Thursday in the NHL | The Panthers sign a twelfth straight win

Red Wings crushed by Panthers 5-2

Aleksander Barkov scored a 38^and goal and the Florida Panthers tied a team record with a 12^and straight win on Thursday, beating the Detroit Red Wings 5-2.

Mason Marchment, Sam Reinhart, MacKenzie Weegar and Noel Acciari also scored for the NHL-leading Panthers.

Florida also earned 12 straight wins in 2015-16.

Jonathan Huberdeau provided two assists. He leads the league with 113 points, tied with Connor McDavid of the Edmonton Oilers.

Sergei Bobrovsky made 28 saves, being beaten by Tyler Bertuzzi and Sam Gagner. Alex Nedeljkovic stopped 22 shots.

The Panthers scored three times on seven shots in the first period.

The club will host the Toronto Maple Leafs on Saturday night.

Paul Gereffi, Associated Press

Stamkos becomes Lightning’s all-time leading scorer

Steven Stamkos became the all-time leading scorer for the Tampa Bay Lightning, which served an 8-1 thaw to the Toronto Maple Leafs on Thursday night.

Stamkos, the first overall pick in the 2008 draft, fired an accurate one-timer for a 954^and career point in a Lightning uniform. He beat Martin St-Louis.

Stamkos added two assists to pick up more than a point for a fourth straight game.

Nikita Kucherov amassed a 600^and point in the NHL when he set up Stamkos’ goal and he added his 20^and countryside fillet. Alex Killorn, Ondrej Palat and Ross Colton all finished the clash with three points.

Colton and Killorn moved the ropes twice each while Pat Maroon threaded the needle once for the Tampa Bay troupe.

Andrei Vasilevskiy stopped 35 shots in front of the Lightning net, earning his first victory in his last seven starts, since 1^er april.

Ilya Mikheyev took advantage of a power play to score the only goal for the Maple Leafs. Erik Kallgren stopped 28 pucks.

Erik Erlendsson, Associated Press

Seth Jarvis breaks tie to give Hurricanes victory

Seth Jarvis broke the tie at 8:21 in the third period and the Carolina Hurricanes defeated the Winnipeg Jets 4-2 on Thursday.

Jarvis collected his 15^and goal by deflecting a shot from Brendan Smith’s blue line.

Teuvo Teravainen and Jaccob Slavin also beat Eric Comrie, while captain Jordan Staal scored into an empty net.

Antti Raanta made 20 saves for Carolina, which led 46-22 in shots.

The Jets led 2-0 in the first intermission, before heading for a fourth straight loss.

Pierre-Luc Dubois and Kyle Connor scored for the visitors.

The Jets will wrap up the season with four home games.

Battling the Rangers for the top of their section, the Hurricanes will play again Saturday in New Jersey.

Associated Press

The Sabers win 5-2

Owen Power scored his first career NHL goal as the Buffalo Sabers defeated the New Jersey Devils 5-2 on Thursday night.

Power, the first overall pick in the last draft, eluded goaltender Andrew Hammond with a shot between the pads. The giant size defenseman was in his fifth game in the NHL.

Kyle Okposo and Alex Tuch threaded the needle shorthanded within 47 seconds of the first period. Rasmus Dahlin and Jeff Skinner also scored for the Sabers.

40-year-old veteran Craig Anderson stopped 31 pucks in the win for the Sabers, who are once again in position to earn a top-10 draft pick.

In his first career NHL game, Nikita Okhotiuk scored his first goal on the Bettman circuit. Jesper Boqvist rounded out the scoring for the Devils, who have also been out of the playoffs for some time.

Hammond stopped 23 of 28 shots he faced for the New Jersey squad.

Associated Press

Andrew Copp hat trick in Rangers win

Andrew Copp had a hat trick in the first period and the New York Rangers beat the New York Islanders 6-3 on Thursday night.

Copp opened the scoring in the fourth minute of play, collecting his 200^and NHL career point. He scored his second goal of the match, at 7:48, before completing his natural hat trick with 1:47 to go.

Ryan Strome had a goal and an assist, Chris Kreider scored his 51^and net of the campaign and Ryan Reaves completed the scoring for Rangers.

Artemi Panarin had four assists to bring his tally to 74, which is a Rangers record for a forward. He lowered Wayne Gretzky’s mark, set in 1996-97.

The Rangers, who have won their last four outings, tied with the Carolina Hurricanes atop the Metropolitan Division. Alexandar Georgiev saved 26 pucks.

Brock Nelson has moved the ropes twice for the Islanders, who are 3-5-1 in their last nine games. Josh Bailey had a goal and an assist.

Semyon Varlamov wrapped up the matchup with 17 saves for the Islanders.

Vin A. Cherwoo, Associated Press

Penguins blank Bruins 4-0

Casey DeSmith made a career-high 52 saves as the Pittsburgh Penguins shut out the Boston Bruins 4-0 on Thursday night.

DeSmith posted his third shutout this season and ninth in his career. He should be the Penguins’ number one goaltender in the playoffs, in the absence of Tristan Jarry.

Jake Guentzel contributed offensively by scoring a hat trick for the Penguins, who took a two-point lead over the Washington Capitals in third place in the Metropolitan Division.

Guentzel reached the 40-goal mark for the second time in his career and for the first time since 2018-19. Jason Zucker scored the other goal for the Pittsburgh squad.

The Penguins, Bruins and Capitals have already made the playoffs, but they’re battling for Eastern Conference seeding. The Penguins and Bruins both have 99 points.

Jeremy Swayman stopped 28 pucks for the Bostonians, who saw their two-game winning streak come to an end.

Dan Scifo, Associated Press

Wild win 6-3 against the Canucks

Kevin Fiala scored twice to help the Minnesota Wild win 6-3 over the Vancouver Canucks on Thursday.

Fiala scored in the middle period, then scored the decisive goal at 12:17 in the third period. He has 16 points in his last eight games.

Kirill Kaprizov and Mats Zuccarello each added a goal and two assists for the Wild, who deserved a third straight win.

Jared Spurgeon and Ryan Hartman were the other scorers for the Wild.

Cam Talbot made 21 saves, en route to his 200^and career victory.

Assured of second place in the Central Division, the Wild will have as first round rivals the St. Louis Blues.

The Blues won all three games against Minnesota during the regular season. There was an overtime twice, however.

For the Canucks, Elias Pettersson (twice) and Matthew Highmore scored, while Thatcher Demko stopped 25 shots.

Pettersson became the Canucks’ third player with at least 30 goals this season, after Bo Horvat and JT Miller.

Tyler Mason, Associated Press