Mats Zuccarello scored the first of New York’s three first-period goals and Henrik Lundqvist made 33 saves for his third shutout of the season as the Rangers ended Pittsburgh’s seven-game winning streak with a 5-0 victory on Tuesday.
Martin St Louis and Kevin Klein added goals in the first, Derick Brassard had a power-play tally in the second and Rick Nash — who had two assists — scored a short-handed goal in the third for the Rangers, who broke a two-game losing streak.
Lundqvist earned his 53rd NHL shutout, extending his Rangers record.
Photo: USA TODAY
The Penguins (10-3-1), who are to complete a five-game trip in Toronto on Friday, had not allowed a power-play goal in 10 games, and their streak reached 39 kills before Brassard’s score.
ISLANDERS 6, AVALANCHE 0
In Uniondale, New York, Nick Leddy and Anders Lee scored early, while Jaroslav Halak stopped 20 shots for his second straight shutout as New York beat Colorado to win their fourth straight.
Travis Hamonic, Nikolay Kulemin, Casey Cizikas and Ryan Strome also scored to help the Islanders get their first home victory since Oct. 25. New York extended their shutout streak to 181 minutes, 11 seconds, and have allowed just three goals in their past four games.
Leddy opened the scoring at 1 minute, 33 seconds on a shot from the left point, and Lee added a power-play goal at 5:21 from in close for his second of the season.
Avalanche goaltender Semyon Varlamov made 40 saves.
CAPITALS 4, BLUE JACKETS 2
In Washington, Alex Ovechkin and Marcus Johansson each scored two goals as Washington extended Columbus’ losing streak to nine games.
Braden Holtby stopped 24 shots, while Nicklas Backstrom and Andre Burakovsky had two assists apiece to help the Capitals win their third straight.
Cam Atkinson and David Savard scored for the injury-plagued Blue Jackets, who are 0-8-1 since Oct. 23. The nine-game skid equals the longest in franchise history; Columbus went 0-7-2 from Dec. 10 to Dec. 26, 2009.
The Blue Jackets played a seventh straight game without top goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky, who has a broken finger.
Curtis McElhinney, who started in his place, fell to 0-5-1.
BLUES 6, SABRES 1
In St Louis, Missouri, Jori Lehtera scored a natural hat-trick for St Louis with the game’s first three goals and Brian Elliott stayed unbeaten in his career against punchless Buffalo.
Joakim Lindstrom had two goals and David Backes also scored for the Blues. Jaden Schwartz assisted on all of Lehtera’s goals, while Vladimir Tarasenko had assists on the first two. St Louis’ top line has combined for 25 points in the past six games.
Alexander Steen had three assists and Kevin Shattenkirk two.
Tyler Ennis scored his team-leading fifth goal early in the third period for the Sabres, held to no more than one goal for the 11th time in 16 games. Buffalo have totaled three goals in three losses to St Louis the past two seasons, all by Ennis.
Elliott fininshed with 28 saves to improve to 11-0-2 against Buffalo. The Sabres have scored an NHL-low 19 goals.
DEVILS 3, WILD 1
In Newark, New Jersey, Tuomo Ruutu and Mike Cammalleri scored second-period goals that helped New Jersey end a four-game skid with a win over Minnesota.
Travis Zajac sealed the victory with a power-play score into an empty net in the closing seconds. Jaromir Jagr had two assists.
Cory Schneider made 23 saves in his 16th straight start. He is the only NHL goaltender to start every game this season.
Ryan Carter scored against his former team and Darcy Kuemper stopped 20 shots for the Wild, who lost their fourth straight.
PANTHERS 4, SHARKS 1
In Sunrise, Florida, Aleksander Barkov scored and Roberto Luongo made 21 saves as Florida beat San Jose to snap a three-game slide.
Tomas Fleischmann, Derek MacKenzie and Jimmy Hayes also scored for the Panthers, who have won six of seven against the Sharks.
Joe Thornton had San Jose’s goal. Antti Niemi made 26 saves.
CANADIENS 3, JETS 0
In Montreal, Carey Price made 29 saves for his first shutout this season in Montreal’s victory over Winnipeg.
Lars Eller, Alex Galchenyuk and Tomas Plekanec scored for the Canadiens (11-4-1), who have won three in a row.
Ondrej Pavelec stopped 24 shots for Winnipeg.
Montreal improved to 7-1-0 in their past eight games against the Jets and snapped Winnipeg’s eight-game unbeaten run in regulation.
PREDATORS 3, OILERS 2
In Nashville, Tennessee, Filip Forsberg and Mike Ribeiro each had a goal and an assist to lead Nashville over Edmonton.
Matt Cullen also scored for the Predators, winners of three straight. Pekka Rinne made 21 saves.
Forsberg has scored in five consecutive games and has at least one point in six straight.
Benoit Pouliot and Nail Yakupov had the goals for Edmonton, who had won two straight. The Oilers dropped to 0-7-1 against fellow Western Conference teams this season.
Ben Scrivens replaced Viktor Fasth at the start of the second period. Fasth stopped 14 of the 17 shots he faced. Scrivens made 18 saves and did not allow a goal.
BLACKHAWKS 3, LIGHTNING 2, SO
In Chicago, Corey Crawford made 25 saves and three more stops in the shootout to lead Chicago over Tampa Bay.
Patrick Kane scored the only goal in the tiebreaker as Chicago won for the third time in four games and stopped Tampa Bay’s six-game winning streak. The Blackhawks had lost their past five games against the Lightning, with four of the defeats coming in a shootout or overtime.
Crawford stopped Ryan Callahan and Nikita Kucherov before Kane beat Ben Bishop with a backhander high on the glove side. Crawford then denied Steven Stamkos to seal it.
Brad Richards and Marcus Kruger scored in regulation for the Blackhawks, who have won consecutive home games after dropping three in a row at the United Center.
Bishop had 37 saves for the Lightning. Cedric Paquette scored in the first, while Kucherov had Tampa Bay’s other goal in the third.
STARS 4, COYOTES 3
In Glendale, Arizona, Ryan Garbutt scored on a short-handed breakaway with 1:16 left to give Dallas a victory over Arizona, ending a seven-game losing streak. Tyler Seguin had two goals and Erik Cole also scored for the Stars, who overcame a two-goal deficit. Kari Lehtonen stopped 33 shots.
Dallas took a 3-2 lead on Cole’s goal at 15:19 of the third period. The Coyotes tied it 58 seconds later on Mikkel Boedker’s goal. Connor Murphy and Joe Vitale also scored for Arizona.
CANUCKS 4, SENATORS 3, OT
In Vancouver, Daniel Sedin scored 4:05 into overtime to lift Vancouver over Ottawa.
The Canucks gained a share of first place with their eighth win in 10 games. The Senators lost their third straight.
Sedin converted a pass from twin brother Henrik as they each earned their second point of the night. Shawn Matthias, Alex Burrows and Kevin Bieksa scored for the Canucks in regulation.
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