Ryan O'Reilly (NASDAQ:ORLY) posted his second career hat trick and Jaden Schwartz added a pair of goals as the St. Louis Blues routed the visiting Minnesota Wild 9-1 Friday night.
Justin Faulk (goal, two assists), Sammy Blais (goal, two assists), Torey Krug (two assists), Robert Thomas (two assists) and Tyler Bozak (two assists) also had multi-point games for the Blues.
Zach Sanford and Ivan Barbashev also scored as the Blues won consecutive games for the first time since March 19-20. Jordan Binnington made 24 saves in the victory.
Zach Parise scored for the Wild, and Kaapo Kahkonen made 29 saves.
Golden Knights 7, Coyotes 4
Reilly Smith scored two goals, Jonathan Marchessault, Chandler Stephenson and Max Pacioretty each had a goal and an assist and Vegas built a five-goal lead before holding on to defeat Arizona in Las Vegas.
The seven goals were a season high for the Golden Knights. Marchessault, William Carrier, Keegan Kolesar and Smith all scored in a 5:41 span in the opening period. Robin Lehner made 22 saves for Vegas.
Nick Schmaltz had a goal and an assist and Clayton Keller, Dryden Hunt and Michael Bunting also scored for Arizona. Phil Kessel, playing in his 885th consecutive game to break a tie with Steve Larmer for the fifth-longest ironman streak in NHL history, had three assists.
Capitals 4, Sabres 3
Defensemen Justin Schultz and Brenden Dillon combined for two goals and three assists as Washington continued its season dominance over Buffalo to get a much-needed win.
Alex Ovechkin scored his 21st of the season, Jakub Vrana snapped a 13-game goal drought and rookie Vitek Vanecek (5-0-1 versus Buffalo this season) made 30 saves for the Capitals, who pulled into a tie atop the East Division. The Capitals are 6-0-1 against the Sabres and have won all four games in Buffalo.
Henri Jokiharju and Casey Mittelstadt each scored, and Tage Thompson's goal with 1:20 left in the game made things interesting for the Sabres, but they ended up losing for a second straight game following their 3-0-1 stretch. Dustin Tokarski stopped 29 shots in his fourth start for Buffalo this season.
Penguins 6, Devils 4
Bryan Rust had two goals and an assist as Pittsburgh built a three-goal lead and held on to win Newark, N.J.
Sidney Crosby added a goal and two assists, Jared McCann a goal and an assist, and Brian Dumoulin and Colton Sceviour also scored for the Penguins, who have won two straight. Goaltender Casey DeSmith made 26 saves for Pittsburgh, which has seven wins in the past nine games.
Miles Wood scored twice and Jack Hughes and Jesper Boqvist also scored for New Jersey, which is 2-5-2 in its past nine games. Mackenzie Blackwood made 21 saves.
Avalanche 2, Ducks 0
Jonas Johansson had 28 saves for his first career shutout as visiting Colorado beat Anaheim.
Valeri Nichushkin and Mikko Rantanen scored goals and Nathan MacKinnon had an assist to extend his points streak to eight games.
John Gibson had 33 saves for the Ducks, who have lost 11 of their past 15 games (4-10-1). Anaheim was without captain Ryan Getzlaf (upper-body injury) for the third straight game, and he was placed on injured reserve.
Sharks 5, Kings 2
Dylan Gambrell scored a late short-handed goal and Martin Jones made 32 saves as host San Jose held on to defeat Los Angeles for its fifth win in six games.
The Kings were threatening to tie the game late in the third period, trailing 3-2 and going on a power play with 4:05 left. However, Sharks defenseman Brent Burns sent the puck up the ice for Evander Kane, who set Gambrell up for the pivotal short-handed goal.
Kevin Labanc, Patrick Marleau and Rudolfs Balcers also scored goals for San Jose. Burns tallied three assists, and Kane had two helpers. Alex Iafallo and Jaret Anderson-Dolan were the goal-scorers for Los Angeles. Calvin Petersen made 24 saves in the loss.
Rangers 4, Islanders 1
Alexis Lafreniere and Colin Blackwell scored in the second period for the visiting New York Rangers, who gained ground in the East Division playoff race by beating the New York Islanders in Uniondale, N.Y.
K'Andre Miller and Mika Zibanejad also scored and Alexandar Georgiev made 31 saves for the Rangers, who moved past the idle Philadelphia Flyers into fifth place in the East Division, five points behind the Boston Bruins.
Andy Greene scored his first regular-season goal since Feb. 13, 2020, for the Islanders, who had their four-game winning streak snapped as they fell into a first-place tie with the Washington Capitals. Semyon Varlamov recorded 32 saves.
--Field Level Media