Matt Boldy scored his second hat trick in nine days as the Minnesota Wild defeated the Seattle Kraken 5-1 Monday night in St. Paul, Minn.
Jake Middleton and Ryan Hartman also scored and Marcus Johansson, Jared Spurgeon and Joel Eriksson Ek had two assists apiece for the Central Division-leading Wild, who improved to 15-1-4 in their past 20 games and pulled within three points of Western Conference-leading Vegas. Goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury made 35 saves.
Jaden Schwartz scored for the Kraken, who lead the West’s wild-card race. Goalie Philipp Grubauer stopped 9 of 13 shots before being pulled early in the third after Boldy scored to make it 4-0. Martin Jones stopped 6 of 7 shots the rest of the way as Seattle had an eight-game road point streak snapped (7-0-1).
Boldy completed the hat trick 50 seconds into the third. Eriksson Ek stole a clearance attempt and passed to Boldy for a one-timer from the slot. Boldy also had three goals in a 5-3 victory against Washington on March 19.
Canadiens 4, Sabres 3 (SO)
Brendan Gallagher’s 200th career goal tied things up just before the midway point of the third period, and Montreal eventually won in a shootout against host Buffalo.
With the Canadiens down 3-2, Gallagher leveled things when he rang the post via his milestone goal with 11:25 remaining in regulation. Jordan Harris and Alex Belzile also had goals, and Michael Pezzetta’s score in the sixth round of the shootout was the difference for the Canadiens.
Lukas Rousek scored on his first NHL shot and added an assist in his league debut for the Sabres. JJ Peterka and Riley Stillman also scored, while Eric Comrie made 38 saves for Buffalo, which played without star Tage Thompson (upper-body injury).
Senators 5, Panthers 2
Brady Tkachuk had a goal and an assist, Mads Sogaard made 32 saves and Ottawa scored three power-play goals to beat visiting Florida.
The win moved the Senators closer in their pursuit of an Eastern Conference wild-card spot. The Pittsburgh Penguins, who were idle on Monday, are in the second wild-card slot with 82 points, while the Panthers are just behind them despite being on a season-high, four-game losing streak.
Ottawa’s Alex DeBrincat, Tim Stutzle and Erik Brannstrom all scored on the power play, with each score coming near the end of each period. After its 3-for-4 performance on Monday, the Senators’ streaking power-play unit is 10-for-28 over the past eight games. Gustav Forsling scored both of the Panthers’ goals.
Islanders 5, Devils 1
Kyle Palmieri scored twice against his former team for New York, which earned a pivotal victory by beating New Jersey in Elmont, N.Y.
Pierre Engvall scored in the first period and Bo Horvat and Zach Parise each scored empty-netters late in the third for the Islanders, who stopped a two-game losing streak and lengthened their lead in the Eastern Conference wild-card race. Islanders goalie Ilya Sorokin made 30 saves.
Erik Haula scored in the second period for the Devils, who lost for the sixth time in eight games (2-4-2) and missed a chance to move within one point of the idle first-place Carolina Hurricanes in the Metropolitan Division. New Jersey goalie Vitek Vanecek recorded 31 saves.
–Field Level Media
