Capitals fall 6-3 to Maple Leafs, lose 7th straight game
TORONTO (AP) — Nazem Kadri recorded the fifth hat trick of his career and added an assist as the Toronto Maple Leafs defeated Washington 6-3 on Wednesday night and dealt the defending Stanley Cup champion Capitals their seventh straight loss.
Auston Matthews, Nikita Zaitsev and Mitch Marner also scored for Toronto. William Nylander added three assists, while Morgan Rielly and Connor Brown had two each. Frederik Andersen stopped 41 shots for the win.
The Leafs came in having lost two straight, four in a row and five of six at Scotiabank Arena, and seven of their last 10 overall.
Nicklas Backstrom had a goal and an assist, and Alex Ovechkin and Matt Niskanen scored for Washington, which was playing for the third time in four nights.
Braden Holtby, who had allowed 11 goals on his last 54 shots against coming into Wednesday, finished with 31 saves. T.J. Oshie added two assists for the Capitals, who have allowed 30 goals in their last five games.
With his second-period goal, Ovechkin tied Sergei Fedorov for the top spot among Russian-born players with 1,179 career points.
CANADIENS 2, COYOTES 1
MONTREAL (AP) — Mike Reilly scored in the third period, Carey Price made 30 saves and Montreal beat Arizona in Alex Galchenyuk's return to his old city.
Jonathan Drouin also scored for the Canadiens, who have won five of six.
Price earned his 20th victory of the season. He has stopped 133 of the last 137 shots he's faced during a four-game personal winning streak.
Conor Garland scored for the Coyotes, who were playing the second game of a back-to-back set after a 3-2 victory in Ottawa on Tuesday night. Calvin Pickard, in his Coyotes debut, stopped 22 shots.
Galchenyuk was the Canadiens' first-round draft pick in 2012 and played six seasons with Montreal before being traded last summer.
WILD 5, AVALANCHE 2
DENVER (AP) — Eric Staal had two goals, including the tiebreaker on a second-period power play, Devan Dubnyk made 20 saves and Minnesota rolled into the All-Star break by beating slumping Colorado.
Jared Spurgeon, Charlie Coyle and Ryan Suter also scored for the Wild, who earned their fourth win in five games.
Carl Soderberg and Tyson Barrie scored for an Avalanche team that drops to 3-7 in January and keeps slipping in the Central Division chase. Philipp Grubauer stopped 23 shots as he got the start over Semyon Varlamov with Colorado searching for consistency in net.
BLUES 5, DUCKS 1
ANAHEIM, Calif. (AP) — Zach Sanford and Tyler Bozak scored goals in their first games back from injured reserve, and St. Louis beat stumbling Anaheim.
Vladimir Tarasenko, Oskar Sundqvist and Sammy Blais also scored for the Blues, who had lost three of four before splitting two games on a Southern California road trip.
Rookie Jordan Binnington bounced back from his first career regulation loss with 12 saves in his fifth career victory heading into the Blues' nine-day break.
Daniel Sprong scored the game's opening goal, but the injury-plagued Ducks were then buried in their 14th loss in 16 games.
All-Star John Gibson stopped 26 shots before former Blues goalie Chad Johnson replaced him with 9:25 to play.
PREDATORS 2, GOLDEN KNIGHTS 1
LAS VEGAS (AP) — Juuse Saros made a career-high 47 saves, Nick Bonino scored his first game-winning goal of the season and Nashville topped Vegas.
The Predators moved into a first-place tie with Winnipeg in the Central Division, both at 64 points.
Bonino scored 3:53 into the second period and Saros made the 2-1 lead stand up. Ryan Johnson also scored for the Predators.
Despite a 20-7-3 run since Nov. 21, Vegas has lost four of six. The defending Western Conference champions, who lost Monday at home to Minnesota, had not lost back-to-back games at home all season.
Max Pacioretty scored for the Golden Knights, and Marc-Andre Fleury made 25 saves.
HURRICANES 5, CANUCKS 2
VANCOUVER, British Columbia (AP) — Teuvo Teravainen had a goal and two assists, Nino Niederreiter scored twice and Carolina beat Vancouver.
Alex Nedeljkovic made 24 saves for Carolina in his first NHL start. Greg McKegg and Dougie Hamilton each added a goal and an assist as the Hurricanes snapped Vancouver's five-game point streak in the final game for both teams before the All-Star break and their bye weeks.
Sebastian Aho had two assists, and Carolina took five points during a three-game road swing through Canada.
Teravainen's big performance came two days after the forward agreed to a five-year contract extension worth $27 million.
Josh Leivo and Sven Baertschi scored for the Canucks. Jacob Markstrom stopped 29 shots.
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