NEW YORK (AP) — Ilya Sorokin gave the New York Islanders the type of elite goaltending they needed facing one of the NHL’s top teams while in the thick of a playoff chase, making 26 saves to beat the Dallas Stars 2-1 on Thursday night.
Sorokin was locked in from the drop of the puck, denying Colin Blackwell on a shorthanded breakaway 10 minutes in and making a handful of other 10-bell saves on quality scoring chances in the first period alone. He was perfect on a pair of penalty kills, one each in the second and third periods, and allowed only one goal on a 6-on-5 with three minutes left to Matt Duchene.
Bo Horvat scored his 30th goal of the season five minutes in and Calum Ritchie later picked up the 11th of his rookie year to provide enough offensive support. Matthew Schaefer, the face of the franchise at 18 years old, assisted on each to reach 54 points and tie Hall of Famer Denis Potvin for the second most by a rookie defenseman in Islanders history.
CANADIENS 2, BLUE JACKETS 1
MONTREAL (AP) — Zachary Bolduc scored the winner with his first goal since Dec. 23, and Montreal edged Columbus.
Jayden Struble — with his first of the season — also scored, and Jakub Dobes made 25 saves as Montreal won its third consecutive game.
Damon Severson scored for Columbus, and Jet Greaves stopped 18 shots.
The Blue Jackets fell to 19-4-4 since Rick Bowness replaced Dean Evason as head coach Jan. 12. They climbed from 28th overall to second in the Metropolitan Division ahead of Thursday’s games.
The Canadiens, meanwhile, sit third in the Atlantic Division with 11 games remaining.
PENGUINS 4, OTTAWA 3, SO
OTTAWA, Ontario (AP) — Ben Kindel scored the shootout winner to lead Pittsburgh to a win over Ottawa.
Rickard Rakell scored twice and had an assist, and Erik Karlsson also scored for the Penguins, who moved into second in the Metropolitan Division.
Drake Batherson scored twice and Nick Cousins also scored for the Senators. Tim Stutzle added two assists.
Both Linus Ullmark and Stuart Skinner made huge saves in overtime to force the shootout.
KRAKEN 4, LIGHTNING 3, OT
TAMPA, Fla. (AP) – Brandon Montour scored his second goal of the game 2:47 into overtime to give Seattle a victory against Tampa Bay.
Bobby McMann and Kaapo Kakko each had a goal and an assist. Philipp Grubauer stopped 30 shots for Seattle, which snapped a four-game losing streak.
Jake Guentzel had a goal and an assist, Anthony Cirelli and Corey Perry both scored, and Charle-Edouard D’Astous had two assists. Andrei Vasilevskiy finished with 15 saves. Tampa Bay improved to 4-0-2 in the last six games.
Montour picked up the puck from Shane Wright and beat Vasilevskiy to keep Seattle in the playoff race in the Western Conference.
WILD 3, PANTHERS 2
SUNRISE, Fla. (AP) — Joel Eriksson Ek scored the winning goal with 4.4 seconds left to lift Minnesota past Florida.
Marcus Foligno and Ryan Hartman also had goals for the Wild and Jesper Wallstedt made 18 saves.
Minnesota, which is 3-4-1 in its last eight, entered Thursday’s game five points behind second-place Dallas and 12 points ahead of fourth-place Utah in the Central Division. The Panthers entered Thursday 12 points behind the Ottawa Senators for the second wild card in the Eastern Conference.
Aaron Ekblad hammered a shot inside the left post to tie it for Florida with 1:13 left. But Eriksson Ek answered with the winner in the closing seconds of the third period.
FLYERS 5, BLACKHAWKS 1
PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Alex Bump and Sean Couturier scored in the first three minutes of the game and Philadelphia used the fast start to cruise to a win over Chicago.
Bump, Noah Cates and Christian Dvorak had a goal and an assist each for the Flyers, who have won six of their last eight games to stay in the chase for a wild-card playoff spot. Denver Barkey also had a goal for Philadelphia and Samuel Ersson made 25 saves.
Connor Bedard scored his 30th goal of the season for Chicago to become the third Blackhawks player with a 30-goal season at age 20 or younger, joining Jonathan Toews (34 in 2008-09) and Eric Daze (30 in 1995-96).
Spencer Knight had 37 saves for Chicago.
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