The New York Rangers scored five goals in a row to put the match out of reach of the Detroit Red Wings, who despite a good comeback attempt, ran out of steam to lose 5-3 on Tuesday.
New York scored once in the first before adding four goals in the middle period to build a 5-0 lead.
Vincent Trocheck scored his second and third goals of the season.
Artemi Panarin and Chris Kreider, with his 98th in the power play, scored a goal and got an assist each. Panarin has 20 points since the start of the season. He became the eighth player in Rangers history to reach this milestone in 12 games or less.
The Rangers’ other goal came off the stick of Will Cuylle.
Quebecer Alexis Lafrenière assisted on Panarin’s goal.
In the third, the Red Wings scored three times in less than six minutes to revive hopes but failed to climb back to the top where the Rangers were.
Michael Rasmussen, Klim Kostin and Andrew Copp scored for Detroit.
Former Montéal Canadiens defensemen Ben Chiarot and Jeff Petry managed to blacken the score sheet in the defeat. Chiarot was an accomplice on two of his team’s three goals while Petry had an assist.
Necas ends the suspense
Martin Necas redirected a pass from Sebastian Aho past goaltender Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen in overtime to give the Carolina Hurricanes a 3-2 victory over the Buffalo Sabres.
The winning goal was scored 90 seconds into extra time. Brady Skjei also had an assist on the winning goal.
The Canes took the lead on the power play in the first period on defenseman Tony DeAngelo’s first of the season. It was the tenth goal scored by a Hurricanes defenseman this season, an NHL high.
The lead remained that way until the start of the second period when Alex Tuch brought the two clubs back into a tie with an unassisted goal.
The two teams exchanged goals in the third period. With his second of the season, Brady Skjei put the Hurricanes ahead 2-1 at 7:54 of the period. Carolina barely had time to celebrate the narrow lead before Rasmus Dahlin tied the game for the Sabers at 9:23 on a power play.
Antti Raanta blocked 20 shots in front of the Hurricanes cage while Luukkonen faced 27 shots.
Pat Maroon does things quickly
Pat Maroon and Joel Eriksson Ek each had a goal and an assist to give the Minnesota Wild a 4-2 victory over the New York Islanders.
Maroon’s goal came just 19 seconds into the first. This is the tenth time in Wild history that a player on the team has hit the target in the first 20 seconds of a game.
Vinni Lettieri and Kirill Kaprizov on a power play scored the others for the Wild.
For the Islanders, Noah Dobson and Oliver Wahlstrom provided the response.
Goalkeeper Marc-André Fleury signed the victory by facing 28 shots. His opponent Semyon Varlamov was thwarted four times out of 31 shots.
Connor and Scheifele take care of the Blues
Kyle Connor had two goals and an assist, and the Winnipeg Jets defeated the St. Louis Blues 5-2.
Mark Scheifele contributed a goal and two assists, while Connor Hellebuyck made 20 saves to earn his sixth victory of the season.
After Dylan DeMelo stole a goal from Pavel Buchnevich at the start of the game, the Jets did not lack opportunism.
Mark Scheifele completed the feed from Alex Iaffalo, who finished the game with other passes, to open the scoring on the power play at 8:44 of the first period, then Neal Pionk doubled his team’s lead with a shot precise which got the better of goalkeeper Jordan Binnington.
The hosts finally responded before the end of the period when Robert Thomas scored a goal in a fourth game in a row to reduce the gap to 2-1.
Kyle Connor, however, restored a two-goal priority to the Jets during a superiority in the second period with a one-timer that was merciless for Binnington before adding a second in the third. Cole Perfetti completed the score in an empty net.
