Thursday's NHL: Ex-Wolverine Power scores first NHL goal; Copp nets hat trick
Newark, N.J. — Kyle Okposo and Alex Tuch scored short-handed goals less than a minute apart in the first period and former Wolverine Owen Power scored his first NHL goal in the third period as the Buffalo Sabres beat the New Jersey Devils 5-2 on Thursday night.
Rasmus Dahlin and Jeff Skinner also scored, and 40-year-old Craig Anderson had 31 saves for the Sabres in this matchup of teams eliminated from playoff contention.
Nikita Okhotiuk scored in his NHL debut and Jesper Boqvist also scored for the Devils.
Okhotiuk’s goal early in the third period cut Buffalo’s lead to 3-2, but Power scored 31/2 minutes later. Skinner put the game away with 3:57 remaining.
Casey Mittelstadt got 2 minutes for hooking Ryan Graves at 10:56 of the opening period, but the Devils’ time with the man advantage turned disastrous. Okposo scored from outside the blue line about a minute into the power play, and Tuch converted the rebound on a breakaway by Victor Oloffson 47 seconds later.
Late in the second period, Dahlin scored on a cross-ice pass and broke his stick in the process, making it 3-0 and provoking boos from the Prudential Center crowd.
Adam Hammond stopped 23 of 28 shots for New Jersey.
More games
►(At) New York Rangers 6, New York Islanders 3: Ex-Wolverine Andrew Copp scored three goals in the first period, Chris Kreider got his 51st of the season, and the New York Rangers beat the crosstown-rival Islanders 6-3 Thursday night.
Ryan Strome had a goal and an assist, Ryan Reaves also scored, Artemi Panarin had four assists and Adam Fox added three to help the Rangers win their fourth straight and seventh in their last eight. Alexandar Georgiev had 26 saves to improve to 14-9-2.
The Rangers remained tied with Carolina atop the Metropolitan Division with 108 points. Carolina, which holds the tiebreaker with one more regulation win, beat Winnipeg 4-2.
Brock Nelson scored twice, Josh Bailey had a goal and an assist, and Semyon Varlamov finished with 17 saves for the Islanders, who are 3-5-1 in their last nine. They lost for just the third time in their last 11 at home (8-2-1).
Copp got the Rangers on the scoreboard first with his 200th career point 3:43 into the game as he got a pass from Panarin and fired a one-timer from the right circle past Varlamov.
Copp made it 2-0 at 7:48. After Georgiev made a save on a shot by Strome, the puck came to Panarin on the left side and he sent a pass across to Copp, who lifted it over Varlamov’s pad from a sharp angle between the right circle and the goal line.
Copp completed his second career hat trick with 1:47 left in the first period. He got the puck from Panarin at center-ice, sent a pass to Strome on the right side and went toward the net and tapped Strome’s return pass past Varlamov from the left side for his 21st of the season. It gave him eight goals and 18 points in 15 games since being acquired from Winnipeg.
►(At) Pittsburgh 4, Boston 0: Casey DeSmith made a career-high 52 saves and Jake Guentzel scored three goals as the Pittsburgh Penguins beat the Boston Bruins 4-0 on Thursday night.
Guentzel completed the hat trick with an empty-netter, his 40th goal of the season, as Pittsburgh moved two points ahead of Washington for third place in the Metropolitan Division. The Penguins, Bruins and Capitals have already secured playoff spots but are fighting for seeding in the Eastern Conference. Pittsburgh and Boston are knotted at 99 points apiece.
Jason Zucker also scored for the Penguins, who have won three of five following a four-game losing streak. The Penguins lost 2-1 at Boston on Saturday.
Jeremy Swayman made 28 saves for the Bruins, whose two-game winning streak ended. Boston has lost five of eight overall.
DeSmith’s shutout was his third of the season and ninth overall. With Tristan Jarry week-to-week with a lower-body injury, DeSmith is likely to remain Pittsburgh’s starting goaltender into the playoffs.
►Philadelphia 6, (at) Montreal 3: James van Reimsdyk had two goals and an assist, Ivan Provorov had a goal and an assist and the Philadelphia Flyers beat the Montreal Canadiens 6-3 Thursday night to end a six-game skid.
Oskar Lindblom, Morgan Frost and Travis Konecny had Philadelphia’s other goals. Bobby Brink had his first career multipoint game with two assists. Martin Jones made 31 saves.
Mike Hoffman, Jake Evans and Cole Caufield scored for Montreal. Carey Price made 28 saves as the Canadiens (20-47-11) lost their seventh straight.
►(At) Tampa Bay 8, Toronto 1: Steven Stamkos scored his 34th goal of the season and became Tampa Bay’s all-time scoring leader in a win over Toronto.
