Tampa Bay’s Nikita Kucherov had a goal and an assist, Steven Stamkos set a franchise record and the Lightning closed 2023 with a 4-3 rally over the visiting Montreal Canadiens on New Year’s Eve.
Calvin de Haan, Brayden Point and Austin Watson also scored, and goaltender Jonas Johansson made 27 saves.
A 16-year Lightning forward, Stamkos had an assist in his 1,038th career game, the most in franchise history, eclipsing the record set by former teammate Vincent Lecavalier.
Montreal’s Cole Caufield, Johnathan Kovacevic and Nick Suzuki tallied, but the Canadiens lost their third straight game and finished 5-5-3 in December. Goalie Sam Montembeault stopped 16 shots and earned his second career assist.
Avalanche 3, Sharks 1
Valeri Nichushkin had a goal and an assist, Mikko Rantanen and Josh Manson also scored and Colorado beat San Jose in Denver.
Nathan MacKinnon had two assists and Alexandar Georgiev stopped 10 shots for Colorado. MacKinnon had his 19-game point streak ended Friday night at St. Louis, but he extended his home point streak to 19 games. It is the longest home point streak to start a season in franchise history.
Tomas Hertl scored and Kaapo Kahkonen made 30 saves for San Jose, which has lost eight straight games, all in regulation.
Stars 8, Blackhawks 1
Mason Marchment notched his second career hat trick and added an assist and host Dallas cruised past Chicago.
Tyler Seguin had a goal and two assists for Dallas, which is 7-1-1 in its past nine games. Sam Steel had a goal and an assist, and Roope Hintz scored his fourth goal in two games. Scott Wedgewood made 23 saves.
Philipp Kurashev scored for the Blackhawks, who have lost four of five overall (1-3-1) and 11 straight on the road (0-10-1). Petr Mrazek stopped 25 of 31 shots before being lifted in the third period. The Stars beat Chicago 5-4 in overtime in Dallas on Friday night.
Oilers 7, Ducks 2
Warren Foegele had two goals and three assists and Leon Draisaitl had a goal and two assists as Edmonton cruised past host Anaheim for its fifth straight victory.
It was the first five-point game of Foegele’s career. Ryan McLeod had a goal and an assist, Darnell Nurse had two assists and Evander Kane, Zach Hyman and Brett Kulak also scored for Edmonton, which improved to 7-0-2 in its past nine visits to Anaheim. Calvin Pickard made 28 saves for the Oilers.
Max Jones and Frank Vatrano scored for Anaheim, which suffered its league-high 14th home loss in 20 games (6-14-0). John Gibson finished with 32 saves.
Jets 3, Wild 2
Dominic Toninato scored the go-ahead goal with less than 13 minutes left in the game to lift Winnipeg past Minnesota in Saint Paul, Minn., for a sweep of a two-game weekend series.
Adam Lowry and Vladislav Namestnikov also scored for Winnipeg, which beat Minnesota 4-2 at home Saturday. Dylan DeMelo and Josh Morrissey helped on the defensive end with five blocked shots apiece.
Wild goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury turned aside 26 of 29 shots to take the loss in a milestone afternoon. The matchup marked Fleury’s 1,000th career game, making him only the fourth goaltender in NHL history to achieve that feat.
Bruins 5, Red Wings 3
Trent Frederic had two goals and an assist to lead Boston to a win at Detroit in a game that featured three goals in the final 2:01.
Charlie Coyle scored the tiebreaking goal early in the third period and Charlie McAvoy added three assists for the Bruins.
After Jake DeBrusk scored an empty-net goal with 2:01 left to give Boston a 4-2 lead, Detroit went on the power play and scored with the goalie pulled with 1:22 to play. But Boston sealed the win on an empty-net goal by Pavel Zacha with 24 seconds left.
Senators 5, Sabres 1
Anton Forsberg made 45 saves and Thomas Chabot tallied two assists in his return from a fractured tibia as Ottawa hammered visiting Buffalo.
Five different Senators scored as Ottawa improved to 3-3 under interim coach Jacques Martin.
Tage Thompson scored and Devon Levi made 26 saves for the Sabres, who lost for the fifth time in their past seven games (2-4-1) despite Jakob Chychrun opening the scoring with a goal for his 200th NHL point.
Penguins 3, Islanders 1
Lars Eller scored twice as Pittsburgh downed visiting New York for the second time in five days.
Noel Acciari also scored for the Penguins, who won their third straight game and moved to 7-1-1 in their past nine games. Samuel Bolduc tallied the Islanders’ lone goal.
Pittsburgh goaltender Alex Nedeljkovic made 37 saves, many of them acrobatic. He improved to 3-0-1 in his past four starts. He stepped in after Tristan Jarry picked up a shutout when the teams met Wednesday.
Flames 4, Flyers 3
Dennis Gilbert broke a third-period tie with his first goal of the season and added an earlier assist while Blake Coleman collected one of each in his 500th NHL game as host Calgary beat Philadelphia to end a two-game losing streak.
Rasmus Ristolainen, Bobby Brink and Egor Zamula replied for the Flyers, who have only one victory in their past five games (1-2-2). Goalie Samuel Ersson made 29 saves in a very strong goaltender battle.
With the score tied 1-1, Gilbert put the Flames ahead 7:29 into the third period. Off a rush, Jonathan Huberdeau fired a long cross-ice pass that Gilbert blasted to snap a 37-game goal drought dating back to last season.
–Field Level Media
