Lightning beat Panthers 6-1 before Olympic break

By Canadian Press on February 5, 2026.

TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — Andrei Vasilevskiy stopped 33 shots to improve to 16-0-1 in his past 17 games, helping the Tampa Bay Lightning beat the Florida Panthers 6-1 on Thursday night in the final game for both teams before the Olympic break.

Brandon Hagel, Oliver Bjporkstrand, Jake Guentzel, Erik Cernak, Pontus Holmberg and Zemgus Girgensons — who will all participate in the Olympic Games — scored for Tampa Bay. The Lightning are 19-1-1 in their last 21 games.

Lightning forward Nikita Kucherov extended his scoring streak to 10 games, his 13th career scoring streak of at least 10 games — which is tied for fifth in NHL history.

Mackie Samoskevich scored for the Panthers. Danil Tarasov finished with 20 saves for Florida before leaving due to injury in the third period. Sergei Bobrovsky finished the game for the Panthers, who played without regulars Brad Marchand, Aaron Ekblad, Evan Rodrigues. They all sat out after playing Wednesday against Boston.

CAPITALS 4, PREDATORS 2

WASHINGTON (AP) — Pierre-Luc Dubois scored in his first game since Halloween, Jakob Chychrun added a pair of goals and Washington beat Nashville.

Logan Thompson returned in goal from an injury of his own and made several sparkling saves, and the Capitals won for the fourth time in five games entering the Olympic break. Tom Wilson, who is on Canada’s roster for those Olympics, also scored for the Caps.

Jonathan Marchessault and Michael McCarron scored for Nashville, which had its five-game points streak snapped.

Dubois had no points in his first six games this season and underwent surgery on injuries to his abdominal and adductor muscles. He hadn’t played since Oct. 31.

Wilson opened the scoring for Washington, and then Dubois made it 2-0. The flashiest goal belonged to Chychrun, however. The defenseman left Nashville’s Tyson Jost behind with a 360-degree spin near the boards, then entered the offensive zone and scored.

HURRICANES 2, RANGERS 0

NEW YORK (AP) — Rookie Brandon Bussi made 16 saves for his second shutout, Andrei Svechnikov gave Carolina an early lead in the first period and Carolina topped New York to extend its points streak to 10 games.

Jordan Staal scored into an empty net with 54 seconds left to seal it for the Hurricanes in the final game for both teams before the Olympic break.

The Eastern Conference-leading Hurricanes are 8-0-2 since Jan. 16 and 12-1-3 since Jan. 4.

Jonathan Quick made a season-high 41 saves for the Rangers, who were shut out for the ninth time this season and the seventh at home. New York has lost four in a row.

Svechnikov made it 1-0 game 6:26 into the first period on a wrist shot off an assist from Mark Jankowski. And Bussi, who has won his last seven starts, made that goal hold up.

PENGUINS 5, SABRES 2

BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP) — Avery Hayes scored twice in his NHL debut, Arturs Silovs made 26 saves and Pittsburgh beat Buffalo in the final game for both teams before the Olympic break.

Called up from Wilkes-Barre/Scranton of the American Hockey League with the Penguins hit by a series of injuries, Hayes tied at 1 at 9:18 of the period on his first shot on goal. He raced to beat defenseman Jacob Bryson to the puck and put a wrister past goalie Alex Lyon.

Hayes made it 2-1 with 1:13 left in the period, taking Anthony Mantha’s short, backward pass and knocking it in. He’s the third Penguins player to score twice in his NHL debut, joining Rob Brown (two goals on Oct. 21, 1987) and Jake Guentzel (two goals on Nov. 21, 2016).

Hayes has 13 goals and 10 assists in 31 games this season in the AHL. He made his NHL debut with Blake Lizotte out for the birth of his first child, Rickard Rakell nursing a lower-body injury and Noel Acciari sidelined by an illness.

ISLANDERS 3, DEVILS 1

NEWARK, N.J. (AP) — Bo Horvat broke a tie late in the third period and New York went into the Olympic break with a win over New Jersey.

Horvat went to his backhand off the draw, slipping the puck past goalie Jake Allen, with only 3:27 left to play. Casey Cizikas scored in the second period for the Islanders and Mathew Barzal scored an empty-net goal to seal the win for New York.

Cizikas put the Islanders up 1-0 at 6:30 in the second period, cleaning up a rebound in front of the net. From behind the net, Allen sent the puck around the boards right to Marc Gatcomb while the Devils were in a line change. Gatcomb fired the puck to the slot, where Kyle MacLean got a stick on it, tipping it to Cizikas. Allen made the save on the first tip by Cizikas, but couldn’t control the rebound.

Allen stopped 11 shots.

SENATORS 2, FLYERS 1, OT

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Tim Stutzle charged past Philadelphia defenseman Travis Sanheim and scored on a back-hand shot 47 seconds into overtime, giving Ottawa the win.

It was Stutzle’s 28th goal of the season. The Senators won their fifth game in six outings heading into the Olympic break.

Flyers defenseman Jamie Drysdale scored on a wrist shot from the left circle with 1:14 remaining in regulation.

That came on only the 14th Philadelphia shot of the game against unexpected Ottawa starting goalie James Reimer.

Reimer, 37, was playing in his seventh game since signing with the Senators last month. Would-be Ottawa starter Linus Ullmark recently returned from a personal leave of absence, but he was a late scratch Thursday, reportedly due to illness.

Former Flyer Nick Cousins scored a second-period goal and Reimer made 15 saves for the Senators.

The Associated Press