NEW YORK – Mika Zibanejad scored five goals to match the New York Rangers’ record, capping the scoring spree 33 seconds into overtime in a wild 6-5 victory over the Washington Capitals on Thursday night.
Zibanejad is the second player in NHL history to score his fifth goal in OT, joining Detroit’s Sergei Fedorov, who accomplished the feat on Dec. 26, 1996 — also against Washington.
The Rangers centre is also the first player with five goals in a game since Winnipeg’s Patrik Laine did it in an 8-4 win over St. Louis on Nov. 24, 2018. Zibanejad joined Don Murdoch (Oct. 12, 1976) and Mark Pavelich (Feb. 23, 1983) as Rangers with five goals in a game.
Zibanejad’s 38th of the season helped New York end a three-game skid. He is the first Rangers centre with at least 35 goals in a season since Hall of Famer Eric Lindros in 2001-02.
Tony DeAngelo had a goal and two assists, Artemi Panarin had three assists and Alexandar Georgiev made 29 saves for New York.
Alex Ovechkin had two goals, including the tying score with 43 second remaining to force overtime. That came after Zibanejad scored on a rebound with 1:42 remaining to give New York a brief 5-4 lead.
Ilya Kovalchuk had a goal and an assist, and Carl Hagelin and Garnet Hathaway also scored for Washington. Samsonov had 33 saves for the Capitals.
FLYERS 4, HURRICANES 1
PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Carter Hart stopped 28 shots and four players scored to lead Philadelphia to its eighth straight win.
Ivan Provorov, Michael Raffl, Nicolas Aube-Kubel and Sean Couturier scored for the Flyers, who won their 24th home game (24-5-4). They won on consecutive nights after beating the Washington Capitals 5-2 and have positioned themselves as a serious threat to make run in the Eastern Conference playoffs.
The Flyers moved into a tie for first place in the Metropolitan Division with Capitals, who lost 6-5 in overtime to the New York Rangers.
Hart earned his 23rd win of the season.
Justin Williams scored his fourth goal of the season early in the third period for Carolina’s lone goal.
BRUINS 2, PANTHERS 1, OT
SUNRISE, Fla (AP) — Torey Krug scored 4:08 into overtime, Patrice Bergeron also had a goal and Boston beat Florida for its fourth straight win.
Moments before he scored, Krug led a 2-on-1 rush with David Pastrnak that was disrupted by MacKenzie Weegar’s poke check. Pastrnak recovered the puck in the corner and passed to Krug, who wheeled into the high slot and slapped the winner past Chris Driedger.
Jaroslav Halak stopped 32 shots for the NHL-leading Bruins.
Driedger made 25 saves and Weegar scored, but Florida dropped a franchise-worst eighth straight home game and lost its fourth game in a row overall.
LIGHTNING 4, CANADIENS 0
TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — Andrei Vasilevskiy made 32 saves, Victor Hedman scored twice and Tampa Bay blanked Montreal.
Vasilevskiy completed his 21st career shutout to help Tampa Bay win for the second time in five games. Nikita Kucherov had a goal and an assist, and Alex Killorn also scored for the Lightning.
Carey Price finished with 19 saves for Montreal, which was shut out for the first time this season.
PENGUINS 4, SABRES 2
BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP) — Patric Hornqvist scored twice in leading Pittsburgh to a win over Buffalo, extendING the Sabres’ skid to five straight.
Sidney Crosby and Marcus Pettersson also scored, and the Penguins won consecutive games after losing six in a row. Evgeni Malkin had two assists to follow a four-assist outing in a 7-3 win over Ottawa on Tuesday.
Matt Murray stopped 28 shots to improve to 3-4-1 in his past eight starts.
Jake McCabe and Marcus Johansson scored for Buffalo, and rookie Jonas Johansson stopped 28 shots.
Sabres captain and leading scorer Jack Eichel was held without a point for a sixth-consecutive game to mark the longest drought of his five-year NHL career.
PREDATORS 2, STARS 0
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Filip Forsberg and Matt Duchene each scored power-play goals, and Nashville shut out Dallas to snap a three-game losing streak.
Forsberg also ended his own 16-game skid with his first goal since Jan. 30, and Duchene scored his first since Feb. 15 to move the Predators back to the Western Conference’s second wild-card spot, at least for the moment.
Juuse Saros made 32 saves for his third shutout this season and the 10th of his career.
SENATORS 4, ISLANDERS 3
OTTAWA, Ontario (AP) — Craig Anderson made 37 saves and the Senators beat the Islanders, spoiling Jean-Gabriel Pageau’s return to Ottawa.
Connor Brown, Mikkel Boedker, Anthony Duclair and Brady Tkachuk scored for the Senators, who hadn’t beaten the Islanders since Dec. 1, 2017.
Pageau was making his return to Ottawa after being traded to the Islanders 11 days ago.
Anders Lee, Mathew Barzal and Ryan Pulock scored for the Islanders, who are 0-3-2 in their last five games. The Islanders have been outscored 14-5 in the last three games. Semyon Varlamov stopped 25 shots.
BLACKHAWKS 4, OILERS 3
CHICAGO (AP) — Alex DeBrincat scored two goals, rookie Adam Boqvist had two assists, and Chicago beat Edmonton.
It was the fourth straight victory for the Blackhawks, who climbed within four points of the second wild-card spot in the Western Conference.
Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews also scored for Chicago. Corey Crawford made 20 saves.
Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, Josh Archibald and Kailer Yamamoto scored for Edmonton, which had its three-game winning streak ended. The Oilers remained two points behind Pacific Division leader Vegas. Leon Draisaitl had two assists, pushing his league-leading points total to 110.
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