PHILADELPHIA — The Pittsburgh Penguins won 10 straight games for the sixth time in franchise history, getting two goals each from Bryan Rust and Jake Guentzel to beat the depleted Philadelphia Flyers 6-2 on Thursday night.
The Penguins won the second game of a back-to-back and haven’t lost since Dec. 1 against Edmonton. The Penguins won five games during the streak on the road and can at least think about the team record of 17 straight set over March-April 1993. The Penguins also won 15 straight games in March 2013 and have winning streaks of 12, 11 and 10 games, all since 1999.
The Penguins played a Flyers team ravaged with injuries and even more players in the COVID-19 protocol. The Flyers had six players in the protocol, including top-point scorer and team captain Claude Giroux, defenseman Ivan Provorov and forward Travis Konecny.
Cam Atkinson scored his 14th goal of the season for the Flyers in the second period and Oskar Lindblom scored a power-play goal in the third. Carter Hart stopped 26 shots.
STARS 6, PANTHERS 5, SO
DALLAS — Dallas captain Jamie Benn had a goal and an assist two days after coming out of COVID-19 protocols, and the Stars beat Florida in a shootout in their first game in 2 1/2 weeks because of virus issues throughout the team.
Joe Pavelski and Jason Robertson scored on the only two shots in the shootout for the Stars while Braden Holtby stopped both Florida shots to end the game.
The Panthers left their net empty and had an extra skater on the ice when Jonathan Huberdeau scored with 29 seconds left in regulation to force overtime.
Stars defenseman John Klingberg, who had two assists and a goal-saving play, had one final shot that was kicked away by goalie Sergei Bobrovsky with a second left in the five-minute overtime period.
Holtby stopped 37 shots. Bobrovsky had 31 saves.
AVALANCHE 7, JETS 1
DENVER — Gabriel Landeskog had his fourth career hat trick and finished with four points to lead Colorado over Winnipeg.
Landeskog scored twice in a three-goal second period for the surging Avalanche. Nathan MacKinnon had a goal and four assists, and Mikko Rantanen added a goal and two assists to give Colorado’s top line 12 points on the night. Darcy Kuemper had 34 saves.
The Avalanche have won 10 straight at home, three in a row coming off a seven-game COVID-19 pause, and are 16-3-1 since Nov. 6. They put 42 shots on Connor Hellebuyck, who made 35 saves.
The Jets had their three-game winning streak snapped and lost for just the second time since interim coach Dave Lowry took over for Paul Maurice, who resigned abruptly on Dec. 17.
WILD 3, BRUINS 2
BOSTON — Kirill Kaprizov scored in his fourth straight game, Matt Boldy got a goal in his NHL debut and Minnesota snapped a five-game skid with a win over Boston.
Boldy, who played at Boston College last season and grew up about 20 miles southwest of Boston in Millis, Massachusetts, put Minnesota up 3-1 with a goal 12:26 into the second period, and the Wild hung on for heir first win since Dec. 9, over the San Jose Sharks. The Wild had five games postponed due to COVID-19 protocols since that victory.
Nico Sturm also scored for Minnesota and Kaapo Kahkonen had 36 saves.
Taylor Hall and Brad Marchand scored for the Bruins, whose three-game winning streak was halted. Jeremy Swayman finished with 27 saves.
LIGHTNING 4, FLAMES 1
TAMPA, Fla. — Nikita Kucherov had two nifty assists in his return from a lengthy injury during Tampa Bay’s three-goal third period in the Lightning’s 4-1 victory over Calgary.
Corey Perry, Brayden Point, Ondrej Palat and Alex Killorn scored to help Tampa Bay (23-8-5, 51 points) become the first NHL team to reach 50 points for the fourth time in the last five seasons. Andrei Vasilevskiy made 26 saves, losing his shutout bid when Dillon Dube scored with 4:06 left.
Flames backup goalie Dan Vladar stopped 29 shots in his first game since Dec. 7. Johnny Gaudreau had his 11-game road points streak (nine goals, 18 points) end.
GOLDEN KNIGHTS 5, RANGERS 1
LAS VEGAS — Jonathan Marchessault scored twice, Robin Lehner made 18 saves in his first game in nearly three weeks and Vegas defeated New York.
Lehner, who hadn’t played since Dec. 19 due to a lower-body injury, extended his winning streak to six games.
Mark Stone, Mattias Janmark and Brett Howden also scored for the Golden Knights, who stopped a two-game skid.
Chris Kreider scored for the Rangers, who had won three in a row. Alexandar Georgiev made 30 saves in the first of four straight games out West on a five-game road trip.
PREDATORS 4, KINGS 2
LOS ANGELES — Filip Forsberg had a goal and an assist for his third straight multi-point outing, Matt Duchene got his first goal in 10 games and Nashville extended its winning streak to three.
Forsberg tops the NHL with 12 goals since Nov. 30 as Nashville has gone 11-2-1 in its last 14 games to grab the Central Division lead.
Matt Luff and Yakov Trenin also scored for the Predators, and Roman Josi added two assists. Juuse Saros stopped 46 shots, tied for the fourth-most of his career.
Dustin Brown and Martin Frk scored for Los Angeles, which lost despite having a 48-20 advantage in shots. Jonathan Quick made 16 saves.
DEVILS 3, BLUE JACKETS 1
NEWARK — Jesper Bratt scored the go-ahead goal early in the third period, MacKenzie Blackwood made 31 saves and New Jersey beat Columbus for its fourth win in five games.
The teams will complete the home-and-home series Saturday night in Columbus.
Jack Hughes had a goal and two assists, and Tomas Tatar also scored for New Jersey. The Devils played without key forwards Yegor Sharangovich, Pavel Zacha and Andreas Johnsson because of COVID-19 protocol.
Max Dimi scored for Columbus, and Joonas Korpisalo made 25 saves. The Blue Jackets lost their third straight, failing to score on four power-play chances.
COYOTES 6, BLACKHAWKS 4
GLENDALE, Ariz. — Johan Larsson scored his first three goals of the season for his first career hat trick and Arizona dealt Chicago its sixth straight loss.
Dysin Mayo, Travis Boyd and Clayton Keller also scored for Arizona, which won for just the seventh time this season. The Coyotes (7-22-3) have a league-low 17 points. Karel Vejmelka stopped 32 shots.
Kirby Dach, MacKenzie Entwhistle, Jonathan Toews and Alex DeBrincat scored for Chicago. DeBrincat scored his 21st of the season and third in two games.
Marc-Andre Fleury made 21 saves for Chicago. The Blackhawks last won Dec. 15, in overtime against Washington.
SHARKS 3, SABRES 2
BUFFALO, N.Y. — Adin Hill made 37 saves, Tomas Hertl had a goal and an assist, and San Jose ended a two-game skid.
Matt Neito and Timo Meier also scored for San Jose, playing the third game of a four-game trip.
Jeff Skinner and Zemgus Girgensons scored for the Sabres, who fell to 2-8-4 in their last 14 games. Buffalo has lost six straight at home. Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen stopped 18 shots.
