(The Sports Xchange) – Highlights of National Hockey League games on Saturday:
Golden Knights 3, Capitals 0
Marc-Andre Fluery stopped 26 shots to pick up his first shutout of the season and lead the Vegas Golden Knights to a 3-0 victory over the Washington Capitals on Saturday night at T-Mobile Arena.
It was the eighth win in nine games (8-0-1) for the Golden Knights, who are tied with Tampa Bay for the most home wins in the NHL (15). Alex Tuch, Oscar Lindberg and William Karlsson all scored first-period goals for Vegas. That was all Fluery needed en route to the 45th career shutout of his career.
Braden Holtby had 25 saves for Washington, which fell out of first place in the Metropolitan Division.
Lightning 3, Wild 0
Dan Girardi, Tyler Johnson and Nikita Kucherov scored in the final 2:42 to lift Tampa Bay.
Andrei Vasilevskiy finished with 22 saves for his fourth shutout of the season and eighth of his career. The NHL-best Lightning enter the three-day break for Christmas with nine wins in the past 10 games and seven consecutive victories on home ice.
Alex Stalock, starting in net on consecutive nights, stopped 28 shots for the Wild.
Ducks 4, Penguins 0
John Gibson made 29 saves for his 13th career shutout, leading Anaheim to victory over his hometown team.
Ondrej Kase, Rickard Rakell, Andrew Cogliano and Cam Fowler staked the Ducks to a 4-0 lead through two periods. Anaheim finished a six-game road trip 3-2-1. Gibson improved to 2-3-0 versus the Penguins.
Pittsburgh’s Matt Murray gave up three goals on 13 shots before he was pulled for rookie Tristan Jarry, who stopped nine of 10 shots. The Penguins lost for the fifth time in seven games.
Islanders 5, Jets 2
Mathew Barzal collected his first NHL hat trick as New York cruised past Winnipeg.
Barzal (20 years, 211 days) scored twice in the first and once in the third to become the youngest Islanders player to record a hat trick since John Tavares did so at 20 years and 117 days on Jan. 15, 2011. Anders Lee and Anthony Beauvillier also scored for New York and Jaroslav Halak recorded 38 saves.
Tucker Poolman and Adam Lowry scored for the Jets, who ended a four-game road trip with three straight losses (0-2-1). Steve Mason made 24 saves.
Maple Leafs 3, Rangers 2
Auston Matthews had a goal and an assist in his first game back from a concussion as Toronto defeated New York.
William Nylander also had a goal and an assist for the Maple Leafs. Ron Hainsey had a goal and Morgan Rielly had two assists for Toronto. Frederik Andersen stopped 30 shots to halt the Maple Leafs’ four-game road losing streak.
Jimmy Vesey and J.T. Miller had the Rangers’ goals. Henrik Lundqvist made 34 saves for New York.
Bruins 3, Red Wings 1
Patrice Bergeron scored twice as Boston won its fourth straight game.
Brad Marchand scored one goal and set up Bergeron’s winner 6:11 into the third, and Tuukka Rask made 30 saves for the Bruins. Bergeron scored an empty-net goal in the closing seconds for his 10th goal of the season.
Frans Nielsen scored a short-handed goal and Jimmy Howard made 22 saves for the Red Wings, who haven’t won at TD Garden since April 14, 2014.
Oilers 4, Canadiens 1
Connor McDavid had a goal and an assist to lead Edmonton to its fourth straight victory.
Jujhar Khaira also had a goal and an assist for the Oilers. Ryan Strome and Milan Lucic also scored, Leon Draisaitl had three assists and Cam Talbot made 29 saves for Edmonton.
Antti Niemi made 31 saves for the Canadiens, who had their two-game winning streak snapped. Andrew Shaw scored for Montreal.
Devils 4, Blackhawks 1
Cory Schneider made 39 saves, and Brian Boyle sparked a three-goal first period as New Jersey won its fourth straight game.
