Carl Soderberg and Alex DeBrincat scored power-play goals in the second period and the Chicago Blackhawks scored on four of their first eight shots in a 4-2 victory over the Dallas Stars on Thursday night. Thirty-seven-year-old defenseman Duncan Keith had his first goal in exactly a calendar year, Dominik Kubalik also scored and rookie Kevin Lankinen made 28 saves. Patrick Kane and Adam Boqvist each had two assists to help the Blackhawks close their four games in Dallas this season at 3-1-0. In the opener of the two-game series Tuesday night, the Stars beat the Blackhawks 6-1. Roope Hintz and John Klingberg scored for the Stars.
— It’s a seven-game winning streak for the New York Islanders following a 5-3 win over the New Jersey Devils. The Isles received production from their blueline as Adam Pelech and Noah Dobson scored, while Ryan Pulock collected two assists in the Islanders’ first game in front of home fans in over a year. Matt Martin, Josh Bailey and Brock Nelson also tallied for New York, which kept its two-point lead over the Washington Capitals atop the East Division. The Isles remain the only NHL team without a regulation home loss. The Caps kept pace as Alex Ovechkin scored his 715th career goal to help them win their third straight game, 5-3 over the Philadelphia Flyers. Ovechkin moved two goals shy of matching Phil Esposito for sixth on the NHL’s career goals list. Conor Sheary, John Carlson and Nic Dowd scored three straight goals to build a 4-1 cushion and help the Capitals win for the seventh time in the last eight games.
— Anthony Mantha scored a tiebreaking goal late in the first period and the Detroit Red Wings beat the Tampa Bay Lightning 6-4. Brayden Point scored twice in a 1:14 stretch late in the game to pull the Lightning within one before they gave up an empty-net goal to Vladislav Namestnikov. Tampa Bay entered the game 19-0-1 against the Red Wings over the last five years, and its 20-game point streak was the longest in franchise history against a team.
— Morgan Geekie scored his first two goals of the season and the Carolina Hurricanes used a rapid-fire scoring spree in the first period to defeat the Nashville Predators 5-1. Brock McGinn, Dougie Hamilton and Martin Necas also scored for the Hurricanes, who have won seven games in a row. James Reimer made 15 of his 32 saves in the first period and was denied his first shutout of the season when Nick Cousins scored with 4:32 left.
— Frank Vatrano scored 2:48 into overtime, Sergei Bobrovsky made 28 saves and the Florida Panthers beat the Columbus Blue Jackets 5-4 on Thursday night to sweep a two-game series. The Panthers scored three times in the third period to erase a 4-1 deficit before Vatrano tipped in a rebounded shot from Jonathan Huberdeau to win it. Patric Hornqvist, Ryan Lomberg, Owen Tippett and Aleksander Barkov also scored for the Panthers, who have won four of five.
— Jake DeBrusk returned after being benched one game for lack of effort and scored his first goal in almost a month, chasing Rangers goalie Alexandar Georgiev early in the second period and leading the Boston Bruins to a 4-0 victory. David Krejci scored his first goal of the season and Brad Marchand had two assists — one of them after sliding the puck through his own skates to set up Patrice Bergeron’s short-handed goal. David Pastrnak also scored for Boston, and Jaroslav Halak stopped 28 shots for his second shutout of the year.
— Evgeni Malkin had a goal and assist and the Pittsburgh Penguins beat the free-falling Buffalo Sabres 5-2 for their fourth straight victory. Jake Guentzel scored the go-ahead goal on the power play with 8:24 left in the second period. Brandon Tanev, Anthony Angelo and Bryan Rust also scored in a game the Penguins never trailed.
— Auston Matthews scored his NHL-leading 21st goal of the season 59 seconds into overtime and the Toronto Maple Leafs beat the Winnipeg Jets 4-3 to snap a three-game losing streak. Mitch Marner, William Nylander and Ilya Mikheyev scored in regulation to help Toronto regain the overall NHL lead at 19-7-2. Frederik Andersen made 23 saves, and Matthews and Marner each added an assist.
— Josh Leivo scored twice and Calgary beat the Montreal Canadiens 2-1. Jacob Markstrom stopped 17 shots, and Derek Ryan and Sam Bennett assisted on both of Leivo’s goals. Corey Perry scored for Montreal, which is 3-2-3 since Dominique Ducharme replaced the fired Claude Julien on Feb. 24.
