Thursday in the NHL | The Lightning sign their 11th straight win at home

Victor Hedman secures Lightning win over Bruins

Victor Hedman gave the team the lead with 6:31 left in the third period and the Tampa Bay Lightning tied a team record with an 11^e straight win at home on Thursday night, this time beating the Boston Bruins 3-2.

Brayden Point missed his pass to Steven Stamkos on a 2-on-1 run, but the puck slid down the ramp and landed directly on Hedman’s paddle. The defenseman’s slapshot beat Bruins goaltender Linus Ullmark, who was hampered by a fall from teammate Brandon Carlo.

The Lightning tied the team record for the longest home winning streak set by the 2019-20 edition.

The Florida team also put an end to the Bruins’ six-game winning streak.

Brandon Hagel and Nikita Kucherov also scored for the Lightning, which defeated the Bruins, the NHL’s top team this season, for the first time in three attempts. Andrei Vasilevskiy made 37 saves.

Brad Marchand and Pavel Zacha hit the mark for the Bruins, who have seen their record this season improve to 38-6-4. Ullmark stopped 32 shots.

John Kreiser, Associated Press

Capitals beat Penguins 3-2 in shootout

Alex Ovechkin scored his 32^e goal of the season and Nicklas Backstrom scored the game-winning goal in the shootout to allow the Washington Capitals to beat the Pittsburgh Penguins 3-2 in a matchup between rivals in the Metropolitan Division Thursday night, in the middle of the playoff race in Eastern Association.

The Capitals snapped a two-game losing streak and handed the Penguins their fifth loss in their last eight games. The Penguins, however, managed to extend their game streak with at least one point to six. The Penguins are one point behind the Capitals, but have three games in hand.

Ovechkin’s goal was his 812^e career in the NHL. In the third period, Marcus Johansson gave the Capitals the lead, before the Penguins tied the game on a Bryan Rust goal with 7:08 left in the third period.

Evgeny Kuznetsov and Backstrom gave the home side a shootout victory, while goaltender Darcy Kuemper confirmed the victory by blocking Evgeni Malkin’s shot on the Penguins’ final attempt.

Casey DeSmith kept the Penguins in the game with a strong performance, replacing the team’s starting goaltender, Tristan Jarry. DeSmith stopped 43 shots, including 20 in the first period.

Kuemper made 36 saves in the game, before stopping Sidney Crosby and Malkin in the shootout. It was the goaltender’s fourth straight start.

Stephen Whyno, Associated Press

Sabers beat Jets for fifth straight win

Tage Thompson provided a goal and an assist to help the Buffalo Sabers extend their winning streak to five games Thursday with a 3-2 win over the Winnipeg Jets.

Thompson also extended his own point streak to six games, during which he had three goals and seven assists.

Owen Power and Victor Olofsson also scored for the Sabres, while Jeff Skinner and Rasmus Dahlin each had two assists.

Eric Comrie made 19 saves for the Sabers, earning his third start in his team’s four-game road trip.

Nate Schmidt and Pierre-Luc Dubois have lined up for the Jets, who are 2-4-0 in their most recent six games.

Dubois closed the gap to just one goal with about 40 seconds on the clock in the third period as he picked up a loose puck in the slot, but it was too little too late for the Jets.

Connor Hellebuyck stopped 33 shots in front of the net for the Jets, who were playing the first of a three-game streak in front of their fans.

With his two assists, Dahlin brought his total this season to 41 in 47 games. He became the second defenseman in Sabers history to reach 40 assists in under 50 games, joining John Van Boxmeer in 1981-82.

Judy Owen, The Canadian Press

Wild win in overtime against Flyers

Mats Zuccarello scored the game-winning goal in overtime, Matt Boldy hit the target twice in regulation and the Minnesota Wild celebrated their home comeback with a 3-2 win over the Philadelphia Flyers on Thursday night.