Schneider made 21 saves in the second period and withstood a flurry in the opening half of the period. He made five stops on Patrick Kane before allowing the Blackhawks wing’s 300th career goal late in the second.
The Devils scored three times in the first 13:22 to chase Chicago goaltender Corey Crawford for the second time this season. Kyle Palmieri scored a power-play goal and Pavel Zacha capped the three-goal outburst.
Sharks 2, Kings 0
Goalie Martin Jones stopped 28 shots for his 100th career victory while defeating his former team as San Jose topped Los Angeles.
Jones improved to 8-3-2 in his career against the Kings, the team he broke in with and for which he played two seasons, including 2014 when the Kings won the Stanley Cup. Jones collected his third shutout of the season and 18th of his career.
Marcus Sorensen scored his third goal in four games and Joe Pavelski scored for the Sharks.
Stars 4, Predators 3 (SO)
Alexander Radulov and Tyler Seguin scored in the shootout, and Dallas killed off two penalties in overtime — including 31 seconds of a 5-on-3 — in defeating Nashville.
Ben Bishop made 29 saves to help the Stars win back-to-back games and extend a four-game point streak. Bishop stopped Filip Forsberg and Kevin Fiala in the shootout before Seguin scored in the third round.
Juuse Saaros made 25 saves for the Predators, who lost their third straight game.
Blues 3, Canucks 1
Kyle Brodziak’s goal with 1:30 left in the second period stood up as the winner as St. Louis defeated Vancouver.
Brodziak gave the Blues a 2-1 lead as he squeezed a shot from a sharp angle between Jacob Markstrom and the post — while the crowd groaned. St. Louis ended a three game-losing streak, while the Canucks suffered their fourth straight loss.
Patrik Berglund and Alex Steen (empty-netter) also scored for the Blues. Rookie Brock Boeser tallied for Vancouver.
Blue Jackets 2, Flyers 1 (SO)
Pierre-Luc Dubois scored the only goal in the shootout on his first NHL attempt as Columbus defeated Philadelphia.
Seth Jones scored in the opening period for the Blue Jackets, and Ivan Provorov answered with the tying goal in the second period for the Flyers. Sergei Bobrovsky made 30 stops for Columbus and Brian Elliott finished with 35 saves for Philadelphia.
The Flyers’ Sean Couturier nearly won the game with 17 seconds remaining in the third period, but his shot bounced off the goal post.
Panthers 1, Senators 0
James Reimer made 38 saves to lead Florida over Ottawa.
The shutout was the 18th of Reimer’s career and fourth against Ottawa. The victory gave the Panthers a three-game winning streak for the first time this season. Jonathan Huberdeau scored for Florida.
Mike Condon, playing in place of No. 1 goaltender Craig Anderson (illness), made 37 saves for the Senators.
Hurricanes 4, Sabres 2
Defenseman Justin Faulk scored twice to snap a two-month scoring drought and Teuvo Teravainen matched a career high with three assists as Carolina defeated Buffalo.
The Hurricanes won for the fifth time in its last six games. Cam Ward also improved to 7-0-1 in his last nine appearances in net for Carolina. Jordan Staal and Sebastian Aho also scored for the Hurricanes.
The Sabres got second-period goals from Nathan Beaulieu — his first of the season — and Zemgus Girgensons.
Avalanche 6, Coyotes 2
Matt Nieto had a goal and an assist, and Colorado scored four goals in less than four minutes following a series of nasty mid-ice fights in its victory over Arizona.
Carl Soderberg began the flurry and J.T. Compher and Nail Yakupov followed by scoring on the same power play resulting from Coyotes center Zac Rinaldo’s match penalty as the Avalanche needed only 3:46 to turn a scoreless game into a 4-0 lead.
Soderberg finished with two goals and Alexander Kerfoot had a pair of assists. Semyon Varlamov turned aside 32 shots despite allowing two short-handed goals to Derek Stepan.
