DALLAS (AP) The Dallas Stars needed a big performance from goaltender Ben Bishop to maintain their position in the playoff race
Womens Jake DeBrusk Jersey , and they got one.Bishop made 38 saves, and Dallas blanked Calgary 2-0 on Tuesday night for his 24th career shutout and fifth this
season.”Ben was great, and he did an outstanding job,” Stars coach Ken Hitchcock
said. ”Held us together and it’s two points.”Those points allowed the Stars to
remain in the first Western Conference wild card spot and prevented Calgary,
which sits just outside the second wild card position, from moving ahead of
them.”There were some chances,” Bishop said, ”but I think the guys did a good
job of just a one and done. There (weren’t) too many sustained chances there
where they were getting two, three whacks. Sometimes you’ve got to come up and
make the saves.”Bishop made 17 of them in the second period, when Dallas
increased its lead to 2-0 on a power-play goal by Tyler Seguin, his 32nd.Devin
Shore scored the first goal with just 39 seconds left in the first period. He
skated past Calgary’s Dougie Hamilton to the left faceoff circle and lifted a
wrist shot over goalie Jon Gillies.Bishop’s best work was during a Calgary
5-on-3 power play that lasted 1:55 midway through the first period. The Flames
managed only two shots on goal but had other good chances.Calgary came into the
game with nine power-play goals in the previous six games but missed on all six
man advantages.”We had to get something on the power play, especially that
5-on-3,” Flames coach Glen Gulutzan said. ”I saw what it did to their bench.
Their crowd obviously recognizing a good kill, and I thought they got a little
energy from it when it didn’t happen.”Bishop was really good tonight. We had a
lot of chances. We just couldn’t get anything by him.”Midway through the second
period, Seguin scored on the power play, taking a cross-ice pass from Jamie Benn
low in the right circle. Seguin beat goalie Jon Gillies with a wrist shot into
the upper right corner.Gillies took his first loss in six NHL games. He stopped
24 shots.”He gave us a chance,” Gulutzan said. ”I thought they made a real nice
play on the first goal, and even the second goal, if Seguin gets a shot from
there on the east-west pass like that he’s not going to miss too many times.”On
the Stars’ third power play of the second period, Bishop stopped 3-on-2 and
2-on-1 short-handed rushes by the Flames.”What did we give up?” Hitchcock said.
”Thirty scoring chances?”We need a lot better play by a lot more people.”Shore’s
goal was his first in 11 games.”The puck was coming up the wall and it kind of
seemed there was nobody on Dan Hamhuis’s side. Remi Elie won his battle in their
zone and it was a nice pass by him to come right out to me,” Shore said. ”I was
gonna shoot and did a quick fake
Patrice Bergeron Jersey , and it went in.”NOTES: Bishop’s 38 saves were his most in a shutout this season. His best save total for any game this season is
39. … Dallas LW Antoine Roussel went off for interference in the first period,
bringing his penalty minutes over 100 for the fifth time in seven seasons. Five
seconds later, D Marc Methot joined Roussel in the penalty box. … Gillies had
won his first three decisions, including the two games before Tuesday. … The
Stars had been 1 for 20 on the power play over eight-plus games before Seguin’s
goal. … Calgary was 9 for 21 with a man advantage in the previous six games. .
