Taylor Beck scored twice on Tuesday as the Nashville Predators routed the Toronto Maple Leafs 9-2 in the NHL.
Nashville, who led 8-0 in the third period, also got goals from Filip Forsberg, Calle Jarnkrok, Roman Josi, Eric Nystrom, Mike Ribeiro, Derek Roy and Colin Wilson, while Shea Weber had three assists.
Maple Leafs goalie Jonathan Bernier lasted one period, allowing three goals — two by Beck — on 12 shots. He let in just three goals in his previous two starts. Pekka Rinne continued his early-season dominance by turning aside 29 shots.
Elsewhere in the NHL, Pittsburgh halted Montreal’s six-game winning streak with a 4-0 victory, Buffalo beat San Jose 4-1 in front of a snowstorm-depleted crowd and Carolina defeated Dallas 6-4 for their first win in regulation on the Stars’ home ice in nearly 20 years.
Pittsburgh’s Marc-Andre Fleury made 27 saves for his league-leading fourth shutout of the season in the Penguin’s win over the Canadiens.
Beau Bennett and Steve Downie had first-period goals for the Penguins, while Brandon Sutter and captain Sidney Crosby each scored in the second. Pittsburgh have now won 10 of their past 11.
Fleury, who made a couple of key saves early on, is 8-1-0 with a .944 save-percentage in his past nine starts dating to Oct. 25.
The Sabres got their eighth straight win against the Sharks since the 2009-2010 season on a night when New York’s Buffalo area received more than 1.2m of snow, limiting the crowd to about 6,200.
Brian Gionta had two goals and an assist, while Nicolas Deslauriers and Brian Flynn also scored for Buffalo. Jhonas Enroth stopped 20 shots over the final two periods after replacing starter Michal Neuvirth, who suffered a lower-body injury in the first period.
The Sabres improved to 16-1 at home against the Sharks. Buffalo also won consecutive games for the first time since February last year.
Carolina’s Eric Staal had two third-period goals and an assist to rally the Hurricanes, who closed a 2-0 gap with four second-period goals. The last of those chased Stars goalie Kari Lehtonen after he stopped 12 of 16 shots in nearly 36 minutes.
The Hurricanes had not won in regulation at Dallas since 1996, when they were the Hartford Whalers.
Carolina ended a three-game losing streak and improved to 2-6-2 on the road. The Stars lost their seventh consecutive home game.
In Columbus, Ohio, Jimmy Howard made 28 saves for his 19th career shutout, while Tomas Tatar and Tomas Jurco had a goal and an assist each to lift Detroit past the Blue Jackets 5-0.
In other games, the New York Islanders got three goals in the second period to defeat Tampa Bay Lightning 5-2, Boston’s Tuukka Rask made 33 saves for his first shutout of the season as the Bruins beat St Louis 2-0 and Jonathan Quick made 30 saves to lead the Los Angeles Kings past Florida 5-2.
Also, the Washington Capitals topped the Arizona Coyotes 2-1 in overtime, the Winnipeg Jets beat the New Jersey Devils 3-1 and the Calgary Flames edged the Anaheim Ducks 4-3 in a shootout.
Fenerbahce on Thursday earned a rare 2-1 win in England, but were still knocked out of the UEFA Europa League by Nottingham Forest in the playoffs. Forest entered the second leg with a healthy 3-0 lead from the opener in Istanbul — where Vitor Pereira made an impact in his first game in charge — and that proved enough to advance to the round-of-16 with a 4-2 aggregate score. The result was a boost for Forest, struggling at 17th place in the Premier League, in their return to Europe after three decades. They next face Real Betis Balompie or Kerem Akturkoglu gave Fenerbahce
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