TAMPA, Fla. — Yanni Gourde scored a short-handed goal and Andrei Vasilevskiy finished with 29 saves to lift the Tampa Bay Lightning to their ninth straight victory, 3-1 over the Edmonton Oilers on Thursday night.
Tampa Bay also won its 10th in a row at home.
Tampa Bay is one point behind the Bruins for the top spot in the Eastern Conference.
Vasilevskiy improved to 18-0-2 in his past 20 starts. Pat Maroon and Cedric Paquette also scored for the Lightning, who won despite playing without top two scorers Steven Stamkos and Nikita Kucherov.
Caleb Jones scored for Edmonton, which played its second consecutive game without Connor McDavid, who is out 2-to-3 weeks with a thigh injury. Mike Smith finished with 34 saves for the Oilers, who lost for the fourth time in regulation in the past 16 games.
Gourde, who ended a 35-game drought on Tuesday, scored the winner on a short-handed breakaway at 13:01 of the second period, beating Smith with a backhander over the shoulder.
FLYERS 6, PANTHERS 2: James van Riemsdyk had a goal and two assists as Philadelphia won at Sunrise, Florida.
Robert Hagg, Sean Couturier, Scott Laughton, Nicolas Aube-Kubel and Tyler Pitlick scored for the Flyers. Carter Hart made 26 saves for his first road win in eight games. Hart had lost his last seven road starts, since a 3-2 shootout victory against the Boston Bruins on Nov. 10.
Justin Braun had three assists and Matt Niskanen had two as the Flyers improved to 9-3-1 in their past 12 games.
Aleksander Barkov and Jonathan Huberdeau scored for Florida. Sergei Bobrovsky allowed three goals on nine shots and was relieved by Sam Montembeault at the start of the second period. Montembeault made 16 saves. The Panthers dropped to 2-5-1 in their last eight games.
STARS 3, MAPLE LEAFS 2: Tyler Seguin snapped a 17-game goal drought, Ben Bishop made 27 saves and Dallas won at Toronto.
Denis Gurianov and Radek Faksa also scored for Dallas, which won its third straight.
Toronto dropped to 2-3-1 over its last six. Auston Matthews scored his 41st goal for the Maple Leafs, and Zach Hyman got his 17th.
Toronto goaltender Frederik Andersen stopped 16 shots after missing four games with a neck injury.
SABRES 4, BLUE JACKETS 3: Rookie Victor Olofsson scored his second goal of the game 2:44 into overtime, and Buffalo won at home.
Jack Eichel had a goal and two assists for Buffalo on a night when the Sabres honored members of their 2000 decade teams as part of the franchise’s season-long 50th anniversary celebrations. Evan Rodrigues also scored, and Carter Hutton stopped 28 shots to improve to 4-1 in his past five starts.
DEVILS 4, RED WINGS 1: Wayne Simmonds scored twice in a four-goal third period outburst and New Jersey rallied to beat visiting Detroit.
Andy Greene and Jesper Bratt also scored in the four-minute barrage as the Devils posted only their third win (3-20-0) when trailing after two periods.
Goaltender Mackenzie Blackwood, who had shutouts in his last two starts, made 25 saves in winning for the fourth time in five games (4-0-1).
SENATORS 3, COYOTES 2: Marcus Hogberg made 32 saves and host Ottawa snapped a six-game losing streak.
Vladislav Namestnikov, Brady Tkachuk and Nick Paul scored for the Senators, who opened a season-high six-game homestand by ending a four-game skid (0-2-2) at home.
Oliver Ekman-Larsson and Jordan Oesterle scored for the Coyotes, and Antti Raanta stopped 28 shots.
PREDATORS 5, ISLANDERS 0: Craig Smith scored three times, Juuse Saros made 31 saves and Nashville won at home.
Rocco Grimaldi had a goal and an assist and Mattias Ekholm also scored for Nashville, which snapped a two-game losing streak.
RANGERS 4, WILD 3: Mika Zibanejad scored with 1:06 to play in regulation to send it to overtime and then had a goal in the shootout, helping visiting New York erase a two-goal deficit in the third period and beat Minnesota.
Trailing 3-2, New York pulled goalie Alexandar Georgiev with 1:41 remaining for an extra skater and the move paid off when Zibanejad’s 24th goal of the season tied it. His redirection caught Alex Stalock out of position and sneaked between the Wild goalie’s skate and the post.
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