Each team had seven minor penalties.UP NEXTFlames: Complete a two-game trip on
Wednesday at Colorado.Stars: Play the third in a five-game homestand on Thursday
against Tampa Bay.— PITTSBURGH (AP) The Pittsburgh Penguins‘ quest for a
three-peat is officially on.Patric Hornqvist picked up his 200th career goal and
the two-time defending Stanley Cup champions clinched their 12th straight
playoff berth with a 5-2 victory over the Montreal Canadiens on Saturday
night.Phil Kessel, Riley Sheahan, Conor Sheary and Carl Hagelin also scored for
Pittsburgh, which dominated the largely listless Canadiens to improve to 17-1-1
in their last 19 games at PPG Paints Arena. Matt Murray finished with 24 saves
for the Penguins, who swept their season series with Montreal for only the
second time in franchise history.Jeff Petry and Jonathan Drouin scored for the
Canadiens, who lost for the fifth time in seven games. Antti Niemi made 28 stops
but Montreal couldn’t handle the league’s top-ranked power play.GOLDEN KNIGHTS
3, SHARKS 2LAS VEGAS (AP) – William Karlsson scored a short-handed goal in the
third period, and the expansion Golden Knights clinched the Pacific Division
title.Vegas (50-22-7) reached 50 wins in its inaugural season with its third
victory in four games. San Jose (44-25-10) is second in the Pacific, four points
ahead of Los Angeles.Shea Theodore and Oscar Lindberg also scored for the Golden
Knights, and Marc-Andre Fleury stopped 29 shots.San Jose goaltender Martin Jones
made 35 saves. Joe Pavelski and Marc-Edouard Vlasic scored for the Sharks.STARS
4, WILD 1DALLAS (AP) – John Klingberg scored and added to his NHL-leading assist
total for defensemen, helping Dallas to the victory.Jason Spezza scored for the
first time since Jan. 16 as the Stars, playing their home finale, won for just
the second time in 11 games – a slide that wiped out any realistic hopes of
making the playoffs.The Wild, still holding the third playoff spot in the
Central Division with four games remaining, lost the second of a home-and-home
set two nights after beating the Stars 5-2 in Minnesota.Wild defenseman Ryan
Suter departed with a lower-body injury late in the second period. He wasn’t
using his right leg as he was helped through the tunnel to the locker
room.Klingberg got his career-best 56th assist on the first-period goal by
Spezza.BRUINS 5, PANTHERS 1BOSTON (AP) – Jake DeBrusk scored twice in his first
game in more than two weeks, and Tuukka Rask stopped 30 shots to help Boston
move back into first place in the Eastern Conference playoff race.David Krejci
had three assists and rookie Ryan Donato had a goal and an assist for
Boston
Matt Read Jersey Womens , which has won four of its last five games. The Bruins have earned a point in eight straight games and 15 of their last 17.Jamie
McGinn scored for Florida, which remains three points behind New Jersey in the
race for the eighth and final playoff spot in the East. James Reimer stopped 17
of the 22 shots he faced before he was replaced by Roberto Luongo with 3:28 left
in the second period, trailing 5-1.Luongo, the losing goalie for Vancouver in
the Bruins’ 2011 Stanley Cup run, stopped all 11 shots the rest of the way.Two
days after a physical battle for first place with the Tampa Bay Lighting, which
the Bruins won 4-2 to take temporary possession of the top spot, Boston sent the
struggling Panthers to their third straight loss and moved back into first. The
Lightning had jumped ahead of the Bruins with a win at the New York Rangers on
Friday night.CANUCKS 5, BLUE JACKETS 4, OTVANCOUVER, British Columbia (AP) –
Alex Edler scored 1:21 into overtime to lift Vancouver to its season high-tying
fourth straight win.Jussi Jokinen had a goal and two assists against his former
team, and Darren Archibald, Bo Horvat and Nikolay Goldobin also scored for the
Canucks, who have won five of six after a seven-game skid. Thatcher Demko
stopped 26 shots in his first NHL start.Seth Jones had a goal and three assists,
and Pierre-Luc Dubois, Zach Werenski and Cam Atkinson also scored for Columbus.
Artemi Panarin had four assists and Joonas Korpisalo finished with 24 saves for
the Blue Jackets, who are 12-1-1 in their last 14 games as they try to pass
Pittsburgh for second place in the Metropolitan Division.The Blue Jackets erased
a 4-1 deficit by scoring three goals in 2:37 to tie the game.JETS 3, MAPLE LEAFS
1TORONTO (AP) – Josh Morrissey and Dustin Byfuglien scored 1:10 apart in the
second period as Winnipeg beat Toronto in a matchup of the only two Canadian
teams headed to the playoffs.Andrew Copp had the other goal for Winnipeg, while
Connor Hellebuyck stopped 28 shots.Patrick Marleau scored for Toronto, and
Curtis McElhinney had 26 saves.The Maple Leafs, who won 7-2 in Winnipeg to open
the season on Oct. 4, are all but assured of finishing third in the Atlantic
Division. The Jets
