Consult the reports of the games played Wednesday in the NHL.
Victorious comeback of the Panthers against the Rangers
MacKenzie Weegar, Carter Verhaeghe and Anthony Duclair all scored in the third period as the Florida Panthers came back to defeat the New York Rangers 4-3 on Wednesday night.
Artemi Panarin had one goal and one assist for Rangers. Mika Zibanejad and Chris Kreider also found the back of the net for the New York squad. Igor Shesterkin, who missed his last eight games with a lower-body injury, fired 28 shots in loss.
Anton Lundell also shuffled the strings for the Panthers. Their goalkeeper Sergei Bobrovsky stopped 30 shots.
Weegar scored with a wrist shot from Shesterkin’s stick side for his first goal of the season. This net leveled the score at 2-2 after 5:56 of play in the third period.
Verhaeghe scored to give the Panthers the lead with a left circle shot at 10:31 in the third period. Duclair followed a few minutes later with his 10th goal of the season to double the lead.
Kreider scored with 45 seconds left as the Rangers pulled Shesterkin out in favor of a sixth forward.
Both teams have returned to service after an extended holiday break. It was the Panthers ‘first game in 13 days and the Rangers’ first in 12, given the extended Christmas break due to the surge in COVID-19 cases in the NHL.
Charlie Mccarthy, Associated Press
Devils end six-game losing streak
PHOTO TIMOTHY T. LUDWIG, USA TODAY SPORTS
Yegor Sharangovich (17) celebrates his goal scored in the third period.
Jack Hughes and Jesper Bratt both had one goal and two assists to guide the New Jersey Devils to a 4-3 victory over the Buffalo Sabers on Wednesday night.
Hughes’ sixth goal of the season gave the Devils a 3-2 lead in the third period. Yegor Sharangovich extended the lead to 4-2 just 2:22 later.
Dougie Hamilton also hit the target for the Devils, who ended a six-game losing streak. Mackenzie Blackwood stopped 20 shots for his first win since Dec. 8.
The New Jersey squad returned from the Christmas break without Tomas Tatar and Jimmy Vesey, who find themselves in the NHL’s COVID-19 protocol.
It was the Sabers’ first game in 12 days, after four games postponed. They lacked the services of six players and head coach Don Granato.
Tage Thompson scored two goals in the second period for the Sabers, placing him first on the team in that regard with 12 goals.
In his first game in the NHL, defenseman Ethan Prow completed the score for the home team. Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen turned back 38 pucks in a losing cause.
Joe Yerdon, The Canadian Press
The Capitals defeat the Predators
PHOTO GEOFF BURKE, USA TODAY SPORTS
Capitals players celebrate at the end of the game.
Evgeny Kuznetsov scored a late shorthanded goal and the Washington Capitals beat the Nashville Predators 5-3 on Wednesday night.
Returning to the game after an 18-day absence, Kuznetsov unleashed a narrow-angle wrist shot to help the Capitals beat the Predators for the first time in nine games, looking back to 2017.
It was the 10e Kuznetsov’s campaign goal and a first since he left the NHL’s COVID-19 protocols earlier Wednesday.
John Carlson had one goal and three assists for the Capitals, who took a 3-0 first-period lead before slipping their lead in the first eight minutes of the second period.
Lars Eller, Nic Dowd and Carl Hagelin also found the back of the net for the Washington team, which rose to first place in the Metropolitan Division, two points ahead of the Carolina Hurricanes.
Dmitry Orlov had two assists and Ilya Samsonov made 17 saves for the Capitals, who were playing their first game in 10 days.
Filip Forsberg scored his 14th goal of the campaign, a high for the Predators. Yakov Trenin and Luke Kunin also blackened the scoresheet.
Juuse Saros blocked 32 shots in net for the Predators, who missed an opportunity to grab the top spot in the Central Section.
Ian Nicholas Quillen, The Canadian Press