The Carolina Hurricanes beat the Pittsburgh Penguins by four goals on Sunday to take first place in the Metropolitan Division.
Carolina was also led by Jordan Staal and Jesperi Kotkaniemi in scoring goals. They were tied at the top of perhaps the most competitive division of the league. Antti Raanta recorded 31 saves in his 100th career win.
Evan Rodrigues scored the first goal since Jan. 6, to bring Pittsburgh within one. The Hurricanes held on.
Bryan Rust recorded his eighth goal in eight games, while Sidney Crosby scored the 501st goal. Tristan Jarry ended with 26 stops for Pittsburgh. He played well, despite several breakdowns early on that allowed Hurricanes to maintain significant control of play.
BLACKHAWKS 2 – PANTHERS 5
CHICAGO (AP), Aleksander Barkov scored a goal and had two assists, and Florida won its third straight victory over Chicago.
Aaron Ekblad and Brandon Montour, MacKenzie Weegar, and Anton Lundell all scored. Eastern Conference-leading Florida won the eighth and final game in eight games. The win also concluded a five-game road trip that ended at 4-1-0.
Jonathan Huberdeau was able to assist with two assists, bringing his league-leading assist total up to 53. This helped extend Jonathan Huberdeau’s points streak to seven. In that span, he has one goal as well as 11 assists.
Chicago lost its third straight overall game (0-6-1) with Patrick Kane scoring a goal and providing an assist. Since beating Anaheim on January 15, the Blackhawks haven’t won at United Center. Kane’s assist earned him 720 career points, all with Chicago. He also moved past Denis Savard, who was second on the team’s career list.
Caleb Jones scored a third-period goal just as Chicago’s power play was ending to make it closer.
For Florida, Sergei Bobrovsky saved 22 shots. Marc-Andre Fleury stopped 20 shots for Chicago.
CANADIENS 3, ISLANDERS 2 SO
NEW YORK (AP), Andrew Hammond saved 30 shots and stopped two of the three shootout attempts to lead Montreal to victory over New York.
This was Hammond’s first regular season start since March 28, 2018. It was also his first NHL win in the regular season since April 9, 2016, when Hammond backed the Ottawa Senators to a 6-1 victory against the Boston Bruins.
Rem Pitlick and Cole Caufield scored in the shootout, and Montreal won its second consecutive match with St. Louis. For the Canadiens, Jeff Petry scored and Josh Anderson scored in regulation.
New York’s Kyle Palmieri and Brock Nelson were successful, while Ilya Sorokin saved 25.
RANGERS 2, SENSATORS 1
OTTAWA (Ontario) (AP) — Igor Shesterkin stopped 29 attempts, Ryan Strome scored, and New York edged Ottawa.
The Senators scored one goal through Tim Stutzle, who was playing the second half in a back-toback after a 3-2 overtime loss against Boston. Filip Gustavsson saved 31 shots in his NHL debut since Dec. 7.
The first period was balanced. Stutzle opened the scoring with a goal at the four minute mark. He took advantage of a Rangers turnover to score a goal past Shesterkin.
Three minutes later, Braden Scheiber fired a shot from point that failed to get through. Strome managed to grab it and beat Gustavsson to tie the game for his 10th season.
The Senators were outshot 15-7 by the Rangers in the second period. They took a 2-1 lead when Panarin scored a power play goal midway through.
