Colorado @ NY Islanders 0-6 - Halak preserved the shutout by stopping Nathan MacKinnon's breakaway backhander with three minutes left in regulation. He is the first Islanders goaltender with back-to-back shutouts since Rick DiPietro on Dec. 23-26, 2006. Colorado nearly scored before the game was one minute old when Duchene broke around Leddy and hit the post with a backhander. But Leddy didn't miss at 1:33 when he took a long rebound of defense partner Johnny Boychuk's shot off the end boards, skated well into the left circle and beat Varlamov low to the short side for his fourth of the season and his 100th NHL point. The Islanders made it 2-0 at 5:21 on the power play with the help of a fortunate bounce. With Colorado's Jamie McGinn serving a roughing penalty, a right-wing dump-in took an odd hop out of the corner and deflected into the slot. Varlamov tried to play the odd carom with his stick; instead, he gave the puck to Lee, who quickly slammed it into the net for his second of the season. The Islanders went up by three at 6:38 on Hamonic's second of the season, then made it 4-0 at 11:32 when Kulemin scored on a shorthanded breakaway. Kulemin has two goals this season; both have come shorthanded. Cizikas and Strome each scored his first goal of the season in a span of 1:58 in the third period.
Columbus @ Washington 2-4 - Marcus Johansson's seventh goal of the season, scored in tight 1:36 into the game to give Washington a 1-0 lead, was his sixth at even strength, one more than he scored in 114 games over the previous two seasons. Johansson drew a tripping penalty on Fedor Tyutin with the Capitals already on the power play, giving Washington a two-man advantage for 98 seconds at 6:27. The Capitals' prolific power play toyed with the Blue Jackets penalty kill, working the puck around before Ovechkin fired his trademark one-timer from the left circle past goalie Curtis McElhinney. Atkinson made it 2-1 at 9:52, squirting a wrist shot past a screened Braden Holtby off a faceoff win by Boone Jenner. Ovechkin scored his second goal of the period at 16:04, completing a dazzling passing display by Washington's first line created by a Columbus neutral-zone turnover. Ovechkin corralled the puck and dropped it to Backstrom, who then immediately sent a touch pass to Jay Beagle. Beagle, filling in for injured Tom Wilson, charged into the offensive zone and left a drop pass to Ovechkin through his legs, setting up the Capitals captain for a top-shelf goal. The Blue Jackets twice prevented the Capitals from expanding their lead to 4-1 with impressive saves in the second period, first when Wisniewski swatted an Eric Fehr shot out of midair on a Washington power play at 11:50. McElhinney denied Joel Ward on a 2-on-1 rush with a left-leg save with 1:58 remaining. A minute later, Holtby stopped Savard's shot from above the right circle, but the rebound fluttered over the goaltender's shoulder before he kicked it into the net with 57 seconds left in the period. Columbus outworked Washington from the outset of the third period, narrowly missing tying the game when Scott Hartnell's breakaway backhand hit the crossbar less than 30 seconds into the period after a neutral-zone takeaway. The Blue Jackets seized momentum until Johansson wrapped around the Columbus net and stuffed in his second goal of the game at 14:39.
Winnipeg @ Montreal 0-3 - Alex Galchenyuk gave the Canadiens a 2-0 lead at 7:47 of the third after Lars Eller scored his fourth goal early in the second. Tomas Plekanec scored a shorthanded goal into an empty net with 36.7 seconds remaining. Winnipeg forward Evander Kane had a shot at a wide-open net moments before Plekanec's goal, but Markov deflected it over the goal to preserve Price's 26th career shutout. Montreal forward Jiri Sekac drove the right side on the play that led to Eller's goal at 2:21 of the second. Pavelec poked the puck off the Czech rookie's stick as he cut towards the goal, but it went right to Eller, who played it up with his right skate to put a backhand into an open net. Galchenyuk reached around Winnipeg defenseman Zach Bogosian to score his fifth goal of the season on a shot that Pavelec got a piece of with his stick, but was unable to prevent from going into the net. Price stopped Evander Kane's shot on a two-man breakaway with Blake Wheeler at 7:40 of the first. Winnipeg center Mark Scheifele fired a shot off the left post on a shorthanded breakaway at 15:56 after Canadiens defenseman P.K. Subban turned over the puck with an ill-advised drop pass at his own blue line. Subban, who played his 300th game, was stripped of the puck by Jets forward Michael Frolik in the second on another play that led to a Jets scoring chance but Price turned aside Bryan Little's shot from the right side. Left wing Drayson Bowman drew into the lineup in place of Travis Moen and played 6:06 in his Canadiens debut.
