Jack Eichel scored on an end-to-end rush with eight seconds left in overtime after Tomas Hertl scored the tying goal with 52 seconds left in the third period as the visiting Vegas Golden Knights rallied for a 3-2 victory over the New York Rangers on Sunday night.
After goalie Carter Hart (21 saves) edged out of the crease to deny Mika Zibanejad with 18 seconds left, Brett Howden — who scored 36 seconds into the game — won a defensive zone faceoff from Zibanejad at the left faceoff dot with 17 seconds left.
Shea Thedore banked the puck off the boards in the neutral zone near the benches. Eichel retrieved it and outraced Matthew Robertson, finishing it off by cutting from the middle of the slot to the right edge of the crease and slipped the puck past Jonathan Quick. Vegas matched its longest win streak of the season at four games.
Quick had 26 saves as New York dropped to 3-8-3 at home and took its second straight overtime loss. Mika Zibanejad and Alex Lafreniere scored second-period goals to give the Rangers a 2-1 lead.
Stars 3, Penguins 2 (SO)
Miro Heiskanen scored the tying goal with less than two minutes remaining in regulation, then Mikko Rantanen had the lone score in the shootout as surging Dallas rallied for a victory over visiting Pittsburgh.
Down 2-1 and with Jake Oettinger (27 saves) on the bench for an extra skater, the Stars tied it with 1:49 left in the third. Heiskanen’s drive through traffic beat the Penguins’ Tristan Jarry (21 saves) as Dallas won its third straight and improved to 13-1-2 since Nov. 8.
Connor Dewar and Tommy Novak scored for Pittsburgh, which capped a 2-0-1 road stretch while playing without star Evgeni Malkin (upper-body injury). Fellow star Sidney Crosby, a career Penguin in his 21st season, earned an assist Sunday to move within six points of Mario Lemieux’s club-record 1,723 set from 1984-2006).
Capitals 2, Blue Jackets 0
Washington goaltender Logan Thompson sparkled as he delivered his first shutout of the season to backstop his squad to a victory over visiting Columbus.
Thompson made 39 saves to earn his seventh career shutout. Jakob Chychrun and Aliaksei Protas scored for the Capitals, who are riding a 10-1-1 roll that has lifted them atop the Eastern Conference standings.
Blue Jackets goalie Jet Greaves stopped 36 shots for Columbus, which lost on consecutive nights.
Ducks 7, Blackhawks 1
Leo Carlsson scored two goals, Beckett Sennecke added a goal with an assist and Anaheim turned a franchise-record 27-shot second period into a victory over visiting Chicago.
Jacob Trouba, Alex Killorn, Mason McTavish and Frank Vatrano also scored for the Ducks, who tied a season high in goals. Ville Husso made 19 saves as the Ducks won for the third time in their last four games and improved to 11-4-0 at home. Anaheim took a season-high 53 total shots on goal to 20 for Chicago.
Tyler Bertuzzi scored a goal and Arvid Soderblom made 46 saves for the Blackhawks against the Ducks’ offensive onslaught. Connor Bedard had one shot and an assist in 19 minutes for Chicago.
Sharks 4, Hurricanes 1
Macklin Celebrini had a goal and two assists to lead San Jose past Carolina in Raleigh, N.C.
John Klingberg and Alex Wennberg each had a goal and an assist and Collin Graf also scored for the Sharks, who had lost two straight. Alex Nedeljkovic made 28 saves to help snap the team’s eight-game skid to the Hurricanes. San Jose had last defeated Carolina on Nov. 22, 2021.
Jordan Staal got the lone goal for the Hurricanes, who had won three of their last four and were playing the second game of a back-to-back. They beat the Nashville Predators 6-3 on Saturday night in Raleigh. Pyotr Kochetkov stopped 18 shots.
Avalanche 3, Flyers 2
Mackenzie Blackwood made 23 saves, including one on Trevor Zegras’ third-period penalty shot, and Colorado edged host Philadelphia.
Blackwood came up huge late with 13 stops in the third for the Avalanche, who won both ends of their back-to-back. Brent Burns, Brock Nelson and Valeri Nichushkin scored for Colorado.
Sean Couturier celebrated his 33rd birthday and 900th career game with his fifth goal of the season for the Flyers, and Travis Konecny also scored. Samuel Ersson stopped 25 shots for Philadelphia, which lost for the second time in three games. Zegras had a chance to tie the game on his penalty shot with 15:06 in regulation after Nathan MacKinnon held the Flyers’ co-leader in goals on a breakaway.
Panthers 4, Islanders 1
Carter Verhaeghe scored for the third straight game since he and his wife welcomed their first child into the world as Florida defeated New York in Sunrise, Fla.
Verhaeghe has four goals in those three games, and forward Sam Reinhart and defensemen Uvis Balinskis and Seth Jones had Florida’s other tallies on Sunday. In a battle between backup goalies, Florida’s Daniil Tarasov earned the win, making 20 saves. Florida has won two straight games after having dropped four in a row.
The Islanders, who had their three-game winning streak broken, got a goal from Mathew Barzal. Defenseman Matthew Schaefer, the No. 1 overall pick in the 2025 NHL Draft, had an assist, and goalie David Rittich made 26 saves.
Blues 4, Canadiens 3
Brayden Schenn scored two goals and earned an assist to lead St. Louis past host Montreal.
Dylan Holloway had a goal and two assists for the Blues, who won back-to-back games over the weekend. Pavel Buchnevich also scored for St. Louis, and Jordan Binnington made 23 saves.
Noah Dobson had a goal and assist for the Canadiens, and Cole Caufield and Lane Hutson also scored. Goaltender Jakub Dobes made 14 saves while playing on the second straight night. He filled in for Samuel Montembeault, who missed the game due to illness.
