UNDATED (AP) — The Tampa Bay Lightning, New York Rangers and Pittsburgh Penguins continued their playoff scramble in the NHL’s Eastern Conference.
The Lightning made it two straight wins since a three-game skid by downing the Islanders, 4-1.
Andrei Vasilevsky stopped 23 shots for the Lightning, who moved back into second place in the Atlantic Division.
The Bolts trailed 1-0 until Victor Hedman and Alex Killorn scored second-period goals.
The Penguins crushed the Red Wings, 11-2 as Evgeni Malkin returned in style after missing a game with a non-COVID illness. Malkin led the scoresheet with a hat trick and four points, while Teddy Blueger added a goal and three assists.
Sidney Crosby, Rickard Rackell and Bryan Rust each had a goal and two assists, while Kris Letang set up three scores.
The blowout puts the Pens within three points of Carolina for the Metropolitan Division lead and keeps them one ahead of the Rangers. The Hurricanes have two games in hand on Pittsburgh.
The Rangers pulled out a 5-4 win against the Sabres on K’Andre Miller’s goal at 2:02 of overtime. Blueshirts newcomer Frank Vatrano scored twice as he continues to receive significant ice time since his acquisition from Florida. Alexei Lafreniere added a goal and an assist in New York’s fourth win in five games.
Elsewhere on NHL ice:
— Mitch Marner set up three goals, including a pair of second-period power-play goals from John Tavares in the Maple Leafs’ 5-2 verdict over the Panthers. Marner also fired a pass into the slot to a streaking Iyla Mikheyev for Toronto’s fourth goal midway through the third period. Auston Matthews scored his league-leading 48th goal on a long drifter into the empty net.
— Kevin Fiala scored 15 seconds into overtime to send the Wild to their sixth consecutive win, 3-2 versus the Avalanche. Kirill Kaprizov and Ryan Hartman also scored for Minnesota, which is the only NHL team this season with at least three six-game winning streaks. Cam Talbot made 40 saves for Minnesota, extending his own personal win streak to six games.
— Tanner Jeannot scored with 1:19 remaining to lead the Predators to a 5-4 victory over the Flyers. Yakov Trenin had two goals, and Luke Kunin and Filip Forsberg also tallied in Nashville’s first win in three games. Jeannot, Roman Josi, Alexandre Carrier and Mikael Granlund each had two assists.
— Mark Scheifele’s second goal of the night gave the Jets a 2-1 victory over the Coyotes. Scheifele tallied in the first period and ended things with 9.7 seconds showing on the overtime clock. Nick Ritchie tied the game 1-1 in the third period for Arizona.
— Jack Hughes scored two goals and was one of four Devils to score in a seven-round shootout that ended a 3-2 win over the Canadiens. Nico Daws finished with 31 saves as the Devils improved to 9-0-2 against the Canadiens since 2017-18.
