Jonathan Toews scored twice, while Ray Emery and Corey Crawford combined on a shutout as the Chicago Blackhawks extended their NHL-record season-opening points streak to 20 games with a 3-0 win over the St Louis Blues on Thursday night.
Andrew Shaw also scored for Chicago, who were coming off a 6-0-1 homestand and improved to 9-0-2 on the road. The Blackhawks, who have won seven in a row overall, have earned 37 out of a possible 40 points this season with a 17-0-3 start.
Chicago, playing their first road game in 18 days, have won four in a row against St Louis, who have lost three of four.
Photo: AFP
Crawford was pulled with an upper-body injury after making six saves in the first period. Emery made 15 saves over the final two periods. Toews scored 12 seconds into the game.
BRUINS 2, SENATORS 1
In Boston, Patrice Bergeron’s goal at 3:39 of overtime, awarded after a replay review, lifted Boston over Ottawa.
Nathan Horton also scored for the surging Bruins, who won their fourth straight and improved to 13-2-2. Tuukka Rask made 30 saves, including a pair of stellar stops in overtime.
Jim O’Brien scored for the Senators, who had a five-game winning streak snapped.
Bergeron deflected a shot from the left circle that glanced off Ottawa goalie Robin Lehner and trickled across the goal line. The crowd roared, the light went on and horn sounded, but the referee behind the net waved it off.
After a review, replays clearly showed the puck slid across the line when Lehner reached back and knocked it into the net before pulling it back out. Lehner finished with 44 saves.
HURRICANES 4, PENGUINS 1
In Raleigh, North Carolina, Jiri Tlusty had two goals and an assist as Carolina beat Pittsburgh in ex-Penguin Jordan Staal’s first game against his former team.
Eric Staal had a goal and two assists, Alexander Semin added two assists and Jeff Skinner scored a goal in his first game back from a concussion.
The Southeast Division co-leaders erased an early 1-0 deficit by scoring three goals in a span of 6 minutes, 14 seconds and won for just the second time in six games.
Chris Kunitz scored for the Penguins, who entered leading the Atlantic Division, but were held without a power-play goal for the first time since Feb. 2.
Cam Ward made 26 saves for Carolina. Marc-Andre Fleury stopped 25 shots for the Penguins, who have lost the first two games of a three-game road swing.
RANGERS 4, LIGHTNING 1
In New York, Carl Hagelin and Derek Stepan scored in a one-sided first period as the suddenly healthy New York Rangers snapped a four-game losing streak with a victory over Tampa Bay.
Defenseman Marc Staal added just the eighth power-play goal of the season in the second period for New York, who ended an 0-3-1 skid in the second game of a four-game homestand and completed a three-game, season-series sweep of the Lightning.
The Rangers were bolstered by the return of top forward Rick Nash, who missed four games, and defensemen Ryan McDonagh and Michael Del Zotto. New York moved one point ahead of Tampa Bay in the Eastern Conference playoff race.
Nash, who assisted on Staal’s goal, finished the scoring with 1:33 remaining off a feed from Brad Richards on a rush for his fourth goal. McDonagh had two assists.
New York held a 20-3 shots advantage after the first period, 35-11 through two, and 42-25 overall. Henrik Lundqvist stopped 24 shots.
Lightning counterpart Mathieu Garon made 38 saves and Martin St Louis scored Tampa Bay’s lone goal in the first period.
Steven Stamkos had an assist to stretch his point streak to eight, but his NHL-best goal-scoring run ended at six.
RED WINGS 2, SHARKS 1
In San Jose, California, Damen Brunner scored the lone goal in a shootout and Jonas Gustavsson stopped all three shots in his first start of the season to lead Detroit past slumping San Jose.
Patrick Eaves scored the equalizer midway through the third period and Gustavsson made 25 saves to get his first win since March 3 last year for Toronto against Montreal.
MAPLE LEAFS 5, ISLANDERS 4 In Uniondale, New York, Nazem Kadri had his first career hat-trick and Dion Phaneuf scored at 1:11 of overtime to give Toronto a victory over the New York Islanders.
Phaneuf’s fourth goal of the season lifted Toronto to their third straight win and fourth in five games in New York.
The Maple Leafs have six wins in their last nine games against the Islanders. James van Riemsdyk also scored for the Maple Leafs, who improved to 9-4 on the road.
New York rallied on third-period goals by Andrew MacDonald and Kyle Okposo after Kadri finished his hat trick to put Toronto up 4-2 at the 14:12 mark of the second.
In other NHL play, it was:
‧ Avalanche 5, Flames 4
‧ Sabres 4, Panthers 3
‧ Jets 3, Devils 1
‧ Wild 4, Coyotes 3
‧ Oilers 5, Stars 1
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