Nikita Kucherov scored a hat trick, Steven Stamokos had a goal and two assists, and the Tampa Bay Lightning beat the Buffalo Sabres 6-1 Tuesday night.
Anthony Cirelli had a goal and an assist, Ondrej Palat extended his scoring streak to four games, and the Lightning got three assists from Alex Killorn and two from Victor Hedman. Andrei Vasilevskiy made 17 saves for his 20th win of the season.
Tampa Bay (24-9-5) has won three of four following a three-game skid to keep pace with the Florida Panthers atop the NHL standings with 53 points.
Vinnie Hinostroza scored for the Sabres, who have lost seven in a row at home and dropped to 3-13-4 over their past 20 games. Buffalo goalie Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen left the game with a lower-body injury after he gave up two goals on nine shots in the first period. Malcolm Subban made 23 saves on 27 shots.
BLACKHAWKS 4, BLUE JACKETS 2
Alex DeBrincat scored twice and Calvin de Haan got his first goal in nearly a year to lift Chicago to its second straight road win.
Connor Murphy also scored for Chicago, and Marc-Andre Fleury made 24 saves for his 11th win.
Boone Jenner scored for Columbus, and Gus Nyquist had a short-handed goal and an assist. Joonas Korpisalo stopped 16 shots in his third loss in four games.
Columbus has dropped four of five and lost at home to the Blackhawks for the seventh consecutive time.
PANTHERS 5, CANUCKS 2
Sam Reinhart had two goals and an assist and Florida handed Vancouver coach Bruce Boudreau his first regulation loss in 10 games.
Boudreau was 8-0-1 since taking over the Canucks on Dec. 6. Vancouver was 8-15-2 when he replaced Travis Green.
Aleksander Barkov scored his team-leading 15th goal and also had an assist for Florida. Aaron Ekblad had a goal and two assists, Maxim Mamin also scored, and Frank Vatrano and Anton Lundell each had two assists. Sergei Bobrovsky stopped 42 shots.
The Panthers move to 6-0-1 in their past seven games.
Jason Dickinson and Juho Lammiko scored for Vancouver and Thatcher Demko stopped 21 shots.
More AP NHL: https://apnews.com/hub/NHL and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports
Shea Theodore scored 2:09 into overtime to lift the Vegas Golden Knights to a 4-3 win over the Washington Capitals on Wednesday night.
Alec Martinez, Evgenii Dadonov and Chandler Stephenson scored for the Golden Knights in regulation. Robin Lehner made 12 stops in the first period and didn’t return. Logan Thompson stopped 13 shots in the final two periods and didn’t face any in overtime.
Vegas has 89 points and is two back of Dallas for the second wild card in the Western Conference, and trails Los Angeles by three in the Pacific Division.
Vegas Golden Knights defenseman Shea Theodore (27) scores against Washington Capitals goaltender Ilya Samsonov (30) during overtime in an NHL hockey game Wednesday, April 20, 2022, in Las Vegas. The Golden Knights won 4-3. (AP PhotoSam Morris)
Alex Ovechkin had two goals and Evgeny Kuznetsov also scored for the Capitals, while Samsonov made 26 saves.
KRAKEN 3, AVALANCHE 2
Kole Lind, Jordan Eberle and Yanni Gourde all scored in the first period and the Seattle held on to beat Colorado.
Philipp Grubauer had 25 saves as Seattle won its third straight. Matty Beniers had an assist to become the first rookie this season to begin his NHL career with a point in each of his first four games.
Cale Makar and Artturi Lehkonen scored for the Avalanche, and Pavel Francouz finished with 26 saves. Colorado, assured of having the top seed in the Western Conference, has lost two straight after winning nine in a row. The Avalanche remained tied with Florida with 116 points for the Presidents’ Trophy for the league’s best record.
BLACKHAWKS 4, COYOTES 3, OT
GLENDALE, Ariz. (AP) -- Alex DeBrincat scored his 40th goal of the season with 37 seconds left in overtime, giving Chicago a win over Arizona.
Jake McCabe, Dominik Kubalik and Alex Vlasic also scored for Blackhawks, who won for the second time in 12 games after squandering a 3-1 lead in the final 10:18 of regulation.
Barrett Hayton, Nate Smith and Anton Stralman scored for the Coyotes, who have lost eight in a row and 15 of 17.
Kevin Lankinen had 32 saves for the Blackhawks, who have not won in regulation since March 23.
Coyotes goaltender Karel Vejmelka made 34 saves in his 49th game, a franchise record for rookie goaltenders. He is the first rookie in NHL history with four games of at least 46 saves.
OILERS 5, STARS 2
Connor McDavid had a goal and two assists, and Edmonton won its third straight.
Evander Kane, Derek Ryan, Zach Hyman and Jesse Puljujarvi also scored for the Oilers, who are 11-0-1 in their last 12 home games. Evan Bouchard had two assists and Mike Smith stopped 34 shots.
Jason Robertson and Roope Hintz each had a goal and an assist for the Stars, who have lost three of their last four. Scott Wedgewood finished with 45 saves.
