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K’Andre Miller scores twice to lift Rangers over Capitals 5-1

NEW YORK (AP) — K’Andre Miller scored two goals and added an assist to lead the New York Rangers to a 5-1 win over the Washington Capitals on Wednesday night. Igor Shesterkin made 26 saves for New York, which has won five of its last six.
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New York Rangers defenseman Braden Schneider (4) works for the puck against Washington Capitals center Evgeny Kuznetsov during the third period of an NHL hockey game Wednesday, Dec. 27, 2023, in New York. (AP Photo/Adam Hunger)

NEW YORK (AP) — K’Andre Miller scored two goals and added an assist to lead the New York Rangers to a 5-1 win over the Washington Capitals on Wednesday night.

Igor Shesterkin made 26 saves for New York, which has won five of its last six.

Alexis Lafreniere, Artemi Panarin and Braden Schneider also scored for the Rangers, and Mika Zibanejad — playing in his 800th NHL game — added two assists.

Anthony Mantha scored the Capitals’ lone goal, and Darcy Kuemper stopped 26 shots.

DUCKS 5, GOLDEN KNIGHTS 2

ANAHEIM, Calif. (AP) — Brett Leason scored twice for the first time in his NHL career, Jamie Drysdale put in his first goal in nearly 21 months and Anaheim used a four-goal first period to propel them to victory over Vegas.

Frank Vatrano and Troy Terry also had goals for Anaheim, which found the back of the net four times in the opening 12 minutes. It was the 16th time in franchise history they have scored at least four times in the first period and the first since March 16, 2021, against Colorado.

Mason McTavish had three assists, Cam Fowler had two and John Gibson stopped 30 shots.

Alec Martinez and Mark Stone scored for the Golden Knights, who have dropped four straight. Logan Thompson made 21 saves.

BLUES 2, STARS 1

ST. LOUIS (AP) — Jake Neighbours and Marco Scandella each scored and goalie Joel Hofer recorded 39 saves to lead St. Louis over Dallas, snapping the Stars' three-game winning streak.

Dallas goalie Scott Wedgewood took the loss after he had recorded a point in each of his previous 10 decisions (8-0-2). He made 28 saves.

Jason Robertson scored for the Stars.

It was the first of three games in the four days for the Blues.

BRUINS 4, SABRES 1

BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP) — Charlie Coyle scored twice and Brad Marchand had two assists to lead Boston over Buffalo.

Mason Lohrei and Morgan Geekie also scored for the Bruins, who ended a four-game losing streak. Jeremy Swayman made 25 saves.

Erik Johnson scored for the Sabres. Devon Levi made 21 saves.

Special teams played a big role in the outcome as the Bruins scored on their first three power-play chances. Meanwhile, the Sabres went 0 for 6 with the man advantage.

COYOTES 5, AVALANCHE 4, OT

TEMPE, Ariz. (AP) — Jack McBain scored with 20 seconds left in the overtime and Arizona overcame a four-goal deficit to beat Colorado for its fifth victory in six games.

Lawson Crouse, Michael Kesselring and Jason Zucker also scored for Arizona, and Karel Vejmelka made 20 saves. The Coyotes overcame a three-goal deficit in a 4-3 victory over Ottawa on Dec. 19.

Nathan MacKinnon had a goal and an assist for Colorado to extend his points streak to 19 games, one short of the franchise record set by Paul Stastny in 2006-07.

Mikko Rantanen also had a goal and an assist for Colorado, Jonathan Drouin and Logan O’Connor also scored and Alexandar Georgiev made 22 saves.

BLACKHAWKS 2, JETS 1, OT

CHICAGO (AP) — Connor Bedard scored his second goal of the game at 2:15 of a frantic overtime, leading Chicago to its second win in eight games.

Bedard, who leads NHL rookies in scoring, sent a wrist shot under the glove of Winnipeg’s Connor Hellebuyck for the first OT goal of his career and his 15th of the season.

Morgan Barron scored in regulation for Winnipeg, which lost for the second time in 11 contests (8-1-2).

Petr Mrazek made 37 saves for Chicago as Winnipeg built a 38-25 advantage in shots on goal.

KINGS 5, SHARKS 1

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Adrian Kempe had two goals, Kevin Fiala scored after being benched in the first period and Los Angeles overcame a poor start to beat San Jose.

Trevor Lewis and Pierre-Luc Dubois also scored for the Kings, who have won four of their last five games. David Rittich made 24 saves.

Fabian Zetterlund scored and Kaapo Kahkonen allowed five goals on 43 shots as the Sharks lost their sixth straight game.

