News » LAS VEGAS (AP) —

Malcolm Subban stopped 20 shots for his first NHL shutout Joel Edmundson Jersey , William Karlsson and Reilly Smith each scored twice, and the Vegas Golden Knights beat the Winnipeg Jets 5-0 on Thursday night.Tomas Nosek also scored for Vegas, which is 10-1 since losing to Winnipeg 6-3 in its final game before acquiring Mark Stone at the trade deadline.Subban, whose shutout came in his 35th career start, has won two straight and seven of his last nine starts. He’s also nearly unbeatable at T-Mobile Arena with a 13-1-0 record in two seasons.Winnipeg dropped to 5-3-0 in the second game of back-to-backs this season.Laurent Brossoit started in net for the Jets, but was pulled after allowing three goals. Connor Hellebuyck, who entered with 14 minutes left in the second period, allowed two goals and made 18 saves.LIGHTNING 6, HURRICANES 3RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — Ryan Callahan scored the tiebreaking goal midway through the third period, and the Tampa Bay picked up its seventh straight win.Steven Stamkos had a goal and two assists and Tyler Johnson, Anthony Cirelli, Brayden Point and Ryan McDonagh all scored for the Lightning, who scored four unanswered goals in the third period to erase a 3-2 deficit.Victor Hedman had three assists and Louis Domingue stopped 25 of 28 shots for his 13th win in his past 14 starts. Lightning forward Nikita Kucherov became the first player to reach 120 points in a season since 2006-07 with his assist on Johnson’s first-period goal.Nino Niederreiter, Dougie Hamilton and Jordan Staal scored for the Hurricanes. Curtis McElhinney made 26 saves.CANADIENS 4, ISLANDERS 0MONTREAL (AP) — Carey Price stopped 27 shots for his fourth shutout of the season and Montreal beat New York to remain in the hunt for an Eastern Conference playoff spot.Joel Armia, Shea Weber, Jonathan Drouin and Jordan Weal also scored for the Canadiens (39-28-7), who won their second straight after dropping two in a row.Thomas Greiss gave up four goals on 22 shots for the Islanders (42-25-7) before being pulled in the second period. Robin Lehner made 12 saves in relief.KINGS 4, SHARKS 2LOS ANGELES (AP) — Anze Kopitar had a goal and an assist Vladimir Tarasenko Jersey , Matt Roy scored his first career goal and Los Angeles Kings used a three-goal third period to top San Jose.Dustin Brown and Jeff Carter also scored for Los Angeles, which snapped a five-game skid at home. Jonathan Quick made 23 saves.Barclay Goodrow and Tomas Hertl scored, and Martin Jones made 31 saves for the Sharks, who trail Calgary by five points for the Pacific Division lead and the best record in the Western Conference.FLYERS 3, BLACKHAWKS 1, SOCHICAGO (AP) — Carter Hart made 40 saves and James van Reimsdyk snapped a tie in the third period, helping Philadelphia beat Chicago.Corban Knight also scored and Sean Couturier added an empty-net goal as Philadelphia picked up a sorely needed victory after dropping three of four.Erik Gustafsson scored, and Corey Crawford made 25 stops for Chicago (32-31-10), which missed out on a chance to gain ground in the race for the second wild card out West.AVALANCHE 3, STARS 1DALLAS (AP) — Philipp Grubauer made a season-high 44 saves, including 23 in the third period, defensemen Erik Johnson and Tyson Barrie scored and Colorado beat Dallas to make the Western Conference playoff race even tighter.Grubauer has allowed only two goals while facing 104 shots and carrying Colorado on a three-game winning streak.Carl Soderberg added an empty-net goal with 49 seconds left for the final margin, helping the Avalanche leapfrog idle Minnesota for eighth place in the conference standings.Tyler Seguin scored the lone goal for Dallas with 5:01 to play. Goalie Ben Bishop’s personal winning streak ended at six games.BRUINS 5, DEVILS 1NEWARK, N.J. (AP) — Patrice Bergeron scored twice and reached the 30-goal mark for the fifth time and streaking Boston beat injury-ravaged New Jersey to open a six-point lead over Toronto in the race for second place in the Atlantic Division.David Pastrnak, Danton Heinen and David Backes also