Pastrnak has hat trick, Bruins beat Penguins 4-3
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By The Associated Press
PITTSBURGH (AP) -- David Pastrnak finished off his 14th career hat trick with 2:26 remaining to lift the Boston Bruins to a 4-3 win over the Pittsburgh Penguins on Saturday.
The Bruins’ 59th win of the season moved them within three games of the NHL’s all-time victory mark set by Detroit in 1996 and tied by Tampa Bay in 2019. Boston has six games remaining.
Pastrnak’s three goals gave him 56 on the season and pushed him across the 100-point plateau for the first time in his nine-year career. Charlie McAvoy scored his seventh goal and Jeremy Swayman stopped 21 shots as Boston won for the ninth time in 10 games.
Bryan Rust scored twice for Pittsburgh, his first multigoal game since Feb. 1, 2022, against Washington. Jake Guentzel’s 35th of the season with 7:30 left in regulation tied the score. Tristan Jarry stopped 31 shots.
HURRICANES 3, CANADIENS 0
MONTREAL (AP) -- Paul Stastny had a goal and an assist, Antti Raanta got his fourth shutout of the season, and Carolina beat Montreal.
Sebastian Aho and Brady Skjei also scored to help the Metropolitan Division-leading Hurricanes snap a three-game skid (0-2-1) and get their second win in six games. Raanta, back from a lower-body injury that kept him out since March 7, finished with 14 saves for his 19th career shutout.
Sam Montembault had a season-high 47 saves for the the Canadiens, who lost their third straight.
Carolina outshot Montreal 18-5 in each of the first two periods, and 14-4 in the third.
MAPLE LEAFS 3, SENATORS 0
OTTAWA, Ontario (AP) -- Ilya Samsonov made 30 saves for his fourth shutout of the season and 10th of his career to lead Toronto.
Michael Bunting, William Nylander and Radim Zohorna -- playing his first game with Toronto -- each scored for the Maple Leafs.
Mads Sogaard allowed the three goals on 16 shots in the first two periods for Ottawa. Cam Talbot stopped four shots in the final 20 minutes.
SABRES 6, FLYERS 3
PHILADELPHIA (AP) -- Alex Tuch had his second career hat trick, Jeff Skinner had a goal and an assist, and Buffalo beat Philadelphia.
Jordan Greenway and Kyle Okposo also scored, and Casey Mittelstadt added three assists for Buffalo in its fourth win in five games. Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen made 39 saves.
Morgan Frost scored twice for Philadelphia, and Travis Konecny also had a goal in his return to the lineup after a 16-game absence due to an upper-body injury. Felix Sandstrom had 23 saves.
The loss officially eliminated the Flyers from the playoffs. They entered with the seventh-fewest points in the NHL.
LIGHTNING 5, ISLANDERS 0
TAMPA, Fla. (AP) -- Andrei Vasilevskiy made 38 saves, Nikita Kucherov and Steven Stamkos scored 1:48 apart midway through the second period, and Tampa Bay earned its sixth straight playoff berth.
Tampa Bay will play Toronto in the first round of the postseason.
Mikhail Sergachev, Tanner Jeannot and Brayden Point also scored for the Lightning. Vasilevskiy has two shutouts in his last three game and four overall this season. He has allowed one goal during Tampa Bay’s three-game winning streak.
The Islanders hold a two-point lead over Florida for the top wild card in the Eastern Conference.
New York goalie Ilya Sorokin was pulled with 8:15 left in the second after allowing four goals on 21 shots. He is 0-4 against the Lightning.
PREDATORS 6, BLUES 1
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) -- Tommy Novak had a goal and three assists to lead the Nashville.
Luke Evangelista had a goal and two assists, Cody Glass and Colton Sissons also scored, and Juuse Saros made 21 saves for the Predators, winners of two of three.
Nashville kept its slim playoff hopes alive, now three points behind Winnipeg for the Western Conference’s second wild card. The Predators have played one fewer game than Winnipeg.
Calle Rosen scored and Thomas Greiss made 29 saves for the Blues. St. Louis had won four of five, but the loss placed the Blues on the brink of mathematical elimination from the playoffs.
PANTHERS 7, BLUE JACKETS 0
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) -- Carter Verhaeghe scored four goals to reach 40 for the season, Alex Lyon made 21 saves for his first shutout and Florida moved into the final Eastern Conference playoff spot.
Sam Reinhart added a goal and two assists, Nick Cousins and Eric Staal also scored and Anthony Duclair and Aleksander Barkov each had three assists in the Panthers’ third straight road victory.
Florida moved a point ahead of Pittsburgh for the second wild card in the conference, with five games left on the Panthers’ schedule.
Michael Hutchinson stopped 42 shots for Columbus, which was shut out for the fifth time this season and has lost four straight. The Blue Jackets are tied with Chicago for the worst record in the NHL.
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