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Flames beat Canadiens 2-0 for Habs' first regulation loss

MONTREAL — Jacob Markstrom made 37 saves for his second shutout of the season, Johnny Gaudreau and Mikael Backlund scored, and the Calgary Flames handed the Montreal Canadiens their first regulation loss of the season, 2-0 on Saturday night.

MONTREAL — Jacob Markstrom made 37 saves for his second shutout of the season, Johnny Gaudreau and Mikael Backlund scored, and the Calgary Flames handed the Montreal Canadiens their first regulation loss of the season, 2-0 on Saturday night.

The Flames improved to 3-3-1, snapping a three-game losing streak that included a 4-2 loss to the Canadiens on Thursday night. Montreal dropped to 5-1-2.

Gaudreau opened the scoring on a power play at 3:34 of first period with his fifth of the season. Backlund scored into an empty net with 34 seconds left.

Jake Allen made 31 saves for the Canadiens.

CAPITALS 4, BRUINS 3

WASHINGTON (AP) — Alex Ovechkin scored in overtime in his return, Vitek Vanecek made 40 saves in his sixth consecutive start, and Washington beat Boston.

Ovechkin beat Tuukka Rask clean off the rush 28 seconds into OT in his first game since Jan. 19. The Capitals captain missed the past four games because of COVID-19 protocols.

Nicklas Backstrom had a goal and an assist, Trevor van Riemsdyk scored his first since joining the Capitals and Richard Panik added one on the power play. Washington blew a three-goal lead by allowing goals to Nick Ritchie, Brad Marchand and then Charlie McAvoy with 57.3 seconds left in regulation.

Former Bruins captain Zdeno Chara played almost 21 minutes in his first game against his old team, which didn’t see him as a full-time player at age 43.

OILERS 4, MAPLE LEAFS 3, OT

EDMONTON, Alberta (AP) — Connor McDavid scored his second goal of the night 42 seconds into overtime to lift Edmonton past Toronto.

McDavid redirected a pass from Leon Draisaitl off the rush for his seventh goal of the season. McDavid also had an assist.

Dominik Kahun and Josh Archibald also scored, and Mikko Koskinen stopped 26 shots for Edmonton. Auston Matthews, William Nylander and Zach Hyman scored for Toronto.

LIGHTNING 4, PREDATORS 3

TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — Tyler Johnson, Cal Foote, Victor Hedman and Steven Stamkos scored in the second period in Tampa Bay's victory over Nashville.

Brayden Point had two assists to help Tampa Bay end a five-period goal drought with the big second. Andrei Vasilevskiy made 23 saves.

Nashville lost in regulation to Tampa Bay for the first time since Dec. 29, 2013, a span of 13 games.

Ryan Ellis, Viktor Arivdsson and Mathieu Olivier had power-play goals for the Predators. Pekke Rinne made 29 saves, losing to the Lightning in regulation for the first time in his career.

The teams will meet again Monday night in Tampa.

PENGUINS 5, RANGERS 4, OT

NEW YORK (AP) — Sidney Crosby scored at 2:27 of overtime and Pittsburgh ins beat the New York Rangers 5-4 on Saturday night to stop a two-game skid.

Jason Zucker, Brandon Tanev, Kasperi Kapanen and Jake Guentzel also scored for Pittsburgh, and Casey DeSmith made 30 saves. Guentzel tied it 4-all midway through the third period.

Brendan Lemieux, Kevin Rooney, Chris Kreider and Artemi Panarin scored for New York. Alexandar Georgiev made 33 saves.

FLYERS 3, ISLANDERS 2, OT

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Scott Laughton scored in overtime and Jake Voracek and Kevin Hayes also in Philadelphia's victory over New York.

Jordan Eberle and Scott Mayfield scored for the Islanders.

The Flyers and Islanders played for the first time since New York won Game 7 of their second-round playoff series last season. The Islanders dominated this one in regulation and outshot the Flyers 27-14.

BLUES 6, DUCKS 1

ANAHEIM, Calif. (AP) — Jordan Kyrou scored two of St. Louis' three goals in the opening 2:06, and the Blues cruised past Anaheim.

Zach Sanford also scored during the three fastest goals to open a game in Blues history. The flurry also was the fifth-fastest three goals to begin a game in NHL history, and the fastest since December 1987.

David Perron, Kyle Clifford and Vince Dunn scored later as the Blues won back-to-back games for the first time this season. They hadn’t played in four days after their game at Vegas on Thursday night was postponed.

Jordan Binnington stopped 23 shots, allowing only Max Jones' goal.

SABRES 4, DEVILS 3, SO

BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP) — Jack Eichel scored in a shootout, Linus Ullmark made 31 saves and Buffalo beat New Jersey in the opener of a two-game set.

Victor Olofsson, Tobias Rieder and Eric Staal also scored to help the Sabres improve to 3-0-2 in their past five games. Taylor Hall had two assists.

Janne Kuokkanen, Ty Smith and Andreas Johnsson scored for New Jersey in former Sabres coach Lindy Ruff’s game in Buffalo since taking over the Devils.

HURRICANES 4, STARS 1,

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — Vincent Trocheck scored twice in a three-minute span in the first period and Carolina beat Dallas after Hurricanes starting goaltender Petr Mrazek left the game due to injury in the opening minutes.

James Reimer replaced Mrazek and stopped 10 of 11 shots and handed the Stars their first loss of the season in their fifth game overall and first of a two-game set in Carolina.

Andrei Svechnikov and Ryan Dzingel scored second-period, power-play goals just 1:39 apart.

Joe Pavelski scored his fifth goal of the season for Dallas.

AVALANCHE 5, WILD 1

ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — Brandon Saad had a goal and assist to lead a balanced scoring attack in Colorado's victory over Minnesota.

Logan O’Connor, Joonas Donskoi, Mikko Rantanen and J.T. Compher also scored, and Philipp Grubauer made 19 saves for his NHL-best sixth victory. Colorado has won three straight and four of five to take the West Division lead.

Matt Dumba scored for Minnesota in the first of four straight games between the teams.

PANTHERS 3, RED WINGS 2, OT

DETROIT (AP) — Aleksi Heponiemi made the most of his NHL debut, scoring with 2:15 left in overtime to lift Florida past Detroit.

Keith Yandle and Aleksander Barkov also scored, and Sergei Bobrovsky made 25 saves.

Anthony Mantha and Tyler Bertuzzi scored for Detroit.

CANUCKS 4, JETS 1

WINNIPEG, Manitoba (AP) — Brock Boeser scored two goals, leading Vancouver over Winnipeg.

Rookie Nils Hoglander and Zack MacEwen also scored for the Canucks.

Mason Appleton scored for Winnipeg off an assist from Adam Lowry.

Thatcher Demko made 23 saves as Vancouver extended its winning streak to four games.

Jets goalie Connor Hellebuyck stopped 35 of 38 shots.

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