NHL roundup: Florida Panthers top New York Rangers in heavyweight clash
Sam Reinhart scored twice - both times off impressive feeds from Aleksander Barkov - for the Panthers, who won their fifth straight game and for the 15th time in 17 games (15-2-0) to remain two points ahead of the Boston Bruins in the Atlantic Division and increase their NHL-leading points total to 88.
Will Cuylle and Chris Kreider scored power play goals for the Rangers, who have lost two straight and three of four (1-3-0). New York is six points ahead of the idle Carolina Hurricanes in the Metropolitan Division.
Sergei Bobrovsky made 26 saves for the Panthers while Igor Shesterkin recorded 25 in the loss.
Bruins 4, Maple Leafs 1
Pavel Zacha scored two goals, Jeremy Swayman stopped 32 shots and Boston improved to 3-0 against host Toronto this season.
Jake DeBrusk added a goal and an assist for the Bruins, whose other two wins against Toronto were in overtime and a shootout. Botson will go for the season sweep at home on Thursday.
David Pastrnak added three assists and Morgan Geekie also scored in the win. John Tavares scored for the Maple Leafs. Joseph Woll made 26 saves.
Avalanche 5, Blackhawks 0
Nathan MacKinnon had two goals and two assists, Cale Makar and Jonathan Drouin each had a goal and an assist, and Justus Annunen made 37 saves as the Colorado routed Chicago in Denver.
Zach Parise also scored for the Avalanche. Blackhawks goalie Petr Mrazek stopped 32 shots.
The Blackhawks were shut out by the Avalanche for the second time in five days while losing their seventh game in a row overall (0-5-2). Chicago hasn't won on the road since November 9 at Tampa Bay, a 22-game skid (0-21-1).
Blue Jackets 6, Golden Knights 3
Alexander Nylander scored his first career hat trick to lead host Columbus past slumping Vegas.
Justin Danforth, Erik Gudbranson and Yegor Chinakhov also scored goals for Columbus, which has won back-to-back games for the third time this season and for the first time since November 22-24. Daniil Tarasov stopped 37 of 40 shots to improve to 5-8-2 this season.
Chandler Stephenson had a goal and an assist and Mason Morelli and William Karlsson also scored for Vegas, which took its sixth loss in seven games (1-5-1) and its eighth in the past 10 games (2-7-1).
Kraken 4, Flames 2
Jared McCann scored a goal and added an assist to pace visiting Seattle past Calgary, ending the Flames' season-best, five-game winning streak.
Yanni Gourde, Oliver Bjorkstrand and Adam Larsson also scored for Seattle, which won for the third time in four games. Philipp Grubauer made 35 saves, including a clutch reach-back effort when it was a 3-2 game midway through the third period.
Andrei Kuzmenko scored both goals for the Flames. Both teams are seven points out of a playoff spot with 21 games remaining in the regular season.
Blues 2, Flyers 1 (SO)
Pavel Buchnevich scored in the fourth round of a shootout to lift St. Louis past host Philadelphia in a game where defense and goaltending dominated from the opening drop.
The Blue's lone goal in regulation came from Kevin Hayes, acquired from the Flyers in a trade last June. Scott Laughton recorded the regulation goal for the Flyers and Morgan Frost was the only Philadelphia player able to score in the shootout.
St. Louis goaltender Jordan Binnington stopped 40 shots while Samuel Ersson made 24 saves in the loss.