scored for the Bruins, who are 16-3-1 in their last 20 games. Tuukka Rask made 22 saves to improve to 18-2-3 in his last 23 games.Drew Stafford scored for the Devils, ending a 34-game goal-scoring drought. Cory Schneider made 22 saves as New Jersey lost for the ninth time in 12 games (2-9-1).PANTHERS 4, COYOTES 2SUNRISE, Fla. (AP) — Aleksander Barkov scored two goals and Jonathan Huberdeau had three assists as Florida won for the first time in three games.Mike Hoffman and MacKenzie Weegar also scored goals for the Panthers. Roberto Luongo made 32 saves and broke a five-game losing streak. Evgenii Dadonov added two assists.Brad Richardson and Michael Grabner scored for the Coyotes Alex Killorn Jersey Kids , who lost their third straight. Darcy Kuemper stopped 18 shots.BLUES 5, RED WINGS 2ST. LOUIS (AP) — Ivan Barbashev recorded his first career NHL hat trick to lead St. Louis past Detroit.Oskar Sundqvist and Pat Maroon also scored for the Blues, who have earned points in their last four games. Rookie Jordan Binnington made 20 saves, improving to 19-4-1.Thomas Vanek scored twice and Jonathan Bernier made 19 saves for the Red Wings, who had their two-game winning streak snapped.PENGUINS 2, PREDATORS 1, SONASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Sidney Crosby’s goal in the shootout gave Pittsburgh a win over Nashville and ended the Penguins‘ three-game losing streak.Bryan Rust scored in regulation for the Penguins, who moved into a second-place tie with the New York Islanders in the Metropolitan Division with 91 points each. Matt Murray made 27 saves.Ryan Ellis scored for Nashville, which had its three-game winning streak snapped. Pekka Rinne made 31 saves in the loss as Nashville remained three points behind first-place Winnipeg in the Central Division.FLAMES 5, SENATORS 1CALGARY, Alberta (AP) — Andrew Mangiapane, Garnet Hathaway and Matthew Tkachuk each had a goal and an assist As Calgary topped Ottawa in a game that matched the top team in the West against the team with the worst record in the East.Mark Giordano scored Calgary’s league-leading 18th short-handed goal and Mikael Backlund also scored for the Flames. Derek Ryan assisted on two goals. Mike Smith made 18 saves.Dylan DeMelo scored for the Senators (25-43-6). Craig Anderson stopped 31 shots.OILERS 4, BLUE JACKETS 1EDMONTON, Alberta (AP) — Connor McDavid had a goal and an assist, Leon Draisaitl had three assists as Edmonton snapped a two-game skid with a win over Columbus.Kyle Brodziak, Zack Kassian and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins also scored for Edmonton.David Savard had the only goal for the Blue Jackets, who have lost three in a row.Columbus’ loss coupled with Montreal’s 4-0 shutout of the New York Islanders earlier in the night put the Canadiens into the Eastern Conference’s second wild-card spot, one point ahead of the Blue Jackets. When the Washington Capitals faced the New York Islanders in the playoffs five years in a row in the 1980s, players knew everything.They knew where Mike Bossy loved to shoot from Andrei Vasilevskiy Jersey , that Bob Nystrom was going to run them over and that they’d better watch out for Denis Potvin in the neutral zone.”We became so used to one another we were expected to play the Islanders in the playoffs,” former Capitals winger Craig Laughlin said. ”At some point, we always knew we were going to play them.”It’s starting to feel that way now for the Capitals and Pittsburgh Penguins, who are meeting in the second round of the playoffs for the third consecutive year. Two teams playing each other over and over again in the postseason is a common theme in NHL history, especially when 16 of the 21 teams faced off in a divisional format similar to what has been in place since 2014 and is responsible for Capitals-Penguins III.The Capitals faced the New York Rangers from 2011-13 and the Chicago Blackhawks played the Vancouver Canucks from 2009-11. Hockey has changed plenty since the Boston Bruins and Montreal Canadiens played series seven years in a row from 1984-90, but all that familiarity still breeds a whole lot of