ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — Matt Boldy had his second hat trick in the last five games for Minnesota, Marc-Andre Fleury made 35 saves, and the surging Wild beat the Seattle Kraken 5-1 on Monday night.
Jake Middleton had a rare goal, Ryan Hartman scored late and Jared Spurgeon, Marcus Johansson and Joel Eriksson Ek each had two assists as the Wild stayed in first place in the Central Division. They took a one-point lead on both Colorado and Dallas into the day, with a critical road game against the Avalanche coming next on the schedule.
Boldy is a big reason why the Wild are in the lead, with 11 goals in the nine games they’ve played since superstar Kirill Kaprizov was sidelined by a lower-body injury. The Wild are 6-1-2 without Kaprizov, who’s still 10th in the NHL with 39 goals.
Jaden Schwartz ended Fleury’s shutout bid with 9 minutes left, scoring on a bouncing rebound that banked in off the goalie and into the net.
CANADIENS 4, SABRES 3, SO
BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP) — Michael Pezzetta scored the decisive shootout goal and Montreal avoided playoff elimination.
Brendan Gallagher forced overtime by scoring his 200th career goal in capping a 3-on-2 rush with a shot from the right circle 8:35 into the third period. Jordan Harris and Alex Belzile also scored for Montreal, and Jake Allen stopped 30 shots through overtime, while allowing one goal on six shootout attempts.
Montreal would have been eliminated from playoff contention for a second straight season — and two years removed from reaching the Stanley Cup Final — with any type of loss.
Lukas Rousek scored a goal and added an assist in his NHL debut for Buffalo, which dropped to 3-6-3 in its past 12 and blew a chance to move to within four points of the Pittsburgh for the second wild card in the Eastern Conference. Defenseman Riley Stillman and JJ Peterka also scored for Buffalo, while Eric Comrie stopped 38 shots through overtime, and allowed two goals on six shootout attempts.
OILERS 5, COYOTES 4
TEMPE, Ariz. (AP) — Ryan Nugent-Hopkins scored the tiebreaking goal with 7:55 remaining to lead Edmonton.
Zack Hyman, Bouchard, Darnell Nurse and Leon Draisaitl also scored for the Oilers, who extended their points streak to seven (6-0-1). Jack Campbell stopped 29 shots.
Connor McDavid picked up an assist for his 140th point of the season, becoming the first player to reach the mark since Pittsburgh’s Mario Lemieux and Jaromir Jagr both achieved it in 1995-96. The last Oilers player to do it was Wayne Gretzky in 1987-88.
Matias Maccelli and Barrett Hayton scored two goals each for the Coyotes, who lost their fifth straight overall and snapped their eight-game home points streak.Lawson Crouse had three assists and Karel Vejmelka finished with 24 saves.
SENATORS 5, PANTHERS 2
OTTAWA, Ontario (AP) — Brady Tkachuk had a goal and an assist, Mads Sogaard stopped 32 shots and Ottawa beat Florida.
Alex DeBrincat, Tim Stützle, Erik Brannstrom and Shane Pinto also scored for the Senators, who won for just the third time in 10 games (3-6-1).
Gustav Forsling scored twice for the Panthers in their fourth straight loss. Sergei Bobrovsky finished with 21 saves as Florida remained three points behind Pittsburgh for the second wild card in the Eastern Conference.
ISLANDERS 5, DEVILS 1
NEW YORK (AP) — Kyle Palmieri had two goals and an assist, Ilya Sorokin made 30 saves and New York extended its lead in the wild-card race.
Pierre Engvall, Bo Horvat and Zach Parise also scored for the Islanders, who stopped a two-game losing streak and moved three points ahead of Pittsburgh for the first wild card in the Eastern Conference.
Eric Haula scored for the Devils and Vitek Vanecek finished with 31 saves. New Jersey, which clinched a playoff spot with a win against Ottawa on Saturday, remained three points behind first-place Carolina in the Metropolitan Division.
AVALANCHE 5, DUCKS 1
ANAHEIM, Calif. (AP) — Nathan MacKinnon had a goal and an assist in his 700th NHL game and Colorado won its third straightt.
Bowen Byram, also had a goal and an assist for the Avalanche, who are one point behind Dallas for the Central Division lead. Jack Johnson, Valeri Nichushkin and Samuel Girard also scored for Colorado, and Cale Makar had two assists. Jonas Johansson stopped 29 shots.
Anaheim, which went 1-6-1 on its eight-game homestand, got its lone goal from Derek Grant. John Gibson made 39 saves. Trevor Zegras suffered a lower-body injury during the second period and did not return
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