Andrei Vasilevskiy made 20 saves for his second straight shutout and 23rd overall and the defending champion Tampa Bay Lightning beat the Dallas Stars 5-0 on Saturday night in the first Stanley Cup rematch of the season.
The teams will meet again Tuesday night in Dallas. They had four previous scheduled meetings season postponed because of COVID protocols and weather issues in Dallas.
Steven Stamkos and Anthony Cirelli each had a goal and an assist for Tampa Bay, and Ondrej Palat, Brayden Point and Pat Maroon also scored for Tampa Bay. The Lightning scored two power-play goals and one short-handed to extend their winning streak to four games.
FLYERS 3, SABRES 0
Brian Elliott stopped 23 shots to shut out the Sabres for a second time this season.
The Flyers were spurred by a replenished lineup in which four players returned after spending two weeks in the NHL’s COVID-19 protocol. They included Scott Laughton, who scored a breakaway goal to make it 3-0 late in the second period.
Sean Couturier had a goal and assist to extend his points streak to five games, in which he has four goals and five assists, and Shayne Gostisbehere also scored. Philadelphia improved to 3-2-2 in its past seven, and won consecutive games for the first time since a five-game winning streak to close January.
The Sabres dropped to 2-6-1 in their past nine and played their second game without captain Jack Eichel, listed as day to day with a lower body injury.
MAPLES LEAFS 4, OILERS 0
Jack Campbell made 30 saves for his third NHL shutout, Mitch Marner had a goal and an assist and the NHL-leading Toronto Maple Leafs opened a three-game set in Edmonton with a victory.
William Nylander, Jason Spezza and Zach Hyman also scored for Toronto (16-4-2), which was without NHL goals leader Auston Matthews because of a wrist injury. John Tavares added two assists to help the Maple Leafs improve to 16-4-2 and open a six-point lead over the Oilers in the all-Canadian North Division.
Mike Smith stopped 25 shots for Edmonton, which had won five straight.
PREDATORS 2, BLUE JACKETS 1
Mattias Ekholm scored a pair of second-period goals, and Juuse Saros made 29 saves for Nashville, a winner of three of the last four games.
Saros earned his first victory since Jan. 27. Saros’ fellow Finn Pekka Rinne has taken a larger share of the goaltending duties for Nashville in the month of February.
Cam Atkinson scored the lone goal and Joonas Korpisalo made 31 saves for Columbus, loser of four straight.
Back in the lineup after recovering from an injury, Ekholm tied the game early in the second period with a slap shot from the left point through traffic for his first goal of the season and Ekholm’s 200th career point. He struck again late in the second for the first multi-goal game of his 551-game NHL career.
CAPITALS 5, DEVILS 2
Garnet Hathaway and Daniel Sprong scored in the opening 5:06 for the streaking Capitals. Lars Eller added the third goal in a big first period and Jabub Vrana gave the Capitals breathing room with a third-period breakaway tally. Rookie Vitek Vanecek had 22 saves in his ninth win.
Nic Dowd added an empty-net goal with less than a minute to play for Washington, 5-1-1 in its last seven after losing four straight.
Nico Hischier and Pavel Zacha each scored for the second consecutive game for New Jersey, which has lost four of five. Mackenzie Blackwood had 19 saves as the Devils opened a five-game homestand.
FLAMES 6, SENATORS 3
Juuso Valimaki, Mikael Backlund, Elias Lindholm, Sean Monahan, Andrew Mangiapane and Matthew Tkachuk scored for the Flames, who ended Ottawa’s three-game win streak.
Drake Batherson, Colin White and Brady Tkachuk replied for the last-place Senators.
The Flames opened the scoring four minutes into the game and didn’t look back. The speedy Johnny Gaudreau zipped around a couple of Ottawa players before sending a backhand saucer pass to Valimaki for a one-timer past Matt Murray. Calgary scored again 37 seconds later as Backlund flipped a rolling puck past a handcuffed Murray.
PENGUINS 4, ISLANDERS 3, OT
Kris Letang got his second goal of the game 4:34 into overtime, giving Pittsburgh the win.
Sidney Crosby had a goal and an assist for Pittsburgh, which won for the sixth time in eight games. Jared McCann also scored, and Tristan Jarry made 24 saves as the Penguins beat the Islanders for the fourth time in five meetings this season.
Brock Nelson had a goal and an assist, and Mathew Barzal and Josh Bailey also scored for the Islanders. Semyon Varlamov, starting for the fifth straight game, stopped 27 shots.
New York fell to 6-0-2 at Nassau Coliseum, remaining the NHL’s only team without a regulation loss at home. The Islanders went 7-2-2 in February — with all the losses coming against the Penguins.
HURRICANES 4, PANTHERS 3, SO
Martin Necas scored the winning goal in a shootout for Carolina, which also got goals from Vincent Trocheck, Jake Bean and Warren Foegele in regulation.
Jonathan Huberdeau, Frank Vatrano, and Patric Hornqvist scored for Florida.
Hornqvist scored his ninth goal of the season with 1:54 remaining in the third period as Florida rallied for the second time in the contest and forced the OT. Foegele had given Carolina a 3-2 lead with just under six minutes remaining.
James Reimer had 28 saves for the Hurricanes. Sergei Bobrovsky turned back 30 of 33 shots for the Panthers.
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