Tuesday's NHL: Port Huron's Campbell posts 30th win for Leafs, Kings close in on playoffs
Toronto — William Nylander scored his career-high 32nd goal of the season and Port Huron's Jack Campbell made 36 saves in his 30th win of the year as the Toronto Maple Leafs defeated the Philadelphia Flyers 5-2 on Tuesday night.
Timothy Liljegren, Jason Spezza and David Kampf scored, and Ilya Mikheyev added an empty-net goal for Toronto. Nylander and Mikheyev each added an assist.
The fourth member of the Maple Leafs’ so-called “Core Four” that also includes Auston Matthews, Mitch Marner and John Tavares, Nylander went eight games without a goal from late January until the middle of February.
“It was all about skating more,” said Nylander, who has four goals and four assists in his last five contests. “I put more focus onto that part of my game.
“A little bit off … not as turned on.”
The Maple Leafs are 11-1-1 over their last 13 games, while Campbell put up a save percentage above .930 in back-to-back starts for the first time since Jan. 1.
“He was excellent,” Toronto head coach Sheldon Keefe said of his goaltender. “It was great to see.”
James van Riemsdyk and Ronnie Attard scored for Philadelphia. Travis Konecny had two assists and Martin Jones stopped 24 shots.
“We battled hard,” Jones said. “Some breakdowns cost us.”
Matthews, who leads the NHL with 58 goals and is looking to become the first player since 2011-12 to reach the 60-goal in a season, sat out a second straight game for Toronto with an undisclosed injury.
Minus his best player, and all but cemented into the second seed in the Atlantic Division, Keefe experimented with different line combinations, including winger Colin Blackwell getting top-six minutes alongside Tavares and Mikheyev.
The Leafs opened the scoring at 1:35 of the second period. Alexander Kerfoot chased down a loose puck in the Philadelphia zone before feeding in front for Liljegren, who beat Jones high for his fifth of the season.
Campbell made big stops on Konecny and Travis Sanheim a few minutes later, but couldn’t keep van Riemsdyk – who played six seasons in Toronto from 2012-18 – at bay as he scored his 21st at 8:07 off a scramble.
Nylander then set a career mark for goals at 13:39 when he took a cross-ice feed from Mitch Marner on a power play and fired his 32nd into the top corner. The winger has four goals and four assists in his last four games.
Toronto, which improved to 6-1-0 in seven outings without Matthews this season, pushed its lead to 3-1 with 24.8 seconds left in the period on a gorgeous passing play between three veterans. Spezza took a feed from Wayne Simmonds and played a quick give-and-go with Mark Giordano, who scored his 11th.
Campbell had to be sharp on a Philadelphia power play early in the third before Kampf made it 4-1 with his 33rd at 10:11 on a deflection that also hit a Flyers skate in front and trickled past Jones.
Attard scored his second of the season on a bullet past Campbell’s left ear with 2:34 left in regulation. Toronto held on from there for its fourth straight win. Mikheyev sealing it with his 18th goal.
Rangers 3, Jets 0
New York — Ryan Strome scored twice, Adam Fox added a goal and Igor Shesterkin made 31 saves as the New York Rangers recorded a third-straight shutout and their 50th win of the season, 3-0 over the Winnipeg Jets on Tuesday night.
Shesterkin was stellar from the start, making six saves in the first, 12 in the second and 13 in the third. The shutout was his second straight and sixth of the season. He also blanked Detroit 4-0 on Saturday after backup Alexandar Georgiev stopped Philadelphia 4-0 on April 13.
The Rangers reached the 50-win mark for the fifth time in franchise history and the first time since 2014-15, when they won a franchise-record 53 games. They also reached the plateau in 1991-92, 1993-94 and 2011-12.
With the victory, the Rangers moved into a first-place tie with idle Carolina with 106 points atop the Metropolitan Division. Both teams have five games remaining, including another meeting at Madison Square Garden next Tuesday.
Eric Comrie made 31 saves for the Jets. Winnipeg trails the Dallas Stars by 10 points in the race for the second wild-card spot in the Western Conference. The Jets have five games remaining.
