Greiss, Islanders beat Blue Jackets 2-0
UNIONDALE, N.Y. (AP) — Thomas Greiss made 31 saves in his fifth shutout of the season, helping the New York Islanders beat the Columbus Blue Jackets 2-0 on Monday night.
Ryan Pulock and Anders Lee scored as New York (40-22-7) improved its playoff positioning in the tough Metropolitan Division. The Islanders improved to 16-8-1 against divisional opponents.
Columbus (38-28-3) lost for the fourth time in six games, dropping into a tie with Montreal for the second wild card in the Eastern Conference. Sergei Bobrovsky made 18 saves, but the Blue Jackets were unable to get to the steady Greiss.
Pulock put the Islanders in front when he drove a slap shot by Bobrovsky 6:11 into the first. Pulock surpassed his point total from his rookie year, registering his 33rd point of his sophomore season.
Lee added an empty-netter in the third period.
SHARKS 3, WILD 0
ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — Martin Jones made 24 saves to continue his hot streak and lead San Jose to its fifth straight win.
Barclay Goodrow, Tomas Hertl and Logan Couture scored for the Sharks.
Devan Dubnyk made 26 saves for the Wild.
For Jones, it was his third shutout and 34th win of the season. Twenty-five of those wins have come since the start of December, the best total in the league over that span. Jones is the first goaltender in San Jose history to post four consecutive 30-win seasons, and he's the only goaltender in the league since 2015-16 to have four 30-win seasons.
FLYERS 3, SENATORS 2
PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Oskar Lindblom, Michael Raffl and Scott Laughton scored in the second period to lead hard-charging Philadelphia to the win.
The Flyers have won four of five games to move into the wild-card race. Brian Elliott, subbing for the injured Corey Hart, made 20 saves.
The lowly Senators lost for the 11th time in 12 games. Chris Tierney and Filip Chlapik scored, and Craig Anderson stopped 33 shots.
HURRICANES 3, AVALANCHE 0
DENVER (AP) — Andrei Svechnikov had two goals and an assist, Petr Mrazek stopped 38 shots and Carolina earned a rare win at Pepsi Center.
Defenseman Dougie Hamilton also scored as the Hurricanes won in Denver for just the second time in 13 games since Colorado moved into its longtime home for the 1999-2000 season.
Mrazek's fourth shutout of the season propelled the Hurricanes into a tie with Pittsburgh for third place in the Metropolitan Division. Carolina currently holds the tiebreaker.
Colorado remains two points behind Minnesota for the final wild-card spot. The Wild lost earlier to San Jose.
Philipp Grubauer turned back 30 shots. He was back in net over Semyon Varlamov after shutting out Buffalo on Saturday.
LIGHTNING 6, MAPLE LEAFS 2
TORONTO (AP) — Tyler Johnson and Cedric Paquette each scored two goals, powering the NHL-leading Lightning to another victory.
Anthony Cirelli and Ondrej Palat also scored for Tampa Bay (53-13-4), and Ryan McDonagh, Yanni Gourde and Jan Rutta had two assists apiece. Nikita Kucherov helped set up the game's first goal for his NHL-best 111th point of the season.
Andrei Vasilevskiy made 26 saves to improve to 12-1-2 over his last 15 starts.
Auston Matthews and Connor Brown scored for Toronto (42-22-5). Frederik Andersen allowed four goals on 19 shots before he was pulled early in the second period. Garret Sparks finished with 21 saves in relief.
BLACKHAWKS 7, COYOTES 1
CHICAGO (AP) — Brendan Perlini scored three goals against his former team for his first career hat trick, and the Blackhawks earned their third straight win.
Patrick Kane fired in his 41st goal as Chicago moved within five points of the second wild card in the Western Conference. Jonathan Toews, Brandon Saad and Chris Kunitz also scored, and Corey Crawford made 24 saves.
Arizona had won eight of nine to surge back into the playoff picture. Richard Panik scored against his former team early in the first period, but the Blackhawks took charge midway through the opening frame.
Arizona's Darcy Kuemper made his 10th straight start, but was replaced by Calvin Pickard in the second period after giving up four goals on 16 shots. Pickard blocked 15 of 18 shots.
OILERS 3, RANGERS 2, OT
EDMONTON, Alberta (AP) — Leon Draisaitl scored 35 seconds into overtime and had a pair of assists, helping Edmonton to the victory.
Connor McDavid and Matt Benning also scored for the Oilers (31-31-7), who improved to 7-2-2 in their last 11 games.
New York lost for the seventh time in its last eight games. Brendan Lemieux and Brett Howden scored for the Rangers (28-28-13), and Alexandar Georgiev made 30 saves.