NEWARK, N.J. (AP) — Jack Hughes had his second two-goal game of the season against the New York Rangers and Jacob Markstrom had his second straight 12-save shutout to lead the New Jersey Devils to a 5-0 victory on Monday.
Timo Meier, Stefan Noesen and Dawson Mercer also scored for New Jersey, which is 7-2-1 in December. Hughes added an assist on the last goal to register a three-point game.
Markstrom, who blanked the Penguins on Saturday, wasn’t tested much. His best save came early in the third period on a shot from the left circle by Artemi Panarin.
Jonathan Quick made 25 saves for the Rangers, who have lost 13 of 17 games. Chris Kreider was a healthy scratch.
The game was feisty, with two fights and plenty more post-whistle pushing and shoving.
Elsewhere in the NHL on Monday:
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JETS 5 MAPLE LEAFS 2
TORONTO (AP) — Mark Scheifele scored a hat trick and added an assist while Kyle Connor collected two goals and an assist to spark the NHL-leading Winnipeg Jets to a 5-2 win over the Toronto Maple Leafs.
The Jets enter the Christmas break with back-to-back wins, while the Maple Leafs dropped their second in a row at Scotiabank Arena without wounded captain Auston Matthews, out with an upper-body injury. Gabriel Vilardi added three assists. Jets goalie Connor Hellebuyck made 23 saves.
Jets defenceman Josh Morrissey had two assists to reach 30 for the season.
John Tavares scored twice for the Maple Leafs, and Joseph Woll stopped 22 shots. Maple Leafs forward William Nylander extended his point streak to seven games with assists on both of Tavares’ goals.
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BLUES 4 RED WINGS 0
DETROIT (AP) — Dylan Holloway scored three times, Jordan Binnington made 19 saves and St. Louis Blues beat Detroit 4-0.
St. Louis had dropped three in a row. Alexandre Texier also scored, and Robert Thomas and Colton Parayko each had two assists.
Holloway scored in each period in his first career hat trick, including a clinching empty-netter. He is up to a career-high 13 goals on the season after he was held without a point in his previous six games.
It was Binnington’s second shutout of the season and No. 17 for his career.
Cam Talbot made 17 saves for the Red Wings in their third consecutive loss.
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PENGUINS 7 FLYERS 3
PITTSBURGH (AP) — Sidney Crosby scored a goal and added three assists to tie Mario Lemieux’s franchise record for most assists in team history and the Pittsburgh Penguins beat the Philadelphia Flyers 7-3.
Crosby scored a third-period empty-net goal and helped on three of Pittsburgh’s four first-period goals as the Penguins jumped out to a 4-1 lead. Crosby and Lemieux both have 1,033 assists, which ranks 12th all-time in NHL history.
Philip Tomasino finished Crosby’s backhand pass for a power-play goal at 17:44 of the first period to equal Lemieux’s mark. Michael Bunting scored twice, Bryan Rust scored his seventh goal in eight games, while Rickard Rakell and Blake Lizotte also scored for Pittsburgh.
Tristan Jarry made 23 saves.
Noah Cates scored his fourth goal in as many games, while Sean Couturier and Egor Zamula also scored for the Flyers.
Samuel Ersson stopped nine shots in the first two periods. He was replaced by Aleksei Kolosov, who made six saves.
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BRUINS 4 CAPITALS 1
BOSTON (AP) — Elias Lindholm scored with 6:19 left to break a third-period tie, and Boston killed a five-minute penalty without allowing a shot on goal to beat Washington.
It was 1-1 when Charlie Coyle made a long clearing pass to Lindholm and he slid it over to Brad Marchand at the blue line to start a two-on-one. Marchand passed it back, Lindholm faked goalie Charlie Lindgren to the ice and then backhanded it into the net to make it 2-1.
Coyle made it 3-1 two minutes later, and Marchand added an empty-netter. Justin Brazeau also scored and Jeremy Swayman made 10 saves for the Bruins, who won for the fourth time in five games and improved to 11-4-1 since Joe Sacco replaced Jim Montgomery on the bench.
Jakub Vrana scored and Lindgren stopped 18 shots for the Capitals, who came into the day leading the Eastern Conference, and have lost three of their last six games.
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LIGHTNING 4 PANTHERS 0
SUNRISE, Fla. (AP) — Nikita Kucherov scored before he was ejected for kneeing Matthew Tkachuk, and Tampa Bay beat Florida.
Jake Guentzel and Mitchell Chaffee also scored for Tampa Bay in its fifth win in six games. Brandon Hagel had an empty-netter, and Anthony Cirelli and Victor Hedman collected two assists apiece.
Jonas Johansson made 36 saves in his first shutout of the season and No. 4 for his career.
Tkachuk had to be helped off the ice and to the dressing room after Kucherov crashed into his right leg late in the first period. Kucherov was given a five-minute major penalty and a game misconduct for the hit, and Tkachuk returned a couple minutes into the second.
Sergei Bobrovsky made 25 stops for the Panthers.
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BLUE JACKETS 5 CANADIENS 4
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Kirill Marchenko scored with 2:12 left in regulation, and Columbus Blue beat Montreal for their second straight home win.
Dmitri Vorokov scored twice to extend his point streak to five games, and Kent Johnson added a goal. Jordan Harris netted his first goal for Columbus, while Zach Werenski and Sean Monahan each had three assists. Marchenko also had two assists.
