Kyle Palmieri scored a brace and added an assist to lead the New York Islanders to a 5-1 victory over the New Jersey Devils on Monday night.
Ilya Sorokin for his part made 30 saves to allow the Isles to remain at the height of the race for the playoffs in the East, they who occupy the first rank of the clubs drafted, at 85 points in 75 games.
Behind them are the Pittsburgh Penguins (82 points in 73 games) as well as the Florida Panthers (79 points in 74 games).
The score may seem one-sided, but New Yorkers protected a one-goal lead until the final five minutes of the third period.
It was then that Palmieri beat Vitek Vanecek to score his second goal of the evening, and 15th of the campaign.
Bo Horvat, author of his 37th goal of the season, as well as Zach Parise completed the scoring with goals in an abandoned net, at 18:58 and 19:59.
The Devils (46-20-8) remain three points behind the Carolina Hurricanes, leaders in the Metropolitan Division. New Jersey has also played two more games than the team it is chasing.
The Lindy Ruff-led squad lead by four points over the third-placed New York Rangers with a game in hand.
Draisaitl scores his 300th in a win
Leon Draisaitl added his 300th NHL goal, guiding the Edmonton Oilers to a 5-4 win over the Arizona Coyotes at Mullett Arena.
Ryan Nugent-Hopkins scored the game-changing goal when he beat Karel Vejmelka 12:05 into the third period on the power play.
Draisaitl is the first of three Oilers players who were at 299 goals before the game to hit the 300 mark, the others being captain Connor McDavid and Evander Kane.
Even though he had a quiet game by his standards – an assist and a minus-2 differential – McDavid nevertheless amassed a 140th point by adding an 80th assist to his record.
The No. 97 from Edmonton is only the 10th player in league history to post 140 points in a campaign. Others to have done so are Wayne Gretzky, Mario Lemieux, Mike Bossy, Phil Esposito, Jaromir Jagr, Pat Lafontaine, Bernie Nicholls, Steve Yzerman and Adam Oates.
McDavid is also only the 7th player to have both 60 goals and 80 assists in a season.
Zach Hyman, Darnell Nurse and Evan Bouchard also scored for the Albertans, who will head to Vegas for a duel against the Golden Knights on Tuesday night.
Jack Campbell stopped 29 of 33 shots for the Coyotes, while Vejmelka flinched five times on 29 shots.
A possible taste of the playoffs in favor of the Wild
Matt Boldy scored a hat trick in the Minnesota Wild’s 5-1 win over the Seattle Kraken.
These two teams could find themselves in the first round of the playoffs. The Wild sit atop the Central Division, while the Kraken are currently the first team drafted in the Western Conference.
Jaden Schwartz ruined Marc-André Fleury’s shutout 9 minutes from the end of the game. Morgan Geekie redirected a shot that hit the inside of the post and the puck landed on Schwartz’s paddle, who only had to aim for a gaping opening to Fleury’s left, not being in able to complete his trip. The Quebec goalkeeper finally made 35 saves.
The Wild forged a 5-0 lead, all initiated by Jake Middleton late in the first period.
Boldy struck twice in the second period, first shooting into the top corner on the power play, then unleashing a pitch that slammed its way through traffic. He completed his hat-trick after just 30 seconds into the third period, good for his 28th goal of the season.
Ryan Hartman added to the Kraken’s misfortune midway through.
The Ducks no match for the Avalanche
Five different scorers gave the Colorado Avalanche an easy 5-1 win over the Arizona Coyotes.
It was the third straight win for Denver, who remain one point behind the Minnesota Wild in their win over Seattle.
After Derek Grant scored the first goal of the matchup for Anaheim, the rest of the night was dominated by the defending champions, starting with the nets of Bowen Byram and Nathan MacKinnon late in the first.
The start of the second period only accentuated the trend that was taking shape: Jack Johnson and Valeri Nichushkin scored inside the first four minutes to make it 4-1.
Johnson’s goal was his first of the campaign, in his 73rd game. He had five assists so far, with the Chicago Blackhawks and Colorado.
Early in the final period, Quebecer Samuel Girard joined the party by scoring his sixth goal, on the power play.
Jonas Johansson took advantage of a rare break given to starter Alexandar Georgiev to earn the win, who made 29 saves.
His vis-à-vis John Gibson was bombarded with 44 pitches.