Canadiens’ rally past Lightning in 3-2 victory

By Canadian Press on January 21, 2025.

MONTREAL (AP) — Jake Evans scored the winning goal with 2:15 remaining to rally the Montreal Canadiens past the Tampa Bay Lightning 3-2 on Tuesday night.

Evans finished a feed from Joel Armia to break the tie with his 11th goal. Juraj Slafkovsky and Alex Newhook also scored, and Sam Montembeault stopped 33 shots to help Montreal win for the 13th time in 17 games.

Rookie defenseman Lane Hutson extended his points streak to nine games. Patrik Laine added two assists.

Nikita Kucherov and Jake Guentzel scored for Tampa Bay, which opened a four-game road trip with a 5-3 loss to Toronto on Monday. Kucherov pushed his points streak to 10 games. Andrei Vasilevskiy made 19 saves.

RANGERS 5, SENATORS 0

NEW YORK (AP) — Igor Shesterkin made 20 saves, Alexis Lafreniere had a goal and an assist and New York beat Ottawa.

Arthur Kaliyev, Matt Rempe, Artemi Panarin and Will Cuylle also scored for the Rangers, who are 7-1-3 since Jan. 2 and have won three straight at home.

The shutout was Shesterkin’s third this season and the 18th of his career.

Lafreniere beat Ottawa netminder Leevi Merilainen for his 13th goal at 18:48 of the first.

Kaliyev made it 2-0 at 1:50 of the middle period with his second goal as a Ranger since being claimed off waivers from Los Angeles on Jan. 6.

Kaliyev appeared to score again at 4:59 but the goal was waved off for offside. Rangers forward Sam Carrick had a goal negated for the same reason just before Lafreniere’s goal.

Anton Forsberg replaced Merilainen in net for Ottawa after the challenge on Kaliyev’s play.

Merilainen made 14 saves before his departure. Forsberg finished with 10 saves.

FLYERS 2, RED WINGS 1, OT

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Rasmus Ristolainen scored in overtime and Philadelphia defeated Detroit.

Ristolainen tapped a loose puck just across the goal line with at 4:34 in overtime. Detroit defenseman Moritz Seider tried to clear the puck from in front of the goal but happened to pin it against the post, allowing Ristolainen to have the easy tap-in.

Joel Farabee scored for the Flyers and Samuel Ersson made 27 saves.

Ben Chiarot scored for the Red Wings, who lost their third straight game and fourth in the last five games.

PREDATORS 7, SHARKS 5

NASHVILLE (AP) — Nick Blankenburg scored at 8:09 of the third to lead Nashville to a comeback victory over San Jose.

Jonathan Marchessault had a goal and three assists, Tommy Novak scored and had two assists and Fedor Svechkov, Justin Barron, Roman Josi and Filip Forsberg had goals for the Predators, who have won four straight. Juuse Saros and Justus Annunen combined to make 19 saves.

Mikael Granlund scored twice, Macklin Celebrini had a goal and an assist and Jake Walman and Luke Kunin also scored for San Jose, which has lost four in a row. Alexandar Georgiev made 34 saves.

San Jose scored four goals on eight shots against Saros in the first period to take a 4-1 lead. Annunen, who replaced Saros to start the second, made 15 saves in relief.

Svechkov and Barron scored 53 seconds apart in the second to make it 4-2.

Marchessault’s goal at 28 seconds of the third cut the deficit to one. Josi’s power-play goal at 5:23 tied it.

Blankenburg completed the comeback by beating Georgiev from the right faceoff dot. Forsberg added an empty-netter.

HURRICANES 2, STARS 1

DALLAS ((AP) — Jesperi Kotkaniemi scored both Carolina goals, the second coming 24 seconds after Dallas’ tying goal midway through the third period, as the Hurricanes beat the Stars.

Kotkaniemi was credited with the second goal after the puck deflected off him near the crease from a shot by Sean Walker.

Pyotr Kochetkov made 22 saves for the Hurricanes, who swept a road back-to-back after winning 4-3 in overtime at Chicago on Monday.

Thomas Harley scored and Jake Oettinger stopped 17 shots for the Stars, who are 2-4-0 following a season-long seven-game winning streak.

It was Kotkaniemi’s first multigoal game since May 5, 2023, in the second round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs against New Jersey. He also scored Monday, when the Hurricanes rallied from a 2-0 first-period deficit. He has goals in consecutive games for the first time this season after going a season-long nine games without a goal.

Martin Necas’ two assists give him 54 points in 48 games after having 53 last season in 77 games.

CAPITALS 3, OILERS 2

EDMONTON, Alberta (AP) — Pierre-Luc Dubois had a goal and an assist as league-leading Washington won their fifth game in a row, defeating Edmonton.

Tom Wilson and Matt Roy also scored for the Capitals, who have earned at least a point in an NHL-high 11 straight games, going 8-0-3 in that span.

Leon Draisaitl and Corey Perry scored for the Oilers, who have lost two in a row on the heels of earning victories in eight of nine.

The Oilers were without star forward Connor McDavid, serving the first game of a three-game suspension for cross-checking.

Logan Thompson made 30 stops in net for the Capitals, while Stuart Skinner recorded just 11 saves in the loss for the Oilers.

SABRES 3, CANUCKS W

VANCOUVER, British Columbia (AP) — Jiri Kulich had a goal and two assists and Buffalo rallied to beat Vancouver.

JJ Peterka also scored and had an assist for the Sabres, while Tage Thompson scored his team-leading 21st of the season. Rasmus Dahlin registered two assists.

Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen stopped 32 shots for a Buffalo side that was coming off a 6-4 loss to the Kraken in Seattle on Monday.

Elias Pettersson and Phillip Di Giuseppe — with his first of the season — scored for the Canucks, and Thatcher Demko made 23 saves.

Canucks defenseman Tyler Myers served the first game of the three-game suspension he was handed for cross-checking Oilers blueliner Evan Bouchard in the face late in Vancouver’s 3-2 win on Saturday.

PANTHERS 5, DUCKS 2

ANAHEIM, Calif. (AP) — Sam Reinhart snapped a three-game goal drought and Florida beat Anaheim.

Carter Verhaeghe had a goal and assist for the Panthers, who picked up a point in their 10th straight game against the Ducks.

Evan Rodrigues, Sam Bennett and Uvis Balinskis added goals. Mackie Samoskevich and Tomas Nosek each had two assists, and Sergei Bobrovsky made 28 saves.

Frank Vatrano and Mason McTavish scored for Anaheim. Lukas Dostal stopped 24 shots.

Reinhart got his 28th goal of the season at 8:58 of the first period, when he got the pass from Matthew Tkachuk and put a backhand past Dostal to tie it at 1-1. The goal tied Reinhart with Toronto’s William Nylander for second in the league.

The Associated Press