Fiala made amends after being benched for the final 8:58 of the first period following his poor pass that led to San Jose’s opening goal. He scored on a breakaway 2:57 into the second. Lewis put Los Angeles ahead 13 seconds later.

PENGUINS 7, ISLANDERS 0

NEW YORK (AP) — Jake Guentzel and Evgeni Malkin each scored twice, Kris Letang had six assists including five in the second period, and Pittsburgh toppled New York.

Tristan Jarry finished with 21 saves for his fourth shutout of the season. Rickard Rakell, Radim Zohorna and Valtteri Puustinen also scored for Pittsburgh and Marcus Pettersson picked up four assists.

Letang became the first defenseman in NHL history to record five points in a period and the first player of any position in Penguins history to do so.

Ilya Sorokin made 19 saves as the Islanders’ nine-game point streak on home ice (6-0-3) came to an end. Semyon Varlamov replaced Sorokin to begin the third period and made six saves.

SENATORS 4, MAPLE LEAFS 2

TORONTO (AP) — Drake Batherson scored twice and Ottawa overcame an early two-goal deficit to beat Toronto for its second straight victory.

Parker Kelly and Brady Tkachuk also scored and Joonas Korpisalo made 34 saves to help Ottawa improve to 13-17-0. The Senators are 2-1-0 against the Maple Leafs this season.

Matthew Knies and Tyler Bertuzzi scored for Toronto and Martin Jones stopped 26 shots. The Maple Leafs fell to 17-9-6.

PANTHERS 3, LIGHTNING 2

TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — Sam Reinhart had two goals, Sergei Bobrovsky made 27 saves, and Florida coach Paul Maurice coached his 1,800th game.

Aaron Ekblad also scored for the Panthers, and Aleksander Barkov had three assists.

Nikita Kucherov scored his 300th goal and Michael Eyssimont had the other Lightning goal. Andrei Vasilevskiy stopped 28 shots.

Kucherov, the NHL points leader, missed several first-period shifts after taking a stick to the face.

HURRICANES 5, PREDATORS 2

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Sebastian Aho scored a goal and assisted on three others to lead Carolina over Nashville, which has dropped three of four.

Andrei Svechnikov, Brent Burns and Seth Jarvis each had a goal and an assist and Jack Drury also scored for Carolina, which had lost two in a row. Pyotr Kochetkov made a season-high 35 saves.

Ryan O’Reilly had a goal and an assist and Gustav Nyquist also scored while Juuse Saros made 14 saves for Nashville.

Yaroslav Askarov replaced Saros to start the third period. Making his second career appearance, Askarov stopped all six shots he faced.

DEVILS 4, BLUE JACKETS 3, OT

NEWARK, N.J. (AP) — Timo Meier scored on a breakaway at 2:12 of overtime to give New Jersey its second straight comeback victory.

Luke Hughes tied it for New Jersey with 25 seconds left in regulation.

Ondrej Palat and Dawson Mercer also scored for New Jersey. Vitek Vanecek made 26 saves.

Yegor Chinakhov, Justin Danforth and Jake Bean scored for Columbus, and Elvis Merzlikins stopped 31 shots. Columbus has blown an NHL-worst 17 leads.

WILD 6, RED WINGS 3

ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — Ryan Hartman and Marcus Foligno scored 52 seconds apart in the third period to break a tie and Minnesota scored four times in the final frame.

Kirill Kaprizov extended his goal-scoring streak to four games, Marcus Johansson scored twice and Matt Boldy added a goal for Minnesota, which has won four in a row and seven of eight. The Wild are 11-3-0 since John Hynes took over behind the bench and have won seven straight home games.

Filip Gustavsson made 25 saves and improved to 8-2 in his last 10 starts.

Patrick Kane scored for the fourth straight game and Alex DeBrincat and Daniel Sprong added goals as the Red Wings lost for the sixth time in seven games. Detroit is 2-8-1 in its last 11 games. James Reimer finished with 25 saves; he has allowed 24 goals in his last five starts.

KRAKEN 2, FLAMES 1

CALGARY, Alberta (AP) — Making his first NHL start in nearly 20 months, Chris Driedger made 37 saves for Seattle, which extended its points streak to seven games (5-0-2).

Driedger, 29, had lost all three of his NHL appearances against the Flames.

Kailer Yamamoto and Alex Wennberg scored for Seattle.

Nazem Kadri scored for Calgary and Jacob Markstrom made 19 saves.

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AP NHL: https://www.apnews.com/hub/NHL

The Associated Press