Chicago hung on to beat Anaheim 3-2 on Friday for a fifth consecutive win in the clubs’ Black Friday rivalry game, bolstering the Blackhawks’ lead atop the NHL’s Central Division.
The Blackhawks moved five points clear, while the New York Rangers maintained a three-point gap atop the Metropolitan Division by edging Philadelphia.
Columbus put five goals past host Tampa Bay, while Minnesota had six in a convincing win against Pittsburgh.
Photo: Gary A. Vasquez-USA TODAY
Chicago’s Patrick Kane had a goal and an assist, while Artem Anisimov and Ryan Hartman also scored for the Blackhawks, who won in the absence of captain Jonathan Toews, who missed his first game of the season due to an upper-body injury.
Corey Crawford made 34 saves for the Western Conference leaders. They have won five straight regular-season games in Anaheim since March 2013.
Nick Ritchie and Jakob Silfverberg scored for the Ducks, who have lost their past five home games against Chicago.
New York’s Matt Puempel scored in his first game with the Rangers, helping them to a 3-2 win in Philadelphia.
Henrik Lundqvist made 40 saves, while Derek Stepan and Kevin Hayes also scored for the Rangers.
Shayne Gostibehere and Chris VandeVelde scored in the third period for Philadelphia.
Columbus’ Brandon Saad scored on a power play, while Cam Atkinson had a short-handed goal in the third period as the Blue Jackets won 5-3 in Tampa Bay.
Alexander Wenneberg, Nick Foligno and Josh Anderson also scored for the Blue Jackets.
Ondrej Palat, Jason Garrison and Nikita Kucherov scored for the Lightning, who had won seven of their previous eight against Columbus.
Minnesota’s Charlie Coyle scored twice in the first period to set the tone as the Wild matched their season high for goals, beating Pittsburgh 6-2.
Nino Niederreiter had two of the Wild’s three goals on the power play, Zach Parise had the other and Mikael Granlund added a goal to build a 5-1 lead by the second intermission.
Phil Kessel and Bryan Rust had goals for the Penguins.
Washington made it four straight wins to wrap up a five-game homestand, defeating Buffalo 3-1.
Marcus Johansson, Daniel Winnik and Brett Connolly scored and Philipp Grubauer made 29 saves for the Capitals.
Sam Reinhart’s third-period goal helped Buffalo’s NHL-worst offense avoid being shut out.
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