Matt Hendricks Jersey Womens , meanwhile, look just as certain to wind up second in the Central.Toronto’s only blemish at home in more than two months
coming into this game was Monday’s 3-2 loss to last-place Buffalo that snapped a
13-game winning streak at Air Canada Centre.SABRES 7, PREDATORS 4NASHVILLE,
Tenn. (AP) – Sam Reinhart had a hat trick with Jack Eichel adding a career-high
five assists as NHL-worst Buffalo stunned league-leading Nashville.The Sabres
outshot Nashville from the start and chased goalie Pekka Rinne after he gave up
six goals on 29 shots through two periods.Kyle Okposo had two goals, and Jason
Pominville and Ryan O’Reilly also scored for Buffalo, and Eichel tied a
franchise single-game record with his assists.P.K. Subban, Austin Watson, Kyle
Turris and Nick Bonino scored for Nashville.The Sabres took control by scoring
three power-play goals – two by Reinhart – on a 5-minute major after defenseman
Victor Antipin was boarded by Nashville forward Scott Hartnell behind the
Buffalo net at 14:09 of the second. Antipin was strapped to a backboard and
taken off the ice on a stretcher.RANGERS 2, HURRICANES 1RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) –
Ryan Sproul scored and Kevin Hayes added a short-handed goal to help New York
eliminate Carolina from the playoff race.Henrik Lundqvist made 40 saves for the
Rangers, who entered having lost three straight and six of seven – going 1-4-2
in that stretch – and were formally knocked out of the postseason chase earlier
in the week.Jeff Skinner scored and Cam Ward made 18 saves for the Hurricanes,
whose longshot playoff hopes were snuffed out and will miss out for the ninth
straight year – the longest active postseason drought in the NHL. For the third
consecutive season, their official elimination came in their 79th
game.Lundqvist’s third victory against Carolina this season helped the Rangers
finish off a sweep in the series. New York won the first three games by a
combined 17-5 margin.DEVILS 4, ISLANDERS 3NEWARK, N.J. (AP) – Taylor Hall scored
twice and New Jersey took a major step toward its first playoff berth since
2012.Coupled with Florida’s 5-1 loss to Boston earlier in the day, the Devils
opened a five-point lead over the Panthers for the second wild card in the
Eastern Conference and moved within a point of idle Philadelphia for the top
wild card. Both teams have four games left in the regular season, one fewer than
Florida.Stefan Noesen and Blake Coleman each had a goal and assist as the Devils
won for the seventh time in 10 games (7-2-1). Keith Kinkaid, who has started
nine of 10 games and been the mainstay in net since late January, had 27 saves,
including a stop on a one-timer by Ryan Pulock with 14 seconds to play.Tanner
Fritz, Anthony Beauvillier and Chris Wagner scored for the Islanders
Womens Torey Krug Jersey , who have lost 16 of their last 19 (3-12-4). Thomas Greiss made 31 saves in his first game since Feb. 16, when he sustained an ankle
injury and went on injured reserve.COYOTES 6, BLUES 0GLENDALE, Ariz. (AP) –
Antti Raanta stopped 34 shots for his third shutout of the season and Arizona
scored three goals in the second period to beat playoff-chasing St. Louis.Four
of the Coyotes‘ goals came from defensemen, including Luke Schenn, who scored
his first goal in his 61st game of the season. Schenn also energized a large
crowd and his teammates with a powerful check of Blues forward Scottie Upshall
early in the second period.Richard Panik added a goal just before the hit, and
28-win Arizona won its 10th this month.Oliver Ekman-Larsson scored a power-play
goal and assisted on another second-period goal, Jakob Chychrun, Alex Goligoski
and Zac Rinaldo scored, and Max Domi and Dylan Strome had three assists each for
the Coyotes. Panik had an assist and Derek Stepan had two.The Blues entered
8-1-1 in their last 10 games, but ended the night tied with Colorado for the
second wild-card spot in the West at 92 points through 78 games.RED WINGS 2,
SENATORS 0DETROIT (AP) – Jimmy Howard stopped 31 shots for his first shutout of
the season, leading Detroit to its third straight win.Dylan Larkin and Andreas
Athanasiou scored to help the Red Wings get their longest winning streak since a
season-high four-game stretch Dec. 29 to Jan. 5.It was Howard’s 24th career
shutout and marked the ninth time Ottawa was blanked this season.Mike Condon
finished with 25 saves for the Senators.FLAMES 3, OILERS 2CALGARY, Alberta (AP)
– Mikael Backlund had a goal and an assist, helping Calgary snap a seven-game
skid.Dougie Hamilton and Garnet Hathaway also scored during the Flames‘
three-goal first period. Michael Frolik added two assists, and Mike Smith
stopped 34 shots.Hamilton’s goal was his 17th of the season, the most by a
defenseman in the NHL.Anton Slepyshev and Mike Cammalleri scored for Edmonton.
Cam Talbot gave up three goals on seven shots before he was pulled 15 1/2
minutes in.
