The Carolina Hurricanes posted their ninth straight win with a 3-0 win over the Chicago Blackhawks on Tuesday night.
This is the fifth time in their history that they have had such a long and prolific streak. The Canes have now earned at least one point in their last 15 meetings, improving their franchise record.
Goaltender Antti Raanta preserved his shutout with a 24-save performance, his first since March and his 16th career
Martin Necas opened the scoring with his 15e goal of the season after 3:36 of play battling in front of the net. On this sequence, Brent Burns reached the plateau of 20 assists for a 13e times during his NHL career. Other active defensemen to have reached this milestone so frequently are Ryan Suter (14 times), Drew Doughty (13) and Kristopher Letang (13).
Jesper Fast doubled the lead five minutes later.
Jordan Martinook completed the scoring at 4:55 of the third period shortly after the opponent’s power play ended.
Paul Stastny got an assist on his 37th birthday, on the first goal of the game.
The Hawks were looking for back-to-back wins for the first time since late October, but instead lost for the ninth time in their last 10 outings. They were cleared three times during this period.
Petr Mrazek made 46 saves in the loss to his former team, as the Hurricanes fired 23 shots at him in the first period.
Nylander ends Blues hopes
William Nylander played heroes with a minute left in overtime and the Toronto Maple Leafs beat the St. Louis Blues 5-4.
Returning from the Christmas break, the Torontonians therefore extend their winning streak to three, while the Blues suffer a third consecutive loss.
Justin Holl opened the scoring in the game before seeing Calle Rosen equalize 1-1 later in the first period.
John Tavares then put the Leafs back in front with his 15th goal of the season.
During the middle period, Alexander Kerfoot dealt a blow to the Blues by widening the gap to two goals in numerical inferiority.
St Louis rallied with goals from Ryan O’Reilly and Justin Faulk which were followed by one from Calle Jarnkrok, which restored the Leafs’ lead.
Jordan Kyrou sent the game into overtime with his 18e goal of the season early in the third period.
However, the resilient Blues had their rug pulled out from under them when William Nylander ended the duel in extra time.
Ilya Samsonov stopped 30 of 34 shots aimed at him in the win.
The band in Crosby clashes with the Islanders
Anders Lee and Mathew Barzal scored two goals apiece in a 5-1 New York Islanders victory over the Pittsburgh Penguins.
After seeing the Penguins tie the game 1-1 with Pierre-Olivier Joseph’s second goal of the season, the Islanders went on to score four unanswered goals.
Josh Bailey scored the other goal, the game’s first, in the win. Bailey also had an assist for the 104th career multi-point game. It was also the 47th time in his career that he scored the game’s first goal. He is thus ahead of John Tavares in fifth place in the history of the club.
For his part, Brock Nelson collected two assists in the victory.
Goalkeeper Ilya Sorokin signed a 51st victory in his 100th career game. Only four goaltenders in Islanders history have scored more than him in their first 100 games with the franchise. They are Jaroslav Halak (58), Roland Melanson (58), Thomas Greiss (53) and Glenn Resch (53).
Already 19 points for Zuccarello in December
The Minnesota Wild defeated the Winnipeg Jets 4-1.
Mats Zuccarello scored his ninth goal since December 1. He has 19 points since then. Only Connor McDavid (12-13—25), Tage Thompson (12-9—21) and Leon Draisaitl (6-14—20) had more points than him during the month.
With one goal and one assist, Zuccarello also became the tenth player in Wild history to have at least a 50th multi-point game with the club.
Jared Spurgeon, Frédérick Gaudreau and Samuel Walker have the others for the Wild.
Pierre-Luc Dubois was the lone scorer in the Jets’ loss. Josh Morrissey got an assist on that goal to reach 40 points in his 35th game. He is the fourth active defender to achieve this feat. Erik Karlsson (33 games this season), John Carlson (29 games in 2019-2020) and Morgan Rielly (35 games in 2018-2019) have also achieved this feat.
The Jets have used 27 skaters this season, tied for fifth among NHL teams. The latest player to make a stint is rookie forward Cole Perfetti, who suffered an upper-body injury a week ago.
Hintz slices and achieves a double
Roope Hintz scored his second goal of the game with 52.3 seconds left in the third period to give the Dallas Stars a 3-2 win over the Nashville Predators.
Jamie Benn scored and had an assist and Jake Oettinger made 26 saves for the Stars, who have won three of their last four games.
Filip Forsberg and Yakov Trenin provided the reply and Juuse Saros stopped 30 shots for the Predators, who lost twice in a row.
Stars player Frederik Olofsson made his NHL debut. The 26-year-old left-winger became the third Stars player to make his NHL debut more than eight years after being drafted.
Olofsson was selected in the fourth round, 98th overall, in 2014 by the Chicago Blackhawks.
The Coyotes put a brake and the series of the Avalanche
Michael Carcone scored in his first NHL game, Nick Schmaltz scored his second power-play goal in as many games and the Arizona Coyotes beat the Colorado Avalanche 6-3 to end the series four wins for the defending Stanley Cup champions.
Shayne Gostisbehere, Lawson Crouse, JJ Moser and Clayton Keller also hit the mark for the Coyotes as Connor Ingram made 26 saves. Defenseman Jacob Chychrun had three assists.
The Coyotes have two straight wins and are 5-1-1 at home at the 5,000-seat Mullett Arena.
Evan Rodrigues, Cole Makar and Mikko Rantanen scored for the Avalanche, which lost three straight to the Coyotes for the first time in nine seasons.
The Avalanche are 6-3-1 since forward Nathan MacKinnon was forced out Dec. 5 with an upper-body injury.
Canucks win third straight game
Bo Horvat scored two goals and added a pair of assists to lead the Vancouver Canucks to a 6-2 win over the San Jose Sharks 6-2 on Tuesday to extend their winning streak to three games .
Ilya Mikheyev scored a goal and had three assists for the Canucks (15-16-3).
Elias Pettersson, Brock Boeser and Quinn Hughes, with his first goal of the season, also hit the mark for the Canucks, who are 7-3 in their last 10 games. The three losses all took place at Rogers Arena.
Timo Meier scored twice for the Sharks (11-19-6). Defender Erik Karlsson had two assists for his 16th point (two goals, 14 assists) in his last 10 games.
Canucks goaltender Spencer Martin stopped 24 shots.
Sharks goaltender James Reimer has made 19 saves and remains one win away from 200 career wins.
Danault picks up three points in a win
Phillip Danault and Viktor Arvidsson each had a goal and two assists, Pheonix Copley made 21 saves for his fifth straight start and the Los Angeles Kings prevailed 4-2 at the expense of the Vegas Golden Knights on Tuesday.
Alex Iafallo had a goal and an assist and Gabriel Vilardi also scored to help the Kings improve to 5-0-1 in their last six games.
Michael Amadio, who found the back of the net for a third consecutive game, and Brayden McNabb scored for the Golden Knights.
In the loss, Logan Thompson allowed three goals on 24 shots.