Stamkos, the first overall pick in the 2008 draft, fired a one-timer from the left circle off a feed from Nikita Kucherov for the record-breaking 954th point of his career. He moved past Martin St. Louis, who had 365 goals and 588 assists with the Lightning. Stamkos added a pair of assists for his fourth consecutive multipoint game.
Kucherov collected career point No. 600 on the Stamkos goal and added his 20th goal of the season. Alex Killorn (two goals), Ondrej Palat and Ross Colton (two goals) each finished three points. Pat Maroon added his 10th of the season as the Lightning set had a season high in goals scored. Andrei Vasilevskiy stopped 36 shots.
Ilya Mikheyev scored a power-play goal for the Maple Leafs. Erik Kallgren stopped 28 shots for Toronto.
►(At) Calgary 4, Dallas 2: Matthew Tkachuk scored his 40th goal, Christopher Tanev had the tiebreaking goal in the third period, and Calgary beat Dallas to win the Pacific Division title.
The Flames won their division for the eighth time in franchise history but just the third in the last 27 years.
Noah Hanifin and Andrew Mangiapane also scored for Calgary, which is 8-1-1 in its past 10 games.
Jason Robertson and Luke Glendening scored for the Stars, who lost all three games on their Western Canada trip as they fight for a wild-card playoff berth.
Jacob Markstrom had 21 saves for the Flames and Jake Oettinger stopped 33 shots for Dallas.
►(At) Carolina 4, Winnipeg 2: Seth Jarvis scored on a rebound at 8:21 of the third period to help Carolina overcome a two-goal deficit and beat Winnipeg.
Teuvo Teravainen and Jaccob Slavin also scored in the rally for the Hurricanes, who are tied with the New York Rangers for the Metropolitan Division lead. Captain Jordan Staal added an empty-net goal in the final minute.
Antti Raanta, pressed into a lead role due to an injury to No. 1 goaltender Frederik Andersen, made 20 saves for Carolina. The Hurricanes had a 46-22 edge in shots.
Pierre-Luc Dubois and Kyle Connor scored first-period goals for Winnipeg. The Jets ended a six-game trip with their fourth straight loss. Eric Comrie made 42 saves.
►(At) Pittsburgh 4, Boston 0: Casey DeSmith made a career-high 52 saves and Jake Guentzel scored three goals in Pittsburgh’s win over Boston.
Guentzel completed the hat trick with an empty-netter, his 40th goal of the season, as Pittsburgh moved two points ahead of Washington for third place in the Metropolitan Division.
Jason Zucker also scored for the Penguins, who have won three of five following a four-game losing streak.
Jeremy Swayman made 28 saves for the Bruins, whose two-game winning streak ended. Boston has lost five of eight overall.
►(At) Minnesota 6, Vancouver 3: Kevin Fiala scored twice, including the go-ahead goal in the third period, and Minnesota beat Vancouver.
The Wild ensured they will finish either second or third in the Central Division and locked in a first-round playoff matchup with St. Louis, which is two points behind in the standings. Minnesota lost all three games against the Blues this season, including two in overtime.
Kirill Kaprizov and Mats Zuccarello each had a goal and two assists for the Wild, who also got goals from Jared Spurgeon and Ryan Hartman.
Elias Pettersson scored twice for the Canucks and Matthew Highmore had Vancouver’s other goal.
Cam Talbot made 21 saves for the Wild to earn his 200th win. Thatcher Demko stopped 25 shots for Vancouver.
►St. Louis 3, (at) San Jose 1: Robert Thomas scored his 20th goal to extend his points streak to 15 games and St. Louis beat San Jose.
Dakota Joshua also scored and Pavel Buchnevich added an empty-netter to lead the Blues to their 12th win in 14 games. Jordan Binnington made 20 saves.
St. Louis kept pace with Minnesota in the race for second place in the Central Division and home-ice advantage for the first round of the playoffs. The teams are tied with 105 points, with the Wild having a game in hand.
Noah Gregor scored the lone goal for the Sharks, who have lost 11 of 12 games and are playing out the string on a third straight season without a playoff berth. James Reimer made 25 saves.
►(At) Los Angeles 4, Chicago 1: Phillip Danault scored for the fifth straight game and Los Angeles moved closer to wrapping up a playoff spot with a win over Chicago.
Danault opened the scoring in the first period with his 26th goal of the season. He is the first Kings player since Marián Gáborík in 2014 to have a goal in five straight games.
Anze Kopitar, Andreas Athanasiou and Trevor Moore also scored for Los Angeles, which has won four of its last five. The Kings are five points ahead of Vegas for third place in the Pacific Division.
Jonathan Quick made 15 saves, and Adrian Kempe and Alexander Edler each had two assists.
Patrick Kane scored for Chicago, which has lost nine of its last 11. It was the 430th career goal for Kane, moving him past Bill Guerin into sixth among U.S.-born skaters in NHL history.
Collin Delia made 31 saves before exiting in the third period due to a lower-body injury.