Jet Greaves made 27 saves, as the Blue Jackets snapped a seven-game losing streak against Montreal dating to Nov. 23, 2022.
David Savard and Jake Evans each had a goal and an assist for the Canadiens, and Lane Hutson scored to stretch his point streak to six games. Joel Armia also scored, Cole Caufield contributed two assists, and Sam Montembeault made 27 saves. Montreal had won three straight.
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SABRES 7 ISLANDERS 1
NEW YORK (AP) — Rasmus Dahlin had four assists and Buffalo stopped a 13-game slide by routing the New York Islanders 7-1.
It was Buffalo’s first win since Nov. 23 at San Jose. The Sabres went 0-10-3 during the losing streak.
Jiri Kulich had two goals and an assist, and Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen made 27 saves. Jack Quinn had a goal and an assist, and Tage Thompson, Beck Malenstyn, Jason Zucker and Zach Benson also scored.
Kyle Palmieri scored for New York with 55 seconds left in the second period. It was Palmieri’s 12th goal of the season.
The Islanders lost for the third time in four games.
Zucker’s power-play goal 6:53 into the second lifted Buffalo to a 3-0 lead. Quinn made it 5-0 when he scored at 18:21.
Ilya Sorokin made 18 saves in his 11th straight start for the Islanders.
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PREDATORS 5 HURRICANES 2
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Jonathan Marchessault scored two goals and had an assist to lead Nashville to a 5-2 win over Carolina.
Steven Stamkos, Ryan O’Reilly and Mark Jankowski also scored and Juuse Saros made 25 saves for the Predators, winners of three of their last four games. Filip Forsberg had three assists.
Jordan Staal and Sebastian Aho scored and Dustin Tokarski made 20 saves for Carolina.
Stamkos scored the game’s first goal with 6:26 remaining in the first period.
Marchessault doubled Nashville’s lead with 8:15 remaining in the second, converting on a tap-in off of a cross-ice pass by Tommy Novak.
O’Reilly and Jankowski briefly gave Nashville an early third period 4-0 lead before Staal and Aho combined for goals 40 seconds apart to make it 4-2. Marchessault added an empty-net goal late for Nashville.
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WILD 4 BLACKHAWKS 3
ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — Brock Faber snapped a tie in the third period, and Minnesota Wild stopped a four-game losing streak by edging Chicago 4-3.
Kirill Kaprizov, Jared Spurgeon and Marcus Foligno also scored for Minnesota. Yakov Trenin had two assists, and Filip Gustavsson stopped 28 shots.
Foligno’s empty-netter made it 4-2 with 1:24 remaining. Jason Dickinson scored for Chicago with 33 seconds left, but the Blackhawks were unable to come up with the tying goal.
Connor Bedard and Nick Foligno also scored for Chicago, and Arvid Soderblom made 23 saves.
Faber made it 3-2 with his fourth goal 2:43 into the third. He buried a one-timer from the right faceoff circle off a feed from his defensive partner, Jonas Brodin.
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STARS 3 UTAH HC 2
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — Roope Hintz scored his team-leading 15th goal to help the Dallas Stars beat Utah 3-2.
Hintz snapped a 1-1 tie 12:39 into the second period. Jamie Benn and Colin Blackwell also scored for Dallas, and Casey DeSmith made 24 stops.
The Stars had lost two in a row.
Kevin Stenlund and Barrett Hayton scored for Utah, and Karel Vejmelka had 27 saves. Utah has won just one home game in December.
Dallas jumped in front in the first when Blackwell scored following a Utah turnover. Stenlund responded with his sixth of the season at 12:41.
Benn lifted the Stars to a 3-1 lead when he got his seventh with 2:10 left in the second.
Utah pulled one back on Hayton’s goal with 8:21 left in the third but couldn’t find the tying goal.
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CANUCKS 4 SHARKS 3
VANCOUVER, B.C. (AP) — Elias Pettersson scored two goals 44 seconds apart in the second period to snap a seven-game scoring drought and Vancouver held on to beat San Jose.
Kiefer Sherwood and Brock Boeser also scored for the Canucks, who ended a three-game winless skid. Quinn Hughes had two assists. Thatcher Demko stopped 26 shots.
Pettersson left the game early in the third period and didn’t return.
William Eklund, on a two-man power play, and Cody Ceci scored for San Jose, which is winless in five games (0-4-1). Luke Kunin also scored with 4.7 seconds left.
Yaroslav Askarov made 20 saves.
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GOLDEN KNIGHTS 3 DUCKS 1
LAS VEGAS (AP) — Tomas Hertl scored a go-ahead goal in the third period, Adin Hill made 31 saves and Las Vegas beat Anaheim.
After the Ducks tied the game on Mason McTavish’s goal early in the second period, Hertl broke the tie when he took a pass from Jack Eichel in front of Anaheim goaltender Lukas Dostal and shifted to his backhand.
Tanner Pearson scored a short-handed goal in the first period and Keegan Kolesar scored in the third period for Vegas.
Dostal made 19 saves in relief of Ducks starter John Gibson, who stopped all 11 shots he faced before leaving in the first period when Vegas’ Tanner Laczynski inadvertently poked the veteran netminder in the eye with the blade of his stick.
The Associated Press
