Jets spoil Maurice’s return to Winnipeg, beat Panthers 5-2

Dec 6, 2022 | 10:30 PM

WINNIPEG, Manitoba (AP) — Kyle Connor had two goals and an assist as the Jets spoiled Paul Maurice’s return to Winnipeg with a 5-2 victory over the Florida Panthers on Tuesday night.

Mark Scheifele had a pair of power-play goals and Adam Lowry added an empty-net goal for the Jets. Pierre-Luc Dubois finished with three assists. Connor Hellebuyck stopped 38 of 40 shots as Winnipeg improved to 10-3-0 at home.

Zac Dalpe and Carter Verhaeghe scored for Florida. Spencer Knight made 12 saves on 15 shots before being replaced by Sergei Bobrovsky early in the second. Bobrovsky stopped 16 of 17 shots.

The game marked Maurice’s return to Winnipeg, where he spent parts of nine seasons coaching the Jets before leaving abruptly midway through last season. The 55-year-old Maurice signed on as Florida’s bench boss in June.

DEVILS 3, BLACKHAWKS 0

NEWARK, N.J. (AP) — Defenseman Dougie Hamilton had a goal and two assists, Vitek Vanecek made 24 saves for his second shutout and NHL-leading New Jersey defeated Chicago.

Nico Hischier and Jesper Bratt also scored and Jack Hughes had two outstanding assists for the Devils, who are a league-best 21-4-1, despite losing their first two games. Hughes has a six-game point streak with six goals and four assists.

Arvid Soderblom made 26 saves for the slumping Blackhawks, who are 1-9-1 in their last 11. They were also shut out by the New York Islanders 3-0 on Sunday.

RED WINGS 4, LIGHTNING 2

TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — Ville Husso made 28 of his 44 saves in the third period and Detroit beat Tampa Bay.

The Red Wings got goals from Michael Rasmussen, Jonatan Berggren, Adam Erne and David Perron.

Filip Hronek got the second assist on Rasmussen’s goal to set a franchise record with a season-opening 11-game road point streak. He is the second NHL defenseman to have an 11-game road point streak to start a season, joining Edmonton’s Paul Coffey (12 games in 1986-87).

Steven Stamkos and Brayden Point scored, and Andrei Vasilevskiy stopped 22 shots for the Lightning.

PENGUINS 4, BLUE JACKETS 1

PITTSBURGH (AP) — Sidney Crosby had two goals, Bryan Rust scored for a second straight game and Pittsburgh beat Columbus to run its winning streak to three games.

Crosby pushed his goal total to 15 by beating Elvis Merzlikins twice in the second period as the Penguins remained unbeaten against Columbus in the Blue Jackets’ last 12 visits to PPG Paints Arena. Teddy Blueger added a late goal.

Tristan Jarry gave up a goal to Johnny Gaudreau a minute into the game but settled down quickly. Jarry finished with 38 saves to improve to 5-0 against Columbus.

The 35-year-old Crosby’s 15 goals are nearly half the 31 he managed last season, and he is on pace for 47 goals. He hasn’t topped 35 goals in a season since leading the league with 44 in 2016-17.

KINGS 5, SENATORS 2

OTTAWA, Ontario (AP) — Viktor Arvidsson scored twice to lead Los Angeles over Ottawa.

Matt Roy, Mikey Anderson and Kevin Fiala also scored, and Anze Kopitar finished with three assists for the Kings, who kicked off a six-game trip. Pheonix Copley made 31 saves in his first appearance for the Kings.

Drake Batherson and Thomas Chabot each scored on a power play for Ottawa. Cam Talbot was lifted after allowing five goals on 14 shots. Anton Forsberg stopped all 14 shots he faced in relief.

BLUES 7, ISLANDERS 4

NEW YORK (AP) — Noel Acciari and Colton Parayko scored 13 seconds apart in the third period and St. Louis defeated New York.

Acciari finished with two goals, Josh Leivo had a goal and an assist and Thomas Greiss made 36 saves and the Blues snapped a five-game skid in the finale of a three-game northeastern road trip. Ivan Barbashev, Ryan O’Reilly and Robert Thomas also scored for St. Louis.

Noah Dobson, Zach Parise, Hudson Fasching and Jean-Gabriel Pageau scored for New York. Ilya Sorokin made 21 saves as the Islanders fell for the third time in four games.

MAPLE LEAFS 4, STARS 0

DALLAS (AP) — Matt Murray made a season-high 44 saves and Mitch Marner extended his Toronto-record point streak to 20 games with an early assist in a win over Dallas.

John Tavares, Auston Matthews, Rasmus Sandin and Alexander Kerfoot scored for the surging Maple Leafs, who are 9-0-3 in their last 12 games.

Dallas went 0 for 7 on the power play in Toronto’s first shutout this season, including a four-minute double minor and a 5-on-3 for 1:38.

The Stars were shut out for the first time this season. Jake Oettinger stopped 25 shots.

DUCKS 4, HURRICANES 3, OT

ANAHEIM, Calif. (AP) — Ryan Strome scored at 1:56 of overtime and Anaheim beat Carolina to stop a six-game losing streak.

Strome put a snap shot past goaltender Pyotr Kochetkov after getting a pass from Cam Fowler. Six of the Ducks’ seven wins this season have come in overtime or a shootout.

Adam Henrique, Max Comtois and Brett Leason also scored for Anaheim. John Gibson stopped 34 shots.

Brady Skjei, Sebastian Aho and Jordan Staal had goals for Carolina. Kochetkov made 26 saves.

CANADIENS 4, KRAKEN 2

SEATTLE (AP) — Cole Caufield and Josh Anderson scored in a seven-second span in the second period and Montreal snapped a two-game skid with a win over Seattle.

Canadiens rookie Johnathan Kovacevic and Seattle rookie Shane Wright scored their first NHL goals in the game.

Caufield and Anderson scored in the second period at 2:05 and 2:12 to give Montreal a 3-1 lead.

Rem Pitlick also scored for the Canadiens and Jake Allen finished with 31 saves.

Jared McCann also scored for Seattle, which got a 12-save effort from Martin Jones.

___

AP NHL: https://www.apnews.com/hub/NHL and https://www.twitter.com/AP_NHL

The Associated Press