Ben Bishop recorded 26 saves as the Dallas Stars posted a 2-0 victory over the visiting New Jersey Devils on Tuesday mere hours after firing coach Jim Montgomery.
Assistant Rick Bowness was behind the bench as interim coach in place of Montgomery, who was dismissed for "unprofessional conduct inconsistent with the core values and beliefs of the Dallas Stars and the National Hockey League," per general manager Jim Nill.
Radek Faksa and Joe Pavelski scored in the first period for the Stars, who improved to 17-4-2 in their past 23 games overall and 10-1-0 in their past 11 home contests.
Mackenzie Blackwood turned aside 33 shots for the reeling Devils, who dropped their sixth straight game (0-5-1) and were shut out for the fifth time this season.
Flames 5, Coyotes 2
Michael Frolik and Zac Rinaldo each had a goal and an assist as Calgary defeated Arizona in Glendale, Ariz.
Johnny Gaudreau, Sean Monahan and Milan Lucic also scored for the Flames, who improved to 5-0-0 under coach Geoff Ward since he replaced the fired Bill Peters. Goaltender Cam Talbot made 46 saves, one shy of his career high, set for the Edmonton Oilers at Boston in December 2015.
Jakob Chychrun and Phil Kessel scored for the Coyotes, who opened a three-game homestand. Antti Raanta stopped 24 of 29 shots.
Maple Leafs 4, Canucks 1
John Tavares broke out of a scoring slump with two goals and an assist as Toronto defeated host Vancouver.
Auston Matthews and Zach Hyman also scored for the Maple Leafs, and goaltender Frederik Andersen made 38 saves. Andersen has won six of his past eight starts to improve to 15-7-3. Toronto earned its second win in a row after losing three of the previous four.
Josh Leivo scored the lone goal for the Canucks, who were 3-1-0 in their previous four games. Vancouver goalie Jacob Markstrom, making his first start since Dec. 1 after leaving the team to attend his father's funeral, stopped 22 of 25 shots.
Kings 3, Rangers 1
Dustin Brown, Tyler Toffoli and Adrian Kempe scored goals, and Jonathan Quick was dominating in the net as Los Angeles returned home to earn a victory over New York and end a four-game losing streak.
Quick made 29 saves and earned his first win since Nov. 27 against the New York Islanders. He lost his shutout with 31 seconds remaining when Artemi Panarin scored for the Rangers on the power play. It was Panarin's team-high 15th of the season.
Henrik Lundqvist had 23 saves for the Rangers, who saw their three-game road winning streak come to an end after entering 6-2-1 in their past nine games. The Rangers narrowly avoided their first shutout loss of the season.
Canadiens 4, Penguins 1
Visiting Montreal rode three second-period goals en route to a win over Pittsburgh.
Tomas Tatar, Joel Armia and Shea Weber scored the second-period goals, and each also had an assist. Brendan Gallagher added an empty-net goal and an assist for Montreal, which has won two straight and three of four since going eight games without a regulation win.
Jake Guentzel scored for the Penguins, who had won three straight and had their 10-game home point streak (8-0-2) snapped. Pittsburgh goaltender Tristan Jarry, who had shutouts in his previous two starts, ran his personal shutout streak to a club-record 177:15 before giving up the three goals.
Lightning 2, Panthers 1
Andre Vasilevskiy outdueled Sergei Bobrovsky, and Steven Stamkos scored his fourth goal in the past three games, leading Tampa Bay past Florida in Sunrise, Fla.
Vasilevskiy made 27 saves. Bobrovsky, his fellow Russian, had a season-high 46 saves.
Stamkos has a team-high 11 goals. Before this surge, he had gone six straight games with no goals and just two assists. Alex Killorn added a goal and an assist for the Lightning, who are 8-5-2 on the road this season. Yet, in an odd recent trend, the Lightning are 1-4-0 in their past five home games.
Sabers 5, Blues 2
Red-hot Jack Eichel scored twice as Buffalo defeated visiting St. Louis. Eichel extended his points streak to 14 games (12 goals, 13 assists).
Sam Reinhart, Johan Larsson and Zemgus Girgensons also scored, and Linus Ullmark made 28 saves for the Sabres, who improved to 9-3-3 at home this season.
Troy Brouwer and Alex Pietrangelo scored for the Blues, who have absorbed three consecutive regulation losses for the first time this season.
Jets 5, Red Wings 1
Blake Wheeler, Andrew Copp and Patrik Laine combined for three goals in a two-minute span late in the second period to spark Winnipeg to a victory over visiting Detroit.
Laurent Brossoit stopped 15 shots to record the win for the Jets, who have won two straight and are on a 9-2-1 run. The Red Wings, who sit at the bottom of the league standings, have lost 10 straight games in regulation and gone 12 clashes without a victory.
Adam Lowry and Mark Scheifele also scored for the Jets. Christoffer Ehn got the one Detroit goal, which came against goalie Connor Hellebuyck during his brief stint while Brossoit needed equipment repairs in the second period.
Hurricanes 6, Oilers 3
Sebastian Aho netted his 100th career marker in a two-goal night, and Carolina tallied three times on the power play while winning at Edmonton.
Aho, who had a hat trick in a five-point game Saturday, scored the contest's first goal to reach the milestone and had a power-play goal in the third period. Nino Niederreiter and Ryan Dzingel added power-play tallies for Carolina, which opened a five-game road trip by winning its third straight.
Jordan Martinook potted a goal in the third period after Edmonton tied the game, and Dougie Hamilton also scored and had an assist for the Hurricanes. Zack Kassian scored twice, and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins had a marker for the Oilers, who are 2-4-1 in their past seven games. Connor McDavid contributed three assists, and he became the NHL's leading scorer with 55 points.
Ducks 3, Wild 2 (SO)
Rickard Rakell scored in regulation and again in the shootout to lift Anaheim past Minnesota in Saint Paul, Minn.
Cam Fowler also scored, and John Gibson made 22 saves for the Ducks, who won for the first time this season when outshooting their opponent.
Ryan Hartman and Ryan Donato scored, and Kaapo Kahkonen made 31 saves for the Wild, who rallied from a two-goal deficit but couldn't capitalize on an overtime power play.
Golden Knights 5, Blackhawks 1
Marc-Andre Fleury made 28 saves, and Reilly Smith had a goal and an assist to lead Vegas to a victory over Chicago in Las Vegas.
Fleury was making his first start since Nov. 23 after taking a personal leave due to the illness and death of his father. He lost his shutout bid with just 27 seconds to go when Dominik Kubalik scored a power-play goal. Deryk Engelland, William Karlsson, Max Pacioretty and Ryan Reaves also scored goals for the Golden Knights, who snapped a two-game losing streak.
Corey Crawford finished with 32 saves for Chicago, which fell to 1-6-2 all-time against Vegas.
Predators 3, Sharks 1
Nick Bonino and Ryan Johansen scored third-period goals, and Jusse Saros stopped a San Jose penalty shot with just under 11 minutes left in regulation as host Nashville beat the reeling Sharks.
It was Bonino's team-leading 12th goal and second in as many games as Nashville won back-to-back home contests for the first time since late October.
San Jose matched a season high with its fifth consecutive loss (0-4-1) while concluding an 0-3-1 road trip.
--Field Level Media