SUNRISE, Fla. (AP) — Jeff Skinner scored twice and Craig Anderson made 53 saves against his former team, leading the Buffalo Sabres to a 3-1 win over the Florida Panthers on Friday night.
The 41-year-old Anderson spent three seasons with the Panthers (2006-09) and still maintains a home a few miles north of their arena. He helped Buffalo get to 64 points and pull into a three-way tie for the final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference with Detroit and Florida.
The Sabres have not been to the Stanley Cup playoffs since 2011 — the longest such drought in the NHL.
Buffalo also got a power-play goal from Alex Tuch, and Tage Thompson had three assists.
Carter Verhaeghe scored his 31st of the season for the Panthers — who were playing without their two top centers in Aleksander Barkov and Sam Bennett due to injuries. Sergei Bobrovsky made 32 saves in the loss.
KINGS 3, ISLANDERS 2
NEW YORK (AP) — Phillip Danault, Arthur Kaliyev and Gabriel Vilardi scored in the second period, and the Kings ended a two-game skid.
Jonathan Quick made 16 saves for his 370th victory, moving into 19th place on the NHL’s career list. Quick also surpassed Tom Barrasso for third place on the victories list by a U.S.-born goaltender, trailing only John Vanbiesbrouck (374) and Ryan Miller (391).
Noah Dobson and Adam Pelech scored for New York, and Ilya Sorokin finished with 25 saves. The Islanders had won three of four.
Los Angeles scored three goals in a span of 5:34 to take a 3-0 lead.
HURRICANES 4, SENATORS 0
RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — Carolina’s Antti Raanta made 32 saves for his third shutout in 21 appearances this season.
Brent Burns, Seth Jarvis, Martin Necas and Brady Skjei scored in Carolina’s fifth straight win and 12th in 13 games overall. Andrei Svechnikov and Sebastian Aho each had two assists.
Ottawa was blanked for the second time this season. Senators goalie Cam Talbot, who returned after a nine-game absence with a lower-body injury, stopped 26 shots.
AVALANCHE 5, JETS 1
WINNIPEG, Manitoba (AP) — Nathan MacKinnon scored 19 seconds in, and Colorado got four goals on its first five shots.
MacKinnon, Mikko Rantanen and J.T. Compher each had a goal and assist. Bowen Byram and Matt Nieto also scored for the Avalanche (32-19-5), who are 5-0-1 in their past six games and 12-2-2 in their last 16.
Alexandar Georgiev made 26 saves for Colorado, which also has won four straight on the road.
Mason Appleton scored for the Jets (35-23-1), who are 1-4-0 in their past five games. Connor Hellebuyck stopped 21 of 26 shots before he was replaced by David Rittich to start the third period. Rittich made 10 saves.
MAPLE LEAFS 2, WILD 1
TORONTO (AP) — William Nylander scored 1:05 into overtime, lifting the Maple Leafs to the win.
David Kampf also scored for Toronto (36-15-8), and Ilya Samsonov made 24 saves. Nylander added an assist to give him 70 points on the season.
Minnesota (32-21-6) had won four in a row, including a 2-0 victory at Columbus on Thursday. Brandon Duhaime scored for the Wild, and Filip Gustavsson made 22 stops.
The Leafs are set to head out on a five-game road trip that includes their annual swing through Western Canada. They won’t play again at Scotiabank Arena again until March 11.
CANADIENS 5, FLYERS 2
PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Jesse Ylonen had a goal and an assist, leading Montreal to the road win.
Chris Tierney, David Savard, Josh Anderson and Nick Suzuki also scored for Montreal, which followed up Tuesday’s impressive win over New Jersey with another solid performance. Jake Allen made 24 saves.
Owen Tippett and Ivan Provorov scored for Philadelphia, which has lost seven of nine since the All-Star break. Carter Hart made 26 saves.
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