NHL roundup: Leonard leads Capitals to 4-2 win over Devils

WASHINGTON (AP) — Ryan Leonard scored a highlight-reel goal and the Washington Capitals beat the New Jersey Devils 4-2 on Saturday afternoon.

Ilya Protas, Dylan Strome and Boone Jenner also scored and Vincent Desharnais had two assists for the Capitals, who have won back-to-back games.

Arsenal Gritsyuk and Timo Meier scored for the Devils, who dropped to 4-4-0 to open the season.

The Devils got on the board first roughly halfway through the first period, when Gritsyuk beat Logan Thompson through traffic at the end of New Jersey’s second power play of the period.

With 3:18 to go in the first, though, Leonard would even the score and change the momentum with his spectacular goal. In the final seconds of Washington’s power play, Leonard took the puck up ice himself, going coast to coast before beating Luke Hughes, cutting to the inside and deking out Jake Allen for his third goal of the season.

From there, the Capitals took over the game, starting with back-to-back goals in a span of four minutes, 46 seconds to open the second period. First, Protas buried a cross-zone feed from Alex Ovechkin to give Washington the 2-1 lead. Then, Strome finished off a passing play from Alex Tuch and Jordan Kyrou to put Washington up by two.

Elsewhere in the NHL on Saturday:

HURRICANES 3 JETS 2

WINNIPEG, Man. (AP) — Nikolaj Ehlers scored a power-play goal 6:43 into the third period to lift Carolina to their seventh straight victory with a 3-2 decision over Winnipeg.

The former Jet fired a wrist shot past the glove of Clay Stevenson.

Mark Jankowski — also on the power play — and Jesperi Kotkaniemi scored for Carolina as well. Hurricanes defenceman Shayne Gostisbehere had two assists.

Pyotr Kochetkov made 21 saves and has posted victories in all five starts this season. With fewer than 40 seconds remaining, Kochetkov made a pad save on Cole Perfetti, following that up with a save on 18-year-old Viggo Bjorck off the helmet to preserve Carolina’s lead.

Mark Scheifele and Alex Iafallo scored for Winnipeg, which lost its first game this season on home ice in regulation. Stevenson stopped 34 shots.

LIGHTNING 4 CANUCKS 2

TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — Nikita Kucherov scored twice, Jake Guentzel had a goal and an assist, and Dennis Hildeby stopped 12 shots as Tampa Bay defeated Vancouver 4-2.

Guentzel scored the winner in the third period as Tampa Bay came back from a two-goal deficit.

Pontus Holmberg also scored and Brayden Point finished with two assists for Tampa Bay, which improved to 5-0 at home.

Linus Karlsson and Elias Pettersson scored while Kevin Lankinen finished with 31 saves for the Canucks, who finished winless (0-4-1) on a five-game road trip. Vancouver is winless in the past seven games (0-6-1) overall.

Guentzel picked up the winner at 2:04 of the third after Charle-Edouard D’Astous slid a pass off the wall to Guentzel for the quick snap shot that deflected off the stick of Vancouver’s Liam Ohgren.

For the second consecutive game, the Canucks had a 2-0 lead they were not able to hold.

PANTHERS 8 KRAKEN 3

SUNRISE, Fla. (AP) — Carter Verhaeghe had a history-making natural hat trick, Sam Bennett scored his first three goals of the season and Florida rolled past Seattle 8-3.

The Panthers became the first team in NHL history with natural hat tricks in three consecutive games, after Brady Tkachuk had them in wins over Columbus on Tuesday and Vancouver on Thursday. Florida also became only the third team in 30 years to have a hat trick — of any variety — in three consecutive games.

With four hat tricks already this season — all coming in the last three games — Florida has matched its total from the last three regular seasons combined. Niko Mikkola and Sam Reinhart also scored for the Panthers, and Matthew Tkachuk had three assists.

Freddy Gaudreau, Shane Wright and Ryker Evans had goals for Seattle, while Kaapo Kakko and Berkly Catton both had two-assist games.

ISLANDERS 4 MAPLE LEAFS 1

TORONTO (AP) — Bo Horvat scored the winner and added an assist to help the New York beat Toronto 4-1.

Simon Holmstrom scored twice, the second into an empty net, and Anthony Duclair also connected for New York (4-3-1). Ilya Sorokin made 28 saves.

Colton Sissons replied for Toronto (3-4-2). Sergei Bobrovsky stopped 16 shots for the Maple Leafs. They have dropped three straight games and four of their last five.

The Islanders jumped out to a 1-0 lead at 8:18 of the first period when Duclair took a pass in the slot and changed the angle before firing through a partial screen on Bobrovsky.

Coming off a hat trick Thursday in a 5-4 home shootout loss to Buffalo, Maple Leafs winger Kirill Marchenko had a couple of chances that Sorokin turned aside in the second.

No. 1 overall pick Gavin McKenna, who was benched for the second half of Thursday’s contest, had an opportunity it late in the second period on a partial breakaway, but fired high and wide. The Islanders raced the other way, with Horvat eventually beating Bobrovsky with 1:27 to go.

CANADIENS 4 SABRES 3 (OT)

MONTREAL (AP) — Cole Caufield scored his second goal of the game 54 seconds into overtime to lift Montreal over Buffalo.

