TAMPA, Fla. — Anthony Cirelli had a goal and two assists and the Tampa Bay Lightning chased Henrik Lundqvist with a barrage of shots in a 5-3 win over the New York Rangers on Thursday night.
League-leading Tampa Bay had 17 shots on goal before the Rangers got their first nearly 11 minutes into the game. Lundqvist kept New York’s deficit to 2-0 through one period but was pulled after allowing two more goals in the second period.
Cirelli, playing his fourth career game, helped the Lightning improve to 8-0-1 in their last nine games. Adam Erne, Cedric Paquette. Tyler Johnson and Chris Kunitz also scored, and Andrei Vasilevskiy made 27 saves for his league-leading 40th victory, which ties the franchise record.
The Lightning remained six points ahead of Boston for the No. 1 seed in the Eastern Conference.
GOLDEN KNIGHTS 4, RED WINGS 0: Cody Eakin and Alex Tuch scored two goals apiece, Marc-Andre Fleury stopped 28 shots and Vegas dominated Detroit.
The Pacific Division-leading Golden Knights had lost 4 of 5, their worst stretch during their inaugural season since losing 5 of 6 early on. The victory at Little Caesars Arena was their 19th on the road, tying Anaheim’s 1993-94 team for the most by an expansion team.
Fleury got his third shutout of the season and the 47th of his career.
PANTHERS 5, CANADIENS 0: Roberto Luongo made 40 saves in his second shutout of the season, Nick Bjugstad scored his fourth goal in two games, and Florida beat Montreal for its seventh straight home win.
Evgenii Dadonov had a goal and an assist, and Vincent Trocheck, Micheal Haley and Jonathan Huberdeau also scored for the Panthers, who have points in eight straight games.
The Panthers are two points behind Columbus for the final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference, with three games in hand.
JETS 3, DEVILS 2: Patrik Laine extended his point-scoring streak to 10 games and Connor Hellebuyck made 41 saves as visiting Winnipeg got its fourth straight win.
Laine tallied his eighth goal in his last four games, and Joel Armia and Nikolaj Ehlers also scored as the Jets improved to 7-0-1 in their last eight road games.
Hellebuyck posted his 35th win, setting the franchise single-season record. He passed Kari Lehtonen, who went 34-24-9 for the Atlanta Thrashers in 2006-07.
Kyle Palmieri and Nico Hischier scored for the Devils, who lost for the fourth time in five games. Taylor Hall had a 19-game scoring streak snapped.
BLUE JACKETS 5, AVALANCHE 4: Seth Jones scored 59 seconds into overtime to lift Columbus to a win over visiting Colorado.
After Colorado tied the game with two third-period goals, Jones got a pass from Pierre Luc-Dubois in front of the net and swept it past Semyon Varlamov for the Blue Jackets’ third straight win. Columbus secured its hold on the second Eastern Conference wild-card spot.
Jones added two assists, Thomas Vanek scored twice and Zach Werenski also scored for the Blue Jackets.
Joonas Korpisalo had 23 saves to get his second win in three days in place of starter Sergei Bobrovsky, who is sick.
NOTES
PREDATORS: The team waited a week to honor David Poile as the general manager with the most victories in the 100-year history of the NHL, throwing a big celebration before Thursday night’s game against Anaheim.
Among those in attendance were Rod Langway, Poile’s first captain after being hired as general manager of the Washington Capitals in 1982, and Tom Fitzgerald, Poile’s first captain with the expansion Predators in 1998.
NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman was on hand, too. Bettman was booed heartily by the fans – not an unusual occurrence – but said he’d get jeered anytime for Poile.
“In a profession with a high rate of turnover, the fact that you’ve done it with only two teams and you’ve only had five coaches is a testament to your stability, your professionalism, your consistency, your patience and your desire to win,” Bettman said to Poile. “When it comes to being the heart and soul of our game, David has no equal.”
Poile won his 1,320th game as general manager March 1 in a 4-2 win at Edmonton, passing Glen Sather’s 1,319 wins.
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