Tage Thompson logged two goals and an assist as the Buffalo Sabres tied a franchise record with their 10th straight win, beating the host Dallas Stars 4-1 on Wednesday.
Josh Doan and Bowen Byram each had a goal and an assist and Noah Ostlund notched two assists for the Sabres, who also won 10 in a row in 1983-84, 2006-07 and 2018-19. Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen made 28 saves for his third consecutive victory.
Mavrik Bourque scored and Casey DeSmith stopped 27 shots for the Stars, who have lost three straight (0-2-1). Dallas hadn’t dropped three in a row since an 0-3-1 stretch in October.
The Stars actually carried the lead into the second period after Bourque gave scored 15 seconds into the contest. But Buffalo wasn’t fazed and broke through with Doan’s and Byam’s goals in the second to take control of the game.
Avalanche 6, Blues 1
Nathan MacKinnon recorded two goals to top 400 for his career and added two assists as Colorado won its ninth in a row, downing St. Louis in Denver.
Valeri Nichushkin notched his second career hat trick, Brock Nelson had a goal and added an assist (the 300th of his career), and Josh Manson produced two assists for Colorado.
Mackenzie Blackwood turned away 12 shots for Avalanche but was denied his third shutout of the season when Dalibor Dvorsky scored late in the third period. Colorado remains unbeaten in regulation at home (17-0-2), where it has won 15 straight. The Avalanche have just two regulation losses through 39 games.
Capitals 6, Rangers 3
Tom Wilson had two goals and an assist to lead host Washington to a victory over New York. The Capitals scored twice in less than four minutes in the second period to take a 3-1 lead, which they held the rest of the way.
Justin Sourdif also scored twice, Aliaksei Protas had a goal and an assist and Anthony Beauvillier added a goal for the Capitals. Connor McMichael and defenseman Rasmus Sandin each had two assists and Charlie Lindgren made 22 saves.
Rangers defenseman Adam Fox had a goal and an assist in his return after missing 14 games with an upper-body injury. Vincent Trocheck and defenseman Braden Schneider also scored for the Rangers. Artemi Panarin had two assists and Jonathan Quick stopped 21 shots.
Sharks 4, Wild 3 (SO)
Macklin Celebrini celebrated making the Canadian Olympic hockey team in a big way as the teenage phenom added a shootout goal to his goal and assist in regulation to push San Jose past visiting Minnesota.
Igor Chernyshov also registered a goal and an assist in the win while Jeff Skinner added his fifth goal of the season. Yaroslav Askarov made 20 saves in regulation and stopped both shots he faced in the shootout as San Jose won its third straight.
Marcus Foligno tallied his first goal of the season while Vladimir Tarasenko and Mats Zuccarello also scored for the Wild.
Predators 4, Golden Knights 2
Steven Stamkos scored his 600th career goal to lead Nashville past host Vegas. Stamkos roofed a one-timer from the left circle off a Filip Forsberg crossing pass at the 15:37 mark of the first period to tie the game and become the 22nd player in NHL history to reach 600.
Nick Perbix, Reid Schaefer and Michael Bunting also scored goals and Luke Evangelista had two assists for Nashville, which won for the fifth time in its last six games.
Mark Stone and Ben Hutton scored goals and Pavel Dorofeyev had two assists for Vegas, which lost its third straight game and the sixth in seven games. Akira Schmid finished with 15 saves.
Devils 3, Blue Jackets 2
Nico Hischier, Arseny Gritsyuk and Luke Hughes scored within a two-minute span early in the third period for visiting New Jersey, which stormed back to beat Columbus.
Jake Allen made 33 saves for the Devils, who snapped a four-game losing streak (0-3-1) as they finished December with a 5-9-1 record.
Mason Marchment and Charlie Coyle scored for the Blue Jackets, whose three-game winning streak ended. Jet Greaves recorded 30 saves.
Red Wings 2, Jets 1
Dylan Larkin scored his team-high 21st goal and host Detroit held off Winnipeg as the Jets’ slump rolled on.
Larkin and Mason Appleton scored in the first period for the Atlantic Division-leading Red Wings. John Gibson made 23 saves for Detroit, which finished 11-3-1 in the month of December.
Logan Stanley scored the lone goal for the Jets, who have lost seven straight (0-4-3). All but one of those defeats were decided by one goal. Connor Hellebuyck made 17 saves in the loss.
Lightning 4, Ducks 3 (OT)
Darren Raddysh tallied 2:47 into overtime and visiting Tampa Bay edged Anaheim. The defenseman took a feed from Brandon Hagel and flipped in the game-winner, beating Lukas Dostal (25 saves) after the goaltender stopped Anthony Cirelli one-on-one.
In their fifth straight win, the Lightning opened the three-game West Coast road swing by receiving goals from J.J. Moser, Brayden Point and Nikita Kucherov. Kucherov and Raddysh also added assists. Goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy stopped 25 shots, and Hagel assisted on three goals.
Jansen Harkins, Beckett Sennecke and Mason McTavish scored, but Anaheim fell to 1-4-2 in its past seven. McTavish’s power play goal tied the game at 3-3 with 6:58 remaining.
Flames 5, Flyers 1
Connor Zary scored and added an assist as Calgary topped Philadelphia to extend the Flames’ home winning streak to five games.
Mikael Backlund, Jonathan Huberdeau, Rasmus Andersson and Yegor Sharangovich also scored for the Flames, who have won five of their past six games overall. Flames goaltender Dustin Wolf made 25 saves to extend his home win streak to seven games. Calgary, which improved to 10-1-1 in its past 12 home games, wrapped up December with a 9-4-0 record.
Travis Konecny tallied for the Flyers, who lost for just the second time in five games. Samuel Ersson stopped 20 shots.
Bruins 6, Oilers 2
David Pastrnak tallied two goals and an assist to help Boston snap a six-game losing streak with a convincing victory over host Edmonton.
Elias Lindholm and Hampus Lindholm each notched a goal and an assist and Jonathan Aspirot and Casey Mittelstadt also scored for Boston. Bruins goalie Jeremy Swayman stopped 34 of the 36 shots he faced, backstopping a 5-for-5 penalty kill.
Zach Hyman and Jack Roslovic scored and Connor Ingram made 23 saves for Edmonton, which has lost two of its past three games. Connor McDavid extended his point streak to 14 games with the primary helper on Hyman’s goal.
–Field Level Media
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