Marc-André Fleury contributed to the win with a 28-save performance for the Wild, who had suffered three straight losses and completed a four-game road trip with one win and three losses.

This performance had caused the Wild to slip outside the top-8 giving access to the Western Conference playoffs.

Boldy had his third game with at least two goals this season. The 21-year-old left winger, in his second NHL season, has 16 goals and six points during a four-game point streak.

The Flyers forced overtime on a goal by defenseman Tony DeAngelo with 1:28 left in the third period after head coach John Tortorella called off goaltender Carter Hart in favor of a sixth skater.

Noah Cates, in the first period, scored the other goal for the Flyers, who have lost five of their last seven games.

Hart blocked 20 pucks.

Brian Hall, Associated Press

Predators win 6-4 over Devils

Matt Duchene scored in the third period and had an assist as the Nashville Predators beat the New Jersey Devils 6-4 Thursday night.

Cody Glass, Cole Smith, Mikael Granlund, Filip Forsberg and Tanner Jeannot also scored for the Predators, who have won three straight and five of their last six. Juuso Parssinen added two assists and goaltender Juuse Saros stopped 36 shots.

Forward Jack Hughes had a goal and an assist for the Devils, who lost in regulation for only the second time in January and are 7-1-1 in their last nine games.

Jesper Bratt, Yegor Sharangovich and Dawson Mercer scored the other Devils goals. Dougie Hamilton had three assists and Mackenzie Blackwood made 35 saves.

Blackwood was busy in the first period, stopping 20 of 22 shots he faced. The 22 shots against his team are a Devils high in one period this season, as are the Predators, who had never shot so many in one period this season.

Hamilton and Hughes are both on a three-game plus-point streak. Hughes leads the Devils with 21 two-point or more games this season, while Hamilton is second with 14.

Jim Diamond, Associated Press

Rookie goaltender Jaxson Stauber helps Blackhawks win over Flames

Rookie goaltender Jaxson Stauber blocked 34 shots, en route to a second win in as many National Hockey League starts, and the Chicago Blackhawks defeated the Calgary Flames 5-1 on Thursday night.

Taylor Raddysh, Boris Katchouk, Jason Dickinson, Sam Lafferty and Connor Murphy, the latter in an empty net, scored the goals for the Blackhawks (15-28-4), who entered the game in last place in the general classification of the NHL.

Jonathan Huberdeau scored the lone goal for the Flames (23-17-9), who sit outside the top-8 in the Western Conference after finishing first in the Pacific Division last season.

Jacob Markstrom has made 24 saves in goal for the Flames and hasn’t won in his last four decisions (0-3-1). It was the 10^e game this season where his teammates scored one goal or less in one of his outings.

Because goaltender Alex Stalock suffered a concussion, Stauber made his NHL debut on Saturday. He picked up a 5-3 victory in St. Louis against the Blues.

The 23-year-old Stauber was undrafted and is in his first season as a pro. Last March, he signed a contract as a free agent after spending the previous two seasons with Providence College, at the university level.

He started the campaign at Rockford, the Blackhawks’ American League school club.

With the score at 1-1 after 20 minutes, the Blackhawks took control of the game with three unanswered goals in the second period.

Darren Haynes, The Canadian Press

Coyotes blank Blues 5-0

Nick Schmaltz scored the first hat trick of his career in the National Hockey League, Karel Vejmelka had his third shutout of the season with a 33-save performance, and the Arizona Coyotes outscored the Blues in St. Louis 5-0 Thursday night.

Schmaltz scored two goals within three minutes halfway through the second period. He completed his hat trick after 13 seconds in the third period.

Travis Boyd and Barrett Hayton scored the other goals for the Coyotes, who picked up a third victory in their last 15 games.

Hayton has scored five goals in his last 11 games.

Just before Schmaltz’s first goal, Vejmelka blocked a close-range shot from Jordan Kyrou.

Jack Magruder, Associated Press