Boston wraps up 1st in Atlantic, one W away from club record

Boston Bruins' Garnet Hathaway (21), Tampa Bay Lightning's Pat Maroon, top right, Bruins' Jakub Lauko, center right, and Lightnings' Ross Colton, center left, fight during the first period of an NHL hockey game, Saturday, March 25, 2023, in Boston. (AP Photo/Michael Dwyer)

By The Associated Press

BOSTON (AP) — Garnet Hathaway scored the tiebreaking goal late in the second period and the NHL-best Boston Bruins wrapped up first place in the Atlantic Division with their sixth straight victory, 2-1 over the Tampa Bay Lightning on Saturday.

The win was the Bruins’ 56th and moves them one behind the club record set in 1970-71. It also keeps them on pace to set the NHL record for victories in a regular season with 10 games left. The Detroit Red Wings won 62 in 1995-96 and Tampa Bay matched it in 2018-19.

Patrice Bergeron added a power-play goal for the Bruins and Linus Ullmark made 26 saves, raising his record to 36-5-1.

Victor Hedman had a short-handed score for the Lightning and Andrei Vasilevskiy stopped 32 shots. Tampa Bay has lost four straight.

KINGS 4, JETS 1

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Viktor Arvidsson had two goals and Los Angeles matched its longest point streak in franchise history.

Drew Doughty had a goal and an assist and Alex Iafallo netted a power-play goal for Los Angeles, which has earned points in 11 straight games for the fourth time. The last was 2013-14, when the Kings won their second Stanley Cup. Joonas Korpisalo stopped 25 shots for Los Angeles.

Arvidsson — who has 22 goals on the season — has four in the last four games, while Doughty has found the net four times in the last five games.

Pierre-Luc Dubois scored for Winnipeg and Connor Hellebuyck made 25 saves.

RANGERS 4, PANTHERS 3

SUNRISE, Fla. (AP) — Patrick Kane scored the tiebreaking goal early in the third period as New York rallied from two goals down to beat Florida.

Kaapo Kakko, Alexis Lafreniere and Filip Chytil each had a goal and an assist to help New York win for the eighth time in 10 games. Jaroslav Halak stopped 31 shots to snap a four-game skid (0-2-2) and get his first win since Feb. 11 at Carolina.

Aleksander Barkov had two goals and Ryan Lomberg also scored for Florida, which has lost three straight. Sergei Bobrovsky finished with 38 saves.

KRAKEN 7, PREDATORS 2

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Eeli Tolvanen scored twice and Philipp Grubauer made 14 saves in Seattle’s win over Nashville.

Jared McCann had a goal and two assists. Daniel Sprong, Adam Larsson, Matty Beniers and Oliver Bjorkstrand also scored for Seattle, which entered Saturday holding the top spot in the Western Conference’s wild-card race. Vince Dunn had two assists.

Matt Duchene and Tyson Barrie each had a goal and an assist and Juuse Saros made 32 saves for Nashville, which had its two-game winning streak snapped. The Predators remained five points behind the Winnipeg Jets for the West’s second wild-card berth.

FLYERS 3, RED WINGS 0

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Carter Hart made 29 saves, Scott Laughton scored and Philadelphia won its third straight with a shutout of Detroit.

Kieffer Bellows also scored and Tyson Foerster had an empty-netter for Philadelphia in a matchup of two of the Eastern Conference’s worst teams.

The Red Wings have lost five of six and were 0 for 7 on the power play.

SABRES 2, ISLANDERS 0

NEW YORK (AP) — Kyle Okposo scored with 6 1/2 minutes remaining, Eric Comrie stopped 27 shots for his second career shutout and Buffalo beat New York.

Jeff Skinner added an empty-net goal to help Buffalo win its second straight after losing the previous four.

Semyon Varlamov finished with 33 saves for the Islanders, who lost their second straight. They had won 11 straight at home against the Sabres.

FLAMES 5, SHARKS 3

CALGARY, Alberta (AP) — Tyler Toffoli scored two goals and Calgary kept its playoff hopes alive by beating San Jose.

MacKenzie Weegar, Walker Duehr and Nazem Kadri added the others for Calgary, which won for just the second time in its last nine games at the Saddledome (2-5-2). Jacob Markstrom made 28 saves. With the victory, the Flames climbed back to within four points of the Winnipeg Jets, who occupy the second wild-card spot in the Western Conference.

Logan Couture, Nico Sturm and Martin Kaut replied for San Jose, which had its winless skid extended to nine games (0-6-3). Kaapo Kahkonen had 25 stops. Erik Karlsson’s two assists helped him reach 68 on the year to surpass his previous career-high of 66 in 2015-16 and break the Sharks record for helpers by a defenseman. Brent Burns previously held it with 67 in 2018-19.

WILD 3, BLACKHAWKS 1

ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — Ryan Hartman scored with 1:11 remaining in the third period and Minnesota topped Chicago.

Ryan Reaves and Frederick Gaudreau also scored for Minnesota, and Filip Gustavsson made 22 saves in goal.

The Wild have points in four straight games after their franchise-record 14-game point streak was snapped on March 18.

Lukas Reichel scored for Chicago, which has lost four in a row. Former Minnesota goaltender Alex Stalock made 22 saves for the Blackhawks.

___

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