Caufield had a breakaway after Josh Norris missed his shot on a 3-on-1 rush. He ripped a shot into the top-left corner, extending his franchise record with his 14th regular-season overtime goal.

Zachary Bolduc and Alexandre Texier also scored while Montreal built a two-goal lead before Buffalo stormed back. Juraj Slafkovsky and Alexandre Carrier added two assists each.

Jacob Fowler stopped 23 shots in his fourth start in five games.

RED WINGS 4 SHARKS 3 (SO)

DETROIT (AP) — Lucas Raymond scored the only goal during the shootout and Detroit rallied for a 4-3 victory over San Jose.

Alex DeBrincat scored with 1:33 remaining to send the game into overtime. DeBrincat’s team-high fifth goal left him one shy of 300 for his career.

Justin Faulk and Emmitt Finnie also scored for the Red Wings, who have won back-to-back wins for the first time this season. John Gibson stopped 32 shots.

Macklin Celebrini had a goal and two assists to lead the Sharks. Dmitry Orlov and Ivar Stenberg contributed power-play goals, while Alex Nedeljkovic made 25 saves in the second of six consecutive road games for San Jose.

With Gibson pulled for an extra skater, DeBrincat tapped in the puck with 1:33 remaining during a scramble in front of the net. Detroit needed to kill off Andrew Copp’s penalty in overtime to force the shootout.

FLYERS 3 SENATORS 1

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Matvei Michkov and Porter Martone each had a goal and an assist, and Philadelphia beat Ottawa for their first victory this season.

Philadelphia (1-6-3) opened with nine consecutive losses, a franchise record.

Michkov set up Martone with a nifty pass to the far post, and Martone tapped in his second goal this season at 9:03 of the second period to tie the score 1-all.

Martone returned the favour on a power play late in the period, firing a shot toward the net that Ottawa goalie Linus Ullmark stopped. But the rebound went right to Michkov, who snapped home his fourth goal of the season at 18:33.

It was the 50th career goal for Michkov in 171 games. He became the fastest Flyers player to reach the milestone since Matt Read in 2014.

Trevor Zegras added an empty-net goal with 14 seconds left in the third to seal it.

BLUE JACKETS 1 RANGERS 0 (0T)

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Kent Johnson scored with 1:33 remaining in overtime, Jet Greaves got his fifth career shutout, and Columbus beat New York.

Charlie Coyle brought the puck into the zone and passed to Zach Werenski near the left faceoff circle. Werenski then found Johnson in the slot, who fired a wrist shot past Rangers goaltender Dylan Garand for his team-leading fourth goal of the season as the Blue Jackets snapped a two-game slide.

It was Werenski’s 22nd career point in overtime. With seven goals and 15 assists, he passed Seth Jones for most overtime points in franchise history.

It was the fourth time the Blue Jackets won 1-0 in overtime. The previous occasion was Feb. 4, 2020, against the Florida Panthers.

STARS 4 BLACKHAWKS 0

CHICAGO (AP) — Jake Oettinger made 19 saves for his NHL-leading third shutout in six games, Arttu Hyry scored twice and Dallas beat Chicago 4-0.

Jason Robertson scored and Roope Hintz also connected before he exited late in the third period with a right hand injury. Dallas (4-3-1) won its second straight to give Glen Gulutzan his 200th NHL coaching victory.

Oettinger had his 19th career shutout and lowered his goals-against average to 1.00. The 25-year-old Hyry had his first multi-goal game.

The Stars, who trimmed their NHL-best team goals average to 1.50, outshot the Blackhawks 32-19 in this one and limited Chicago’s chances.

Spencer Knight blocked 28 shots in his fourth straight start as the Blackhawks’ two-game winning streak ended.

PREDATORS 5 BLUES 2

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Filip Forsberg scored a goal and added an assist to lead Nashville to a victory over St. Louis.

Jonathan Marchessault, Adam Edstrom, Ryan O’Reilly and Jack Drury also scored and Juuse Saros made 24 saves to help the Predators snap a three-game losing streak.

Phillip Broberg and Jimmy Snuggerud scored and Jordan Binnington made 19 saves for the Blues. They have lost consecutive games.

Broberg scored the game’s first goal at 6:21 of the opening period. Coming through the slot unchecked, Broberg beat Saros with a wrist shot on the glove side. Mason McTavish assisted on the goal, extending his points streak to six games. He has four goals and four assists over that span.

BRUINS 4 KINGS 1

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Marat Khusnutdinov scored in the third period and Boston beat Los Angeles Kings for their fifth straight victory.

David Pastrnak had a goal, Elias Lindholm and JJ Peterka scored empty-netters, and Jeremy Swayman made 25 saves. The Bruins swept the three California teams as part of a four-game trip that ends in Dallas on Tuesday.

Alex Laferriere scored for Los Angeles, and Anton Forsberg made 24 saves. The Kings remained winless through six games to start the season and were held to one goal for the fourth straight contest.

Khusnutdinov put the Bruins ahead 2-1 with 6:24 remaining, scoring on a backhander after Forsberg failed to cover up Morgan Geekie’s shot and Matt Poitras kept the puck alive.

The Kings got off to a quick start, scoring 31 seconds into the game. Laferriere was at the top of the crease to put in Adrian Kempe’s pass for his second goal of the season, making the most of his promotion to first-line centre.

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The Associated Press