Edmonton @ Nashville 2-3 - The Predators took a 1-0 lead at 2:51 when Mike Ribeiro tapped in a puck that trickled through Oilers goaltender Viktor Fasth's legs. Predators forward James Neal took the shot that created the chance, and Filip Forsberg picked up the secondary assist to extend his point streak to six games. Matt Cullen gave Nashville a 2-0 lead at 9:21. Predators defenseman Seth Jones took a wrist shot that went off the boards, and Cullen dove headfirst to backhand the puck past Fasth. It was Cullen's fifth point in seven games since coming back from injury. Forsberg scored his sixth goal in as many games with 54 seconds remaining in the first to put the Predators up 3-0. His shot from in close off a feed from Ribeiro from behind the net went in off Fasth's pads. Ben Scrivens replaced Fasth in goal to start the second period, and it seemed to provide a spark for the Oilers. Edmonton forward Benoit Pouliot cut the lead to 3-1 when he scored 31 seconds into the period on a wrist shot over Nashville goaltender Pekka Rinne. Nail Yakupov scored to make it 3-2 at 14:42 of the second period. Oilers forward David Perron made a backhand pass through the crease, and Yakupov was planted by the net to one-time the puck past Rinne.
Tampa Bay @ Chicago 2-3 SO - Blackhawks right wing Patrick Kane scored the lone goal, roofing a wicked backhand past Ben Bishop to complete the second round, and Chicago goaltender Corey Crawford (25 saves) stopped all three of Tampa Bay's attempts. Crawford made saves against forwards Ryan Callahan, Nikita Kucherov and Lightning captain Steven Stamkos, whose wrist shot was turned aside to end it. Tampa Bay had one shot through the first 13:34 but held a 1-0 lead because of it. Forward Cedric Paquette scored the game's first goal shorthanded at 4:35 of the first to give the Lightning an unlikely 1-0 lead. Brad Richards and Marcus Kruger scored in regulation for the Blackhawks, who've won two straight games for the third time. Kucherov scored the other goal for the Lightning to tie it 2-2 at 9:53 of the third. Kruger put the Blackhawks up 2-1 at 1:18 of the third with a tip-in goal off Niklas Hjalmarsson's point shot, but two Chicago penalties put Tampa Bay on back-to-back power plays soon afterward. That shifted momentum and Kucherov scored 2:42 after the second Blackhawks penalty expired. A turnover in the Chicago zone by defenseman Brent Seabrook sparked the play, which ended with Kucherov burying a feed from Stamkos for his sixth goal. Each team had a player leave with an injury in the third. Lightning center Tyler Johnson left at 5:11 and didn't return after a cross-check by Seabrook. Blackhawks defenseman Johnny Oduya didn't play again after Kucherov scored, the result of blocking a shot by defenseman Jason Garrison. No updates were provided by either coach afterward.
Ottawa @ Vancouver 3-4 OT - After blowing three earlier leads, Daniel Sedin converted a cross-ice pass from Henrik Sedin with 54.4 seconds left in overtime to lead the Canucks to a 4-3 win against the Ottawa Senators at Rogers Arena. It wasn't always pretty against the Senators despite dominating possession and controlling the play for the first two periods. The Sedins finally scored a goal Ottawa couldn't answer when Henrik came off the bench and skated onto a pass at the left point. He walked around Clarke MacArthur to the left faceoff dot and fed a pass to Daniel at the bottom of the right faceoff circle for a one-timer past the glove of Senators goaltender Craig Anderson. Matthias opened the scoring 6:13 into a wild second period after getting around defenseman Mark Borowiecki and tucking it between Anderson's legs with a backhand-to-forehand move.
Ottawa tied it less than four minutes later after a consecutive tough saves by Anderson at the other end. On the ensuing rush, Lazar, who used to make the four-hour drive from his hometown to watch the Canucks growing up, corralled a dump-in along the right boards and threw the puck towards the net. The rebound bounced off Miller's right pad to an unchecked Hoffman for an easy tap-in. Vancouver restored the lead with 3:43 left in the second period when Bonino fed Burrows a nice cross-crease pass on a 2-on-1 down low, but Turris tied it with two minutes left in the period. The Canucks hit the post twice in the next 17 seconds, but took the lead again 5:36 into the third period when Bieksa's point shot bounced in off the leg of Ottawa defenseman Eric Gryba.
Again, it didn't last long. The Senators had two great chances to tie the game on the next shift, and did over three minutes later off the rush. Turris' low shot off a rush went off Miller's left pad and right to Stone, who was cutting hard to the net unchecked and chipped it up and over the goalie. But Daniel Sedin finally scored a goal that couldn't be answered, putting the Canucks ahead for good and atop the NHL standings.
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