, Clarke MacArthur and Chris Neil had the Ottawa goals.
Neil tied it at three from the right circle with 2:18 remaining in the third.
STARS 7, MAPLE LEAFS 1
Valeri Nichushkin scored two goals to lead the Stars to a victory over Toronto in Dallas.
Jamie Benn had his 100th career goal and three assists for Dallas, which broke open a 2-1 lead with four second-period goals and ended Toronto’s six-game winning streak.
Cody Eakin added a goal and an assist, and Alex Goligowski, Sergei Gonchar and Tyler Seguin each had two assists for the Stars. Kari Lehtonen made 24 saves.
Nikolai Kulemin scored for Toronto.
PREDATORS 2, CANUCKS 1
In Vancouver, Nick Spaling scored the go-ahead goal on the power play in the third period and the Predators defeated the Canucks for their fourth win in five games.
Craig Smith also scored for Nashville and Carter Hutton made 33 saves.
Chris Higgins scored for Vancouver, who got 24 stops from Roberto Luongo.
The Canucks, who still hold down the first wild-card spot in the Western Conference, had their two-game winning streak come to an end.
SHARKS 1, JETS 0
In San Jose, California, Joe Pavelski scored his 19th goal in the past 21 games and Alex Stalock made 20 saves in his second straight shutout to help the San Jose Sharks beat Winnipeg, handing Paul Maurice his first loss in five games as coach of the Jets.
Pavelski snapped a scoreless tie with 13:12 remaining when he scored his 28th of the season and seventh in the past four games to lead the Sharks to their fifth straight win with the help of another strong performance from their backup goalie.
Stalock, who got his first career shutout with 24 saves on Thursday last week in Florida, was just as stingy against the Jets and has allowed only four goals in winning his last four starts.
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