RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — Brady Skjei and Sebastian Aho scored as the Carolina Hurricanes beat the Toronto Maple Leafs 2-1 on Sunday night for their sixth win in seven National Hockey League games.
Frederik Andersen made 31 saves and earned his sixth straight win since returning from injury on March 7 as the Hurricanes picked up points in their seventh straight game.
Nicholas Robertson scored and Joseph Woll stopped 41 shots for Toronto, which had a two-game winning streak halted.
The Maple Leafs had a late power play after a Brent Burns’ tripping penalty, and pulled Woll for an extra skater, but failed to score. Toronto finished 0 for 4 on the power play.
Skjei needed just 66 seconds to get the Hurricanes on the scoreboard in the first period. His shot from the point, through three Toronto players, went under Woll’s glove and into the net. Jordan Staal and Jordan Martinook assisted.
Aho made it 2-0 on the power play at 13:55 in the first. His wrist shot from the left circle bounced in off of the skate of Toronto defenceman Jake McCabe. Jake Guentzel and Burns picked up assists.
Elsewhere in the NHL on Sunday:
AVALANCHE 5 PENGUINS 4 (OT)
DENVER (AP) — Jonathan Drouin scored his second goal of the game 54 seconds into overtime, and Colorado rallied from a four-goal deficit to beat Pittsburgh for their ninth straight win.
Nathan MacKinnon extended his point streak to 18 games with a goal and two assists. MacKinnon has at least a point in 34 straight home games, second all-time behind Wayne Gretzky’s 40-game streak in 1988-89. Sean Walker and Yakov Trenin also scored for Colorado.
Drouin, who also had an assist, won it when he beat Pittsburgh goaltender Alex Nedeljkovic for his 14th goal of the season. Nedeljkovic, who had 21 saves, was replaced by Tristan Jarry at 5:17 of the third after a collision with Casey Mittelstadt. Jarry had four saves and allowed the tying goal.
Sidney Crosby had a goal and three assists for his third four-point game, Bryan Rust, Jesse Puljujarvi and Pierre-Olivier Joseph also scored for the Penguins
Crosby assisted on Pittsburgh’s first two goals, stealing the puck from Mikko Rantanen and feeding Rust for a goal with 4:49 left of the first period that gave the Penguins a 2-0 lead.
SENATORS 5 OILERS 3
OTTAWA, Ont. (AP) — Defenceman Jakob Chychrun broke a tie with 3:03 left with his second power-play goal of game to help Ottawa beat Edmonton.
With Edmonton’s Mattias Ekholm off for holding, Chychrun scored on the second of Ottawa’s three third-period shots, with the third coming on Parker Kelly’s empty-netter.
Tim Stutzle and Drake Batherson also scored and Joonas Korpisalo made 33 saves.
Zach Hyman scored his 50th goal for Edmonton, and Connor McDavid had two assists to push his season total to 91 and join Wayne Gretzky and Paul Coffey as the only Oilers to reach 90.
Adam Henrique and Leon Draisaitl also scored and Calvin Pickard made 11 saves for Edmonton.
CAPITALS 3 JETS 0
WASHINGTON (AP) — Alex Ovechkin scored twice to reach 26 goals this season, Charlie Lindgren stopped all 27 shots he faced and Washington beat Winnipeg to move back into a playoff position.
The Capitals have won four of their past five games, a stretch in which Ovechkin has scored eight goals. He had just eight goals in his first 43 games.
Ovechkin getting hot has fuelled Washington’s surge up the standings and reignited talk of him breaking Wayne Gretzky’s career goals record. He is 46 back.
The offensive explosion in the third period — John Carlson’s tiebreaking goal on a power-play blast 1:21 in and Ovechkin’s two — came after Lindgren was the best player on the ice for much of the afternoon. Lindgren outdueled Connor Hellebuyck, the front-runner for the Vezina Trophy as the NHL’s top goaltender, turning aside several high-quality scoring chances throughout.
The combination of Lindgren’s stellar play and timely scoring added up to the Capitals’ second consecutive victory, after they beat Carolina in a crazy, 7-6 shootout Friday night. They passed Detroit for the East’s second and final wild-card spot ahead of a pivotal showdown with the Red Wings in Washington on Tuesday night.
DEVILS 4 ISLANDERS 0
NEW YORK (AP) — Jack Hughes and Timo Meier each had a goal and an assist, Kaapo Kahkonen made 37 saves in his first shutout of the season and New Jersey beat the New York Islanders.
Alexander Holtz and Chris Tierney also scored for New Jersey. Kahkonen, acquired at the trade deadline, earned his first win as a member of the Devils.
New Jersey captain Nico Hischier left the game late in the second period after colliding with New York’s Anders Lee. Lee received a major penalty and a game misconduct. Hischier did return at the start of the third period.
Ilya Sorokin finished with 26 saves for the Islanders, who lost for the seventh time in eight games. New York is four points behind Washington in the race for the second wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference with 11 games left in the regular season.
New Jersey scored three times in a 5:34 span early in the second period.
PANTHERS 4 FLYERS 1
PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Sam Reinhart scored two goals to reach 50 on the season, Brandon Montour added three assists and Florida snapped a four-game losing streak with a victory over Philadelphia.
Vladimir Tarasenko and Carter Verhaeghe also scored for the Panthers, who tied Boston with 97 points atop the Eastern Conference’s Atlantic Division. Florida will host the Bruins on Tuesday night.
Bobby Brink scored for the Flyers.
Both teams were playing the second games of a back-to-back and used their backup goalies. Philadelphia defeated Boston 3-2 on Saturday while the Panthers lost 4-3 in a shootout at the Rangers. Anthony Stolarz made 32 saves for the Panthers while Philadelphia’s Felix Sandstrom allowed three goals on 14 shots.
