Matthews’ league-leading 49th goal lifts Leafs over Bruins

BOSTON (AP) — Auston Matthews scored his league-leading 49th goal and had an assist as the Toronto Maple Leafs ended the Boston Bruins’ four-game winning streak with a 6-4 victory on Tuesday night.

Matthews’ goal late in the second period was the fourth of five straight scored by the Maple Leafs, who held a 6-1 lead and flustered the Bruins into a string of retaliatory hits and penalties.

Colin Blackwell scored his first goal since joining Toronto in a trade at the deadline. Morgan Rielly, Alexander Kerfoot and Mitchell Marner each had a goal and an assist. John Tavares added two assists and Erik Kallgren had 23 saves.

David Pastrnak scored his 38th goal for Boston. Jake DeBrusk, Curtis Lazar, Taylor Hall also scored for the Bruins, who could not keep up with the speedy Maple Leafs.

Jeremy Swayman allowed six goals on 25 shots before being replaced by Linus Ullmark at the start of the third period.

RANGERS 3, PENGUINS 2

PITTSBURGH (AP) — Frank Vatrano and Braden Schneider scored less than five minutes apart in the second period, Chris Kreider added his 45th goal in the third and New York moved into second place in the Metropolitan Division with a win over Pittsburgh.

Igor Shesterskin made 22 saves, including a stop on Penguins forward Jake Guentzel in the final seconds to help New York beat Pittsburgh for the second time in five days.

The Penguins, coming off an 11-goal outburst in a romp over Detroit on Sunday, needed nearly two full periods to muster that many shots against New York as the Rangers won for the second time in three meetings.

Sidney Crosby scored his 25th goal and Brian Boyle got his ninth for the Penguins. Tristan Jarry stopped 23 shots but fell to 6-2 in his last eight starts, with both losses coming to New York.

LIGHTNING 4, HURRICANES 3, OT

TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — Steven Stamkos scored a power-play goal 52 seconds into overtime and had two regulation assists as Tampa Bay beat Carolina.

Stamkos got the winner from the slot off Nikita Kucherov’s third assist of the game.

Alex Killorn, Victor Hedman and Brayden Point also scored, and Andrei Vasilevskiy made 16 saves for the Lightning.

Carolina got goals from Nino Niederreiter, Seth Jarvis and Sebastian Aho, and Antti Raanta stopped 28 shots.

PANTHERS 7, CANADIENS 4

SUNRISE, Fla. (AP) — Jonathan Huberdeau and Ryan Lomberg both had two goals and an assist to lead Florida past Montreal.

Sam Bennett and Aleksander Barkov each added a goal and an assist for the Atlantic Division leaders, who are tied with Carolina for the top playoff seed in the Eastern Conference. Both teams have 96 points, though Florida has a game in hand.

Mason Marchment also scored for the Panthers, and Sergei Bobrovsky made 20 saves.

Christian Dvorak, Joel Edmundson and Laurent Dauphin scored in the second period for the Canadiens. Chris Wideman had a goal and an assist, and Jake Allen stopped 39 shots.

AVALANCHE 2, FLAMES 1

CALGARY, Alberta (AP) — Valeri Nichushkin scored twice and Darcy Keumper stopped 44 shots as Colorado edged Calgary in a matchup of Western Conference division leaders.

Central Division-leading Colorado won the season series 2-1. The Avalanche did so without Nathan MacKinnon (lower body), their leading scorer who was hurt in a third-period fight with Minnesota’s Matt Dumba on Sunday.

Nazem Kadri took MacKinnon’s spot on the Avs’ top line with Nichuskin and Mikko Rantanen. After going winless in his two previous starts, Kuemper improved to 31-9-3.

Tyler Toffoli scored for Pacific Division-leading Calgary. Jacob Markstrom topped 28 shots.

ISLANDERS 4, BLUE JACKETS 3

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Brock Nelson scored his career-high 32nd goal, Semyon Varlamov made 42 saves and New York held off Columbus.

Josh Bailey, Anthony Beauvillier and Zach Parise also scored as the Islanders snapped a two-game skid. New York moved within two points of Columbus in the standings, but both teams are well behind Washington for the last Eastern Conference wild-card spot.

Vladimir Gavrikov scored twice for Columbus, which lost its fourth straight. Oliver Bjorkstrand also scored and Elvis Merzlikins stopped 25 shots. The Blue Jackets played without coach Brad Larsen, who went into COVID-19 protocol earlier Tuesday, along with assistant Steve McCarthy.

WILD 4, FLYERS 1

ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — Marc-Andre Fleury made 32 saves and won his second straight start for Minnesota, which extended its winning streak to seven games with a victory over Philadelphia.

Matt Dumba, Kirill Kaprizov, Jordan Greenway and Kevin Fiala scored for the Wild. The victory ended a streak of three consecutive overtime wins by the score of 3-2 for Minnesota.

Morgan Frost scored a power-play goal in the third period for Philadelphia, ending Fleury’s shutout bid. Martin Jones made 33 saves as Philadelphia lost its third straight.

STARS 3, DUCKS 2

ANAHEIM, Calif. (AP) — Roope Hintz and Jacob Peterson scored in the third period to help Dallas rally for a win against Anaheim.

Radek Faksa had a goal, Jake Oettinger made 26 saves, and the Stars moved one point ahead of Vegas for the second wild-card from the Western Conference with three games in hand.

Troy Terry scored his 31st goal, Derek Grant had a goal and an assist, but the Ducks lost their 10th straight game. Trevor Zegras had two assists and John Gibson allowed three goals on 32 shots, but Anaheim is 0-8-2 since defeating San Jose on March 6.

PREDATORS 4, SENATORS 1

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Michael McCarron scored twice and Juuse Saros made 36 saves to lead Nashville over Ottawa.

Tanner Jeannot and Matt Duchene also scored and Mattias Ekholm had three assists for Nashville, winners of two straight.

Brady Tkachuk scored and Anton Forsberg made 28 saves for Ottawa, which has lost four of five.

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