PITTSBURGH — Matt Murray stopped 25 shots for his 10th career shutout and the Pittsburgh Penguins opened a pivotal home-and-home with the Columbus Blue Jackets by rolling to a 3-0 victory Thursday night.
Phil Kessel scored for the first time in 17 games for the Penguins, and Nick Bjugstad collected his ninth of the season for Pittsburgh. Sidney Crosby took a high stick from Boone Jenner of the Blue Jackets in the third period but returned to add an empty-net goal and extend his goal streak to six games as the Penguins created a little bit of breathing room between themselves and Columbus in the race for a playoff spot in the crowded Eastern Conference.
The Penguins have won eight straight over Columbus and moved into third place in the Metropolitan Division.
Joonas Korpisalo received a surprise start and finished with 28 saves for Columbus, but his teammates couldn’t get anything past Murray.
WILD 3, LIGHTNING 0: Jason Zucker scored all three of Minnesota’s goals for his first career hat trick, Devan Dubnyk made 25 saves for his second shutout of the season and visiting Minnesota denied Tampa Bay a chance to become the first NHL team to clinch a playoff spot.
Ryan Donato had two assists for Minnesota, which is 6-0-2 in its last eight games and is in the first wild-card spot in the Western Conference playoff race.
Andrei Vasilevskiy finished with 27 saves but had his 10-game winning streak snapped, one game short of tying the franchise record set by Louis Domingue earlier this season.
Zucker put the Wild in front at 10:50 of the first period, getting a deflection on Donato’s shot.
He doubled the lead in the third period during a scramble in front, knocking the puck out of the air, then completed the hat trick with an empty-netter with 1:46 left.
ISLANDERS 4, SENATORS 2: Valtteri Filppula scored twice to lead New York to a win at Ottawa.
Anthony Beauvillier and Casey Cizikas also scored for the Islanders, who moved into a first-place tie with the Washington Capitals in the Metropolitan Division. Thomas Greiss stopped 35 shots.
Brady Tkachuk and Oscar Lindberg scored for the Senators, while Anders Nilsson made 27 saves.
The Islanders went ahead 3-2 at the 12-minute mark of the third period after Ottawa’s Zack Smith tried to give the puck to Nilsson, who was unable to freeze it, and Beauvillier shoved it in for his 16th of the season.
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