contempt.”For the players, it’s more difficult,” said former Edmonton defenseman Kevin Lowe, whose Oilers faced Winnipeg three playoffs in a row from 1983-85. ”The body checks are heavier, the cross-checks are harder, the slashes behind the play are harder.”Lowe doesn’t think there are any advantages to players seeing the same opponent over and over again in the playoffs. Even on a Stanley Cup-champion team in Edmonton, there was always pressure to beat the Jets because they had done it in previous years.Seeing the Penguins beat the Capitals on the way to the Cup the past two years, Lowe believes the stronger motivation belongs to Washington.”They’ve made their life miserable, so that amps them up more,” Lowe said. ”There’s no real advantage to the team that’s winning those years because you know every year’s different and you thought, `Oh, we can beat these guys because we beat them before.’ It’s a new set of circumstances every time you play.”Former Philadelphia defenseman Brad Marsh recalled similar circumstances when the Flyers faced the Rangers in the playoffs in the ’80s. New York was often dozens of points back in the standings and yet won their series sometimes.Players also changed teams less frequently back then, so the series felt like the continuation of a never-ending rivalry that began each fall in the preseason and was renewed in the playoffs.”You certainly develop a hate for the team a little quicker because you’ve played them so many times in the regular season leading into the playoffs, and if you play them year after year, it certainly does give you extra motivation not to lose to them again http://www.officiallightningprostore.com/authentic-adidas-anton-stralman-jersey ,” Marsh said. ”You did know how each player played or what their strengths or weaknesses were.”By now, Capitals captain Alex Ovechkin said he and his teammates know ”pretty much everything” about the Penguins, just like they did about the Rangers a few years ago. Coach Barry Trotz joked there was ”less scouting, shorter days” before acknowledging, ”We’ll be looking for those little edges you can get when you start playing teams multiple times.”Even back in Laughlin’s day, the scouting reports – printed out on paper – were extensive. When Marsh faced the Rangers, he knew how to defend certain players in front of the net and what to expect from an opponent’s stars.Sometimes that’s a no brainer. The Capitals have to watch out for Sidney Crosby, the Penguins for Ovechkin and the 1980s Jets for Wayne Gretzky and Mark Messier.Rick Tocchet, who played with Marsh on the Flyers in the ’80s and was an assistant coach with Pittsburgh in 2016 and 2017, thinks repeatedly facing the same team brings out different aspects in players.”If you were a skill guy, you’d probably go out of your way to hit a guy,” Tocchet said. ”If you really were an aggressive-type player, you’d try to make sure you’d continue to be aggressive and be willing to hit their best players. When you play a team so many times you’re willing to go out of your comfort zone to win those games.”Having an elite team like the Islanders and Oilers dynasties of the ’80s carried with it some pressure, but beating the same opponent repeatedly in the playoffs had one benefit.”Knowing that there would be an element of doubt in there,” Lowe said. ”If you get them down in a series and things are looking bleak where that element of doubt might creep in quicker for the team that hasn’t won. It takes a while before you can actually get an opponent to that position.”The mental battle starts well before Game 1. Speaking from experience, Laughlin thought he and the Capitals could always go toe-to-toe with the Islanders. He figures that’s the only way to approach this kind of situation.”You need that feeling that this is a new year, it’s a new season, it’s a new series and why can’t we win?” Laughlin said. ”It is belief that you have a better team and a belief that you are playing better than them at the moment. I think that’s the only thing you can sort of feed off of is you have more belief in your game the way you’re playing now.”—