NHL Roundup: Rangers edge Kraken, Wild top Isles, Canes clip Sharks, and more
Anthony Scultore
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The NHL played 7 games on Sunday as the final four teams in the NFL battled it out to play in the Super Bowl.
While the L.A. Rams and Cincinnati Bengals proved victorious, the Rangers, Wild, and Canes all came out on top in some very close battles.
Rangers 3, Kraken 2
Defenseman K’Andre Miller scored the tiebreaking goal with 34 seconds remaining Sunday afternoon as the New York Rangers survived blowing a late lead and eked out a 3-2 victory over the visiting Seattle Kraken.
Miller had been stopped on a breakaway with 6:15 remaining, but then ended a 27-game goal drought by scoring for the first time since Nov. 21.
“It was great faceoff by Mika… also Kreider ran a little interference– thankfully they didn’t see it,” Miller said. “It’s a great win.”
The Rangers won for the 10th time in 15 games and avoided their second three-game losing streak of the season despite blowing a two-goal lead for the third straight game.
Miller scored his third goal of the season after Seattle tied the score at 2-2 on Yanni Gourde’s one-timer during a power-play from the left faceoff circle with 68 seconds remaining.
Mika Zibanejad had a power-play goal and two assists and Alexis Lafreniere scored as the Rangers won for the sixth time in seven games. Jared McCann and Gourde scored for Seattle.
Despite the exciting win, Rangers head coach Gerard Gallant was not pleased with his chargers, who were out shot 42-24.
“I’m not too happy,” Gallant said. “Today it was disappointing to watch that after two losses. I expect a lot more from my group and I didn’t see much of it.”
Kings 4, Penguins 3
Trevor Moore scored his second goal of the game in the third period to give visiting Los Angeles a win over Pittsburgh, snapping the Penguins’ eight-game point streak.
After the Kings blew a two-goal lead in the third for a 3-3 tie, Moore came off the bench and got behind the Pittsburgh defense for a breakaway. He shot the puck over goaltender Tristan Jarry’s glove at 13:21. Alex Iafallo and Drew Doughty also scored, and Anze Kopitar had two assists for the Kings, who improved to 3-0-2 in their past five games.
Los Angeles goaltender Cal Petersen made 23 saves. Bryan Rust scored twice, Sidney Crosby had a goal and an assist, and Kris Letang added two assists for the Penguins. Jarry made 34 saves.
Wild 4, Islanders 3
Brandon Duhaime and Joel Eriksson Ek scored early in the first period for visiting Minnesota, who held off a furious comeback by New York to earn a win in Elmont, N.Y.
Matt Boldy and Kirill Kaprizov also scored for the Wild, who won their fifth straight and improved to 8-0-1 in their last nine games despite being outshot 43-21. Goalie Kaapo Kahkonen made 40 saves.
“They obviously pushed very hard, but I think we had a great battle tonight,” Kahkonen said. “It’s not always pretty and you’ve got to just find a way to get the job done, and that’s what we did.”
Brock Nelson, Ross Johnston and Oliver Wahlstrom scored for the Islanders, who have lost two straight for the first time since an 11-game skid that ran through Dec. 5. Goalie Ilya Sorokin recorded 17 saves.
“It might have been our best game of the year,” Islanders coach Barry Trotz said. “Take away the first five minutes of the game, we were pretty solid.”
Good tries are not going to cut it for the Isles now. They are 17 points behind the Bruins for the final wild card spot in the East. Even with five games in hand, it will be tough to make the playoffs this season.
Stars 6, Bruins 1
Tyler Seguin was one of five Dallas skaters to score and finished with a pair of goals and an assist against his former team as the Stars toppled visiting Boston.
The former No. 2 overall pick by the Bruins in the 2010 draft opened the scoring with his unassisted goal on a tap-in at 6:54 of the first period. Seguin netted his second goal of the game and 14th of the season at 18:53 of the third. Roope Hintz added his team-leading 20th goal and Alexander Radulov, Luke Glendening and Jamie Benn also scored for the Stars.
Craig Smith netted the only goal for the Bruins. Linus Ullmark allowed four goals on 15 shots before being pulled in favor of rookie netminder Jeremy Swayman, who allowed a pair of goals and made 12 saves.
Blue Jackets 6, Canadiens 3
Patrik Laine scored twice, including one of Columbus’ four first-period goals, and the visiting Blue Jackets extended Montreal’s winless streak to six games with a victory.
Jack Roslovic, Eric Robinson and rookie Yegor Chinakhov also scored a goal in the first, and fellow rookie Cole Sillinger added a key third-period score for the Blue Jackets, who won back-to-back contests for the first time since a three-game run Nov. 22-26.
Artturi Lehkonen had a goal with two assists while All-Star Nick Suzuki and Tyler Toffoli recorded one of each for the lowly Canadiens, who are mired in an 0-4-2 rut and allowed 26 goals in their last four games. Montreal’s Sam Montembeault was pulled for the second straight night after allowing three goals on seven shots in a little more than 10 minutes.
Avalanche 4, Sabres 1
Mikko Rantanen and Valeri Nichushkin had a goal and an assist each, and Gabriel Landeskog and Nazem Kadri also scored as Colorado beat Buffalo in Denver.
Darcy Kuemper stopped 30 shots to lead the Avalanche to their 10th straight win. Colorado has won 18 straight home games.
For the Sabres, Dylan Cozens scored and Dustin Tokarski had 32 saves.
Hurricanes 2, Sharks 1
Andrei Svechnikov broke a tie at 16:16 of the third period as Carolina defeated visiting San Jose in Raleigh, N.C.
“After the face-off, I tried to go to the net,” Svechnikov said. “It was kind of my ice, I didn’t want to give it. It was a lucky rebound for me, so I just put it in the net.”
Vincent Trocheck also scored, and goaltender Frederik Andersen made 27 saves for the Hurricanes, who won their fourth consecutive game and seventh in the past eight.
Rudolfs Balcers scored for the Sharks, and James Reimer stopped 27 of 29 shots. San Jose dropped to 1-1-1 on its four-game trip that concludes Tuesday at Tampa Bay.
–Field Level Media contributed to this report.