UNDATED (AP) — Auston Matthews scored his league-leading 49th goal and added an assist as Toronto ended Boston’s four-game winning streak with a 6-4 victory. Matthews’ goal late in the second period was the fourth of five straight scored by the Maple Leafs, who held a 6-1 lead and flustered the Bruins into a string of retaliatory hits and penalties. Colin Blackwell scored his first goal since joining Toronto in a trade at the deadline and the Leafs got a goal and assist each from Morgan Rielly, Alexander Kerfoot and Mitchell Marner.
Elsewhere in the NHL:
—Roope Hintz and Jacob Peterson scored in the third period to help the Dallas Stars rally for a 3-2 win against the Anaheim Ducks. Radek Faksa had a goal, Jake Oettinger made 26 saves and the Stars moved one point ahead of Vegas for the second wild-card from the Western Conference with three games in hand. Troy Terry scored his 31st goal, Derek Grant had a goal and an assist, but the Ducks lost their 10th straight game.
—Valeri Nichushkin scored twice and Darcy Keumper stopped 44 shots as the Colorado Avalanche edged the Calgary Flames 2-1 in a matchup of Western Conference division leaders. Tyler Toffoli scored for Pacific Division-leading Calgary. Jacob Markstrom stopped 28 shots.
—Frank Vatrano and Braden Schneider scored less than five minutes apart in the second period, and the New York Rangers beat the Pittsburgh Penguins 3-2. Chris Kreider added his 45th goal in the third as the Rangers topped Pittsburgh for the second time in five days. Igor Shesterskin made 22 saves, Sidney Crosby scored his 25th goal and Brian Boyle got his ninth for the Penguins.
—Marc-Andre Fleury made 32 saves and won his second straight start for Minnesota, and the Wild extended their winning streak to seven games with a 4-1 victory over the Philadelphia Flyers. Matt Dumba, Kirill Kaprizov, Jordan Greenway and Kevin Fiala scored for the Wild. The victory ended a streak of three consecutive overtime wins by the score of 3-2 for Minnesota. The Flyers lost their third straight.
—Michael McCarron scored twice and Juuse Saros made 36 saves to lead the Nashville Predators over the Ottawa Senators 4-1. Tanner Jeannot and Matt Duchene also scored and Mattias Ekholm had three assists for Nashville, winners of two straight. Brady Tkachuk scored and Anton Forsberg made 28 saves for Ottawa, which has lost four of five.
—Steven Stamkos scored a power-play goal 52 seconds into overtime and had two regulation assists as the Tampa Bay Lightning beat the Carolina Hurricanes 4-3. Stamkos got the winner from the slot off Nikita Kucherov’s third assist of the game. Alex Killorn, Victor Hedman and Brayden Point also scored, and Andrei Vasilevskiy made 16 saves for the Lightning. Carolina got goals from Nino Niederreiter, Seth Jarvis and Sebastian Aho, and Antti Raanta stopped 28 shots.
—Jonathan Huberdeau and Ryan Lomberg both had two goals and an assist to lead the Florida Panthers past the Montreal Canadiens 7-4. Sam Bennett and Aleksander Barkov each added a goal and an assist for the Atlantic Division leaders, who are tied with Carolina for the top playoff seed in the Eastern Conference. Both teams have 96 points, though Florida has a game in hand.
NHL GMs discuss playoff salary cap at Florida meetings
MANAPALAN, Fla. (AP) — Stretching the salary cap into the playoffs was one of the subjects touched on by the NHL’s 32 general managers at their annual meetings in Florida.
NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman says the system has worked well since the league’s hard cap was introduced in 2005. Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly outlined how the league approaches players on long-term injured reserve when their expected date of return falls around the start of the playoffs to ensure everything is above board. Any change would have to be collectively bargained with the NHL Players’ Association.
