UNDATED (AP) — Ryan Nugent-Hopkins broke a tie with a short-handed goal with 4:03 remaining in the Edmonton Oilers’ 5-3 victory over the Washington Capitals in the final game for both teams before the All-Star break.
Nugent-Hopkins added an empty-net goal with 1:05 remaining to wrap up the Oilers’ fifth victory in six games. Washington played without Alex Ovechkin after he entered the NHL’s COVID-19 protocols Wednesday. The Russian star also will miss the All-Star Game. Forward Tom Wilson will replace him.
Leon Draisaitl, Evander Kane and Connor McDavid scored goals in the first 5:07 to give the Oilers a 3-0 lead.
Mikko Koskinen stopped 24 shots. Lars Eller, Conor Sheary and Evgeny Kuznetsov scored for Washington.
In other NHL action:
— Christopher Tanev scored the go-ahead goal and had three assists, Blake Coleman scored twice, and the Calgary Flames beat the Arizona Coyotes 4-2 for their fifth win in six games. Elias Lindholm also scored, and Jacob Markstrom had 24 saves for Calgary. The Flames had 50 shots against Coyotes’ goaltender Karel Vejmelka, who faced a franchise-record 26 shots in the first period and made a franchise-record 24 saves. Clayton Keller and Alex Galchenyuk scored for the Coyotes. Keller had a goal and an assist to extend his points-streak to six games.
— Cam Talbot made 30 saves for his first shutout of the season and the Minnesota Wild beat the Chicago Blackhawks 5-0 Wednesday night to extended their points streak to 10 games. Mats Zuccarello, Kevin Fiala and Frederick Gaudreau each had a goal and an assist for surging Minnesota. The Wild head into the NHL’s All-Star break on a 9-0-1 roll. Fiala extended his career-high points streak to 12 games, matching Mikael Granlund’s Wild record set in 2017. Kirill Kaprizov scored his team-leading 19th goal to stretch his career-best points streak to eight games. Nico Sturm also connected to help Minnesota improve to 3-0-0 against fading Chicago.
— Jared McCann had a goal and an assist, and Philipp Grubauer stopped 19 shots for the first shutout in franchise history as the expansion Seattle Kraken beat the New York Islanders 3-0. Mason Appleton had a goal and an assist and Vince Dunn also scored to help Seattle to its third win in seven games. Grubauer got his 19th career shutout.
— Phillip Danault scored twice, including the go-ahead goal in the third period, and the Los Angeles Kings finished off a highly successful six-game trip with a 5-3 victory over the Detroit Red Wings. Arthur Kaliyev, Victor Arvidsson and Adrian Kempe also scored for the Kings, who went 4-0-2 on their road swing. Jonathan Quick, who is 6-1 in his last seven games against Detroit, made 22 saves.
Wirtz rejects talk Beach’s allegations
UNDATED (AP) — Chicago Blackhawks owner Rocky Wirtz has apologized after he angrily rejected any conversation connected to the franchise’s response when a player said he was sexually assaulted by an assistant coach. Wirtz made his remarks at a town hall.
It was the first time the franchise’s top leaders had faced questions in public since the team published a report by an outside law firm that found the organization badly mishandled Kyle Beach’s allegations that he was assaulted by then-video coach Brad Aldrich during the team’s run to the 2010 Stanley Cup title.
Wirtz says his response to two questions by reporters “crossed the line”
In other NHL news:
— NHL players and coaches are welcoming the more lenient COVID-19 protocols announced earlier this week. The league and players’ union agreed to drop daily testing requirements for fully vaccinated players, citing a “declining positivity rate” in virus cases.
