BUFFALO, N.Y. — Sam Reinhart scored three goals and the Buffalo Sabres snapped a four-game skid with a 5-2 victory over the Washington Capitals on Saturday.
Jack Eichel had two assists in picking up his 66th point – two more than the fourth-year player’s career high set last season. Rookie Rasmus Dahlin and Jason Pominville also scored for the Sabres.
Carter Hutton stopped 31 shots, and Buffalo snapped a 0-3-1 slump.
The Sabres avoided a major scare when leading scorer Jeff Skinner was helped off the ice five minutes into the second period and was unable to place any weight on his left leg. Skinner returned for the start of the third period.
Alex Ovechkin scored his league-leading 44th goal for the Capitals, while extending his goal streak to five games. Andre Burakovsky also scored for Washington.
RANGERS 5, DEVILS 2: Ryan Strome had two goals and Chris Kreider and Jimmy Vesey each had a goal and an assist as the Rangers won at home.
Brady Skjei also scored, Mika Zibanejad and Pavel Buchnevich each had two assists, and Alexandar Georgiev made 19 saves for the Rangers.
Andy Greene and Kenny Agostino scored, and Cory Schneider had 29 saves for the Devils.
Both teams sat key players with the league’s trade deadline two days away.
HURRICANES 3, STARS 0: Curtis McElhinney made 14 of his 24 saves in the third period for his 10th career shutout, and Carolina won in Dallas.
Lucas Wallmark and Justin Faulk scored early in the first two periods to support McElhinney’s second shutout of the season and the Hurricanes’ fourth in 10 games. Jordan Martinook added an empty-netter with 2:31 to play as Carolina won for the fifth time in six games.
Ben Biship finished with 28 saves for the Stars, 1-5-1 in their last seven games but still clinging to a Western Conference wild card position with 21 games remaining.
PANTHERS 6, KINGS 1: Aleksander Barkov and Keith Yandle scored on the power play and Florida had three goals in the second period on the way to a victory over Los Angeles in Sunrise, Florida.
Jonathan Huberdeau, Vincent Trocheck, Jamie McGinn and Ian McCoshen also scored, and Barkov, Huberdeau and Yandle added assists for the Panthers, who have won four of five and are 10-5-0 in their last 15.
Florida’s Roberto Luongo stopped 18 shots and tied Ed Belfour for third place in career wins among goaltenders with 484.
BLUE JACKETS 4, SHARKS 0: Sergei Bobrovsky recorded his second shutout in two nights, Matt Duchene scored his first goal for his new team and Columbus beat San Jose in Columbus, Ohio.
Bobrovsky had 26 saves and got shutouts in both games of a back-to-back for the first time in his career. He was in the net when the Blue Jackets beat Ottawa 3-0 on Friday night, hours after the Senators traded Duchene to Columbus.
AVALANCHE 5, PREDATORS 0: Philipp Grubauer made 38 saves for his first shutout of the season, helping Colorado win in Nashville, Tennessee.
Colorado improved to 5-1-0 in its last six and has picked up points in eight of its last 10 games while trying to keep pace in Western Conference. The Avalanche pushed a point ahead of Minnesota for the second wild-card spot with their second victory in 24 hours.
The Avalanche also split the season series with the Predators, winning both games in Nashville after losing a first-round series in six games last postseason.
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