The holiday season did not bring a victory to the New York Rangers, whose woes continued Saturday against the Tampa Bay Lightning.
Beaten 6 to 2, the Rangers suffered an eighth defeat in their last ten games and a third in a row.
The fate of coach Peter Laviolette could be threatened.
Before hosting the Montreal Canadiens on Sunday, Tampa Bay has won eight of its last ten meetings.
With a 2-1 lead after one period, the Lightning recorded three goals in the middle period to take a serious option on the match.
Brayden Point led the attack in the victory with three points, two goals and an assist.
Four of the Rangers’ six goals were the work of their special teams.
One of Point’s goals came on a power play, his 12th in such a situation, a high this season in the NHL. Nikita Kucherov also hit the target with an advantage. Tampa Bay also scored two short-man goals from Ryan McDonagh and Anthony Cirelli, which became the Lightning’s fourth day to score two shorthanded points in the same game.
Kucherov also had two assists for a total of three points in the game, which allowed him to pass Martin St-Louis in team history for assists. The Russian now has 590 assists and is closing in on Tampa’s all-time leader Victor Hedman, who has 596.
For the Rangers, Artemi Panarin scored his 16th of the season while Vincent Trocheck reached ten on the numerical penalty.
Successful return for Ovechkin
Alex Ovechkin scored in an empty net in his return to the game and the Washington Capitals defeated the Toronto Maple Leafs 5-2 on Saturday.
Andrew Mangiapane, Jakob Chychrun, Nic Dowd and Tom Wilson were the other scorers for the Capitals.
The Maple Leafs’ response came from John Tavares and Bobby McMann.
Ovechkin played in his first game since fracturing his left leg fibula on November 18 against the Utah Hockey Club.
The goal he scored was the 869th of his career, just 25 short of Wayne Gretzky’s all-time record of 894.
Tavares scored the first goal of the game when he deflected a shot from the blue line by Simon Benoit past goaltender Logan Thompson with only three minutes in the game.
Mangiapane responded 92 seconds later after a two-on-one push with a shot that barely passed between Matt Murray’s pads.
Before the end of the first period, Chychrun gave the Capitals a 2-1 lead, but McMann tied the score when he completed a play by Max Domi midway through the second period.
Less than two minutes after that McMann goal, Dowd broke the deadlock.
The Bruins take their revenge on the Jackets
Jeremy Swayman stopped 18 shots for his second shutout of the campaign and the Bruins defeated the Columbus Blue Jackets 4-0.
David Pastrnak, Morgan Geekie, Justin Brazeau and Cole Koepke found the back of the net for the Bruins, who won for the fifth time in their last seven outings.
Swayman is 7-1-1 in his last nine starts.
Daniil Tarasov made 24 saves for the Blue Jackets, who had won three of their last four meetings. Columbus beat the Bruins 6-2 on Friday night.
Defender Charlie McAvoy took a hard check from attacker Mathieu Olivier and his head hit the bay window. He retreated to the locker room, but returned to the game a few minutes later.
Rod Brind’Amour makes history
Jackson Blake gave his team the lead on a power play with 9:17 remaining and Jack Roslovic added a double to launch the Carolina Hurricanes to a 5-2 victory over the New Jersey Devils.
With this victory for the Hurricanes, head coach Rod Brind’Amour reached the plateau of 300 victories faster than anyone in NHL history.
Brind’Amour led his 488th game with the Hurricanes, and he reached the 300-win plateau in eight fewer games than Bruce Boudreau.
Sebastian Aho also scored during a four-goal third period for the Hurricanes, who split the home-and-away series honors between the two clubs.
On Friday, the Devils won 4-2 at home.
Dmitry Orlov, late in the second period, completed for the Hurricanes.
Paul Cotter and Ondrej Palat scored for the Devils, whose winning streak ended at three. Jake Allen blocked 37 pucks but it’s now been over a month since he got a victory.
