NHL roundup: Geekie’s hustle goal helps Bruins beat Avalanche to halt six-game skid

BOSTON (AP) — Morgan Geekie hustled to a loose puck behind the net, collected it and slipped it inside the left post with 4.5 seconds left in the second period and the Boston Bruins snapped their six-game losing streak with a 3-2 victory over Colorado on Saturday, handing the Avalanche their first regulation loss of the season.

Boston’s losing streak was its longest since it dropped 10 straight March 13 to April 3 after trading away players and starting a rebuild.

The Avalanche (5-1-3) entered the day as one of only two teams in the NHL unbeaten in regulation. Vegas was the other.

Viktor Arvidsson and Michael Eyssimont also scored for Boston. Jeremy Swayman made 31 saves.

Geekie outhustled defenceman Josh Manson, got the puck and turned to his left with goalie Scott Wedgewood moving to the other direction for a brief second, giving Geekie time to slip a shot between his right pad and post to make it 3-1.

Artturi Lehkonen scored both goals for Colorado. His first slipped between Swayman’s right arm and the post to make it 1-0 at 4:26 of the first period.

Elsewhere in the NHL on Saturday:

FLYERS 4 ISLANDERS 3 (SO)

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Trevor Zegras had two goals and an assist, Matvei Michkov scored the game-winner in a shootout as Philadelphia defeated the New York Islanders.

In a spirited game that included a pair of fights, and other scrums that resulted in the teams combining for 13 penalties, the Flyers rallied twice. First, overcoming a 2-0 deficit to tie the game, then falling behind in the third period only to tie it again before winning in the shootout.

Zegras scored his first two goals with the Flyers after being acquired in an off-season trade with the Anaheim Ducks. 

MAPLE LEAFS 4 SABRES 3 (OT)

TORONTO (AP) — John Tavares scored his 499th NHL goal on a breakaway at 1:28 of overtime and the Toronto Maple Leafs beat the Buffalo Sabres 4-3 on Saturday to snap a three-game losing streak.

Toronto won a night after falling 5-3 in Buffalo to start the home-and-home series.

Tavares is a goal shy of becoming the 49th NHL player to reach 500. He also had an assist against the Sabres.

Nick Robertson, Matias Maccelli and Dakota Joshua also scored for Toronto, and Cayden Primeau made 23 saves.

Tage Thompson scored twice and Bowen Byram added a goal for Buffalo. Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen stopped 18 shots.

LIGHTNING 4 DUCKS 3

TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — Jake Guentzel and Anthony Cirelli each scored twice and Tampa Bay beat Anaheim Ducks to snap a four-game skid.

Nikita Kucherov had an assist for his 1,000th career point as Tampa Bay got its first home win of the season. Victor Hedman registered his 800th career point and Brandon Hagel picked up career point No. 300.

Jonas Johansson finished with 37 saves for Tampa Bay, which ended an 0-2-2 stretch with just its second win of the season (2-4-2)

Troy Terry, Jacob Trouba and Ryan Poehling scored for Anaheim, which lost in regulation for the first time in four games. Lukas Dostal finished with 29 saves.

PANTHERS 3 GOLDEN KNIGHTS 0

SUNRISE, Fla. (AP) — Sergei Bobrovsky stopped 17 shots for his 50th career shutout, Cole Schwindt scored against his former team and Florida became the first team to beat the Vegas Golden Knights in regulation this season.

Bobrovsky became the 33rd goalie in NHL history with that many regular-season shutouts, with 17 of them coming since he joined the Panthers.

Sam Reinhart and A.J. Greer also scored for Florida, who evened their record at 5-5-0 and improved to 4-1-0 at home. Reinhart’s goal opened the scoring late in the first period, Schwindt made it 2-0 early in the third period and Greer pushed it to 3-0 with 9:56 left.

Vegas (5-1-2) had its four-game winning streak snapped. The Golden Knights earned at least one point in all seven of their games coming into Saturday.

Akira Schmid stopped 23 shots for the Golden Knights.

MAMMOTH 6 WILD 2

ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — Logan Cooley scored twice in the first 3:29, Nick Schmaltz also had two goals and Utah won their sixth straight game, beating Minnesota.

Two days after scoring a first-period hat trick at St. Louis, Cooley opened the scoring Saturday with a goal 56 seconds in. The former University of Minnesota star backhanded the puck out of mid-air and past Wild goalie Filip Gustavsson for an early 1-0 lead.

