Tyler Johnson scored three goals as the Tampa Bay Lightning snapped a 10-game losing streak to the Pittsburgh Penguins with a 4-3 win on Tuesday night.
Tampa Bay, 3-5-1 in their past nine games, also got a goal and two assists from Nikita Kucherov. Ondrej Palat had three assists in the Lightning’s first win over Pittsburgh since Nov. 17, 2011.
Johnson scored twice in the first and extended the Lightning’s lead to 4-0 at 2 minutes, 37 seconds of the second with a two-on-one goal against Jeff Zatkoff, who replaced Marc-Andre Fleury earlier in the period.
Patric Hornqvist, Chris Kunitz and Kris Letang scored for the Eastern Conference-leading Penguins, who have 13 players out due to illness or injury. It was Pittsburgh’s first regulation loss to an Atlantic Division team (16-1-5) since a 5-1 defeat Jan. 20 against Florida.
RANGERS 4, CAPITALS 2
In New York, Rick Nash and Martin St Louis each scored twice, while Henrik Lundqvist made 30 saves as New York extended their winning streak to seven games with a victory over Washington.
The game matched two of the NHL’s hottest teams in their final outing before the Christmas break. Washington had won three in a row, picking up points in nine straight games (7-0-2).
Mats Zuccarello and Derick Brassard had two assists apiece for the Rangers.
Evgeny Kuznetsov and Alex Ovechkin scored for the Capitals in the first meeting of the season between the Metropolitan Division rivals.
BRUINS 5, PREDATORS 3
In Boston, Loui Eriksson and Brad Marchand scored two goals apiece and Patrice Bergeron had three assists for Boston in a win over Nashville.
David Krejci also scored for the Bruins, who held the Predators to 10 shots through the first two periods. Tuukka Rask made 22 saves for Boston.
Calle Jarnkrok and Taylor Beck each had a goal and an assist for Nashville. Beck’s goal 6:48 into the third period pulled the Predators to 4-3, but Rask did not let anything else by him as Boston won for the third time in four games.
CANADIENS 3, ISLANDERS 1
In Uniondale, New York, Carey Price made 37 saves, and Andrei Markov and Brendan Gallagher scored second-period goals as Montreal cooled off New York.
Markov, in his 800th NHL game, and Gallagher beat backup goalie Chad Johnson 5:17 apart to erase a 1-0 deficit. Montreal have won five of six, with Price allowing two goals or fewer in each game during that span.
David Desharnais scored with 1:11 left to make it 3-1 for the Canadiens, who mustered only 21 shots.
Kyle Okposo scored in the first period for the Islanders.
Johnson made 18 saves as No. 1 goalie Jaroslav Halak took a maintenance day and did not dress for the game. New York, who had won four straight overall, fell to 13-4 at home and 10-2 in their past 12 at Nassau Coliseum.
JETS 5, BLACKHAWKS 1
In Chicago, Mathieu Perreault scored two goals while extending his point streak to eight games as Winnipeg routed the listless Chicago Blackhawks.
Bryan Little also had his team-best 13th goal as Winnipeg stopped Chicago’s eight-game home winning streak. The Jets are responsible for two of the Blackhawks’ four regulation home losses, also winning 1-0 at the United Center on Nov. 2 in their first meeting of the season.
Winnipeg (18-10-7), one of the NHL’s biggest surprises, won for the third time in four games, bouncing back from an overtime loss to Philadelphia on Sunday.
It was the Blackhawks’ worst loss of the season; they have only three losses by more than one goal. Chicago (23-10-2) had won 14 of 17 overall.
Marian Hossa scored his seventh goal in the second period, but the Blackhawks struggled to generate quality chances. Jets goalie Michael Hutchinson finished with 38 saves.
HURRICANES 2, DEVILS 1, SO
In Newark, New Jersey, Chris Terry scored the only goal of the shootout and Anton Khudobin came up big late in winning for the first time this season as the goal-starved Carolina Hurricanes defeated New Jersey.
Ron Hainsey scored in the third period to tie the game for Carolina, who won for only the second time in 10 games (2-7-1). The Hurricanes have just 13 goals during that stretch and Hainsey’s appeared to go in off his leg on a night when Carolina fired 33 shots at Cory Schneider.
Stephen Gionta scored for the Devils, who are 3-8-5 in their past 16 games. Schneider made 32 saves.
Khudobin, who had 18 saves, stopped Scott Gomez, Mike Cammalleri and Adam Henrique in the shootout before Terry beat Schneider with a forehand. Khudobin is 1-8-2 in 11 starts.
FLYERS 5, WILD 2
In St Paul, Minnesota, Wayne Simmonds scored the go-ahead goal late in the second period, lifting Philadelphia over Minnesota for their third straight win.
Vincent Lecavalier, Claude Giroux, Sean Couturier and Michael Raffl also scored for the Flyers, who have won the first three games of an eight-game road trip that spans 15 days.
Marco Scandella and Charlie Coyle scored for Minnesota, losers of four in a row.
Simmonds broke a 2-all tie with his team-leading 15th of the season at 15:22 of the second period, beating goalie Darcy Kuemper high after teammate Brayden Schenn battled along the boards to secure the puck.
The Flyers are 6-1-3 in their past 10 games.
MAPLE LEAFS 4, STARS 0
In Dallas, Jonathan Bernier made 43 saves for his second shutout of the season as Toronto beat the Stars.
James van Riemsdyk had a goal and two assists for the Maple Leafs, who snapped a three-game slump.
The Stars’ four-game winning streak ended when they were shut out for the first time since Jan. 9 at New Jersey.
Nazem Kadri opened the scoring with a goal 55 seconds into the game and assisted when van Riemsdyk scored at 6:21 of the second period.
Phil Kessel had two assists, the second on Tyler Bozak’s power-play goal at 10:30 of the second. Mike Santorelli finished the scoring with an empty-net goal.
In other NHL action, it was:
‧ Red Wings 6, Sabres 3
‧ Coyotes 5, Oilers 1
‧ Avalanche 5, Blues 0
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