Panthers 3, Islanders 2 (OT)
New York — Aleksander Barkov had his third career hat trick, leading Florida to an overtime victory against New York.
Sergei Bobrovsky made 24 saves and Eastern Conference-leading Florida extended its win streak to 11 games. Jonathan Huberdeau added three assists.
Jean-Gabriel Pageau and Sebastion Aho scored for New York, and Ilya Sorokin made 39 saves in his fifth straight start as the Islanders fell for the second straight game.
Kings 2, Ducks 1
Los Angeles — Phillip Danault scored the tiebreaking goal early in the third period, and Los Angeles solidified its grasp on a playoff spot with a victory over Anaheim.
Jonathan Quick made 29 saves in a frequently spectacular performance, and Adrian Kempe scored the first goal in the Kings’ third victory in four games. Los Angeles is closing in on the end of its three-season playoff drought, moving five points clear of Vegas for third place in the Pacific Division.
Adam Henrique scored and John Gibson stopped 26 shots for the Ducks, who will miss the playoffs in four consecutive seasons for the first time in franchise history. Anaheim has lost 17 of 20.
Wild 2, Canadiens 0
Montreal — Cam Talbot had his third shutout of the season to help Minnesota past Montreal.
Talbot made 26 saves as Minnesota (48-21-7) swept the season series between the teams. Kevin Fiala scored and assisted on Matt Boldy’s goal in the third period.
In his second start of the season, Carey Price made 28 saves.
Bruins 3, Blues 2 (OT)
St. Louis — Charlie McAvoy scored 48 seconds into overtime and Jeremy Swayman made 20 saves, leading Boston past St. Louis.
Jake DeBrusk and Taylor Hall also scored for Boston, which won its second straight after a season-worst three-game losing streak.
Robert Thomas and Pavel Buchnevich scored for St. Louis, which had a nine-game winning streak snapped.
Ville Husso made for 31 saves for St. Louis, He had won his previous six starts.
The Bruins were making their first appearance in St. Louis since a 5-1 win in Game 6 of the 2019 Stanley Cup Finals. The Blues went on to win the crown in seven games.
Predators 3, Flames 2 (SO)
Nashville — Matt Duchene scored his 40th goal of the season and Mikael Granlund had the only goal of the shootout to lead Nashville over Calgary.
Filip Forsberg also scored and Juuse Saros made 19 saves in regulation and overtime for Nashville, winners of two of three.
Andrew Mangiapane scored twice and Dan Vladar made 25 saves in regulation and overtime for Calgary, which had its two-game winning streak snapped. The Flames inched closer to clinching the top spot in the Pacific Division with the standings point for the shootout loss.
Senators 4, Canucks 3 (SO)
Vancouver — Adam Gaudette scored the shootout winner in the fifth round and Ottawa ended Vancouver’s six-game win streak.
Alex Formenton had a pair of goals in regulation for the Senators. Parker Kelly also scored and Nikita Zaitsev had two assists.
J.T. Miller and Brock Boeser each had a goal and an assist for Vancouver, and Travis Dermott scored his first goal for the Canucks, who lost for the first time since April 3.
Ottawa’s Filip Gustavsson stopped 34 of 37 shots for his first win since Nov. 13.
Vancouver’s Jaroslav Halak stopped all 14 shots he faced in the first period, but appeared to suffer an injury late in the frame and was replaced by Thatcher Demko to start the second. Demko made 15 saves in relief.
Sharks 3, Blue Jackets 2
San Jose — Scott Reedy had his first career two-goal game and San Jose snapped a 10-game winless streak by beating Columbus.
Rudolfs Balcers also scored and Kaapo Kahkonen made 22 saves to help the Sharks snap their longest skid since losing 10 straight in November 2005.
Jack Roslovic scored twice for Columbus for his third multi-goal game in the past five contests. Elvis Merzlikins made 25 saves. The Blue Jackets have lost 11 of their last 14 games.