Cooley netted his second goal of the game on the power play at the 3:29 mark of the first period. Cooley and Utah took advantage of a slashing penalty to Minnesota’s Yakov Trenin.

The Mammoth went up 3-0 less than two minutes later when Schmaltz scored his sixth goal of the season just shy of five minutes into the game.

Wild veteran Marcus Johansson single-handedly got his team back in the game with a pair goals. Johansson put Minnesota on the board with a one-timer from Zeev Buium with 4:21 left in the first. 

RED WINGS 6 BLUES 4

DETROIT (AP) — Simon Edvinsson scored the go-ahead goal with 9:12 remaining and clinched the game with an empty-netter as Detroit rallied from a four-goal deficit to top the St. Louis.

Alex DeBrincat tied the game 47 seconds before Edvinsson’s winner. Jonatan Berggren, Emmitt Finnie and J.T. Compher had second-period goals for Detroit, while John Gibson made 25 saves. Andrew Copp chipped in two assists.

The Blues led 4-0 after Jake Neighbours scored his second goal of the game 3:12 into the second period. Pavel Buchnevich scored during his 300th career game and Jordan Kyrou had the other goal for St. Louis, losers of three straight.

Robert Thomas, Jimmy Snuggerud and Justin Faulk added two assists apiece. Jordan Binnington stopped 22 shots.

BLUE JACKETS 5 PENGUINS 4 (SO)

PITTSBURGH (AP) — Kent Johnson, Adam Fantilli and Kirill Marchenko scored in the shootout to lift Columbus past Pittsburgh.

The Blue Jackets won for just the second time in their last 18 trips to Pittsburgh when Penguins star Evgeni Malkin fired wide of the net and goaltender Elvis Merzlikins in the final round of the shootout.

Dmitri Voronkov scored twice for Columbus. His second of the night 4:54 into the third period put the Blue Jackets up two and put Columbus in position to beat the Penguins in regulation in Pittsburgh for the first time since November 2015.

Pittsburgh rallied to force the extra session when Kris Letang and Bryan Rust scored their first goals of the season two minutes apart late in the third period.

Mirzlikins finished with 24 saves, including a sprawling save of Malkin in overtime in which he stopped the shot with his glove only to see it flutter over him toward the Columbus net before a teammate knocked it out of harm’s way.

CANADIENS 4 CANUCKS 3

VANCOUVER, B.C. (AP) — Ivan Demidov had a goal and two assists and Montreal rallied to beat Vancouver.

Nick Suzuki, Juraj Slafkovsky and Mike Matheson also scored to help Montreal improve to 7-3-0. Jakub Dobes stopped 28 shots.

Elias Pettersson had a goal and two assists for Vancouver. Conor Garland had a goal and an assist, and Jake DeBrusk also scored.

The Canucks have lost three straight.

SENATORS 7 CAPITALS 1

WASHINGTON (AP) — Dylan Cozens and Drake Batherson scored twice each for Ottawa, who spoiled Alex Ovechkin’s 1,500th game by routing Washington.

Ovechkin was also one shy of the 900-goal milestone, but Ottawa goalie Linus Ullmark kept him and almost everyone else in a red jersey off the scoreboard. Shane Pinto, Nick Cousins and Thomas Chabot also scored for the Senators. Trevor van Riemsdyk managed a third-period goal for Washington.

The Capitals trailed 1-0 early in the second period when the game unravelled on them. Pinto drove the net and crashed into Washington goalie Charlie Lindgren, with the puck trickling over the goal line amid the chaos. When the Capitals challenged, officials ruled defenceman Jakob Chychrun had knocked Pinto into Lindgren, so the goal stood.

KRAKEN 3 OILERS 2

SEATTLE (AP) — Jordan Eberle scored two goals, both set up by Matty Beniers, and Seattle beat Edmonton to continue the best start in franchise history.

Tye Kartiye scored his first of the season as the Kraken improved to 5-2-2. In the past two games, Seattle has defeated last season’s President’s Trophy winner Winnipeg (3-0 on Thursday in Winnipeg) and now Stanley Cup runner-up Edmonton.

Joey Daccord made 31 saves for the Kraken. It was just his second win in nine career games against Edmonton.

Evan Bouchard and Darnell Nurse each scored their first of the season for the Oilers, who had won nine of their previous 10 against Seattle. Leon Draisaitl had two assists and Stuart Skinner made 20 saves.