Five
players scored a goal apiece Tuesday night for the Boston Bruins, who
remained red-hot with a 5-1 win over the New York Islanders at Barclays
Center in Brooklyn, N.Y.
Danton Heinen scored in the first, Patrice
Bergeron scored the go-ahead goal in the second and Brad Marchand and
Tim Schaller provided insurance goals in the third for the Bruins
(22-10-6), who capped the scoring with an empty-netter by Noel Acciari
with 2:13 left. Boston has won seven of its last 10 (7-1-2).
Bruins
goalie Tuukka Rask, who was named the NHL’s first star of the month for
December earlier Tuesday, recorded 25 saves in winning his sixth
straight start. Rask went 9-0-1 last month.
Jordan Eberle scored for
the Islanders (20-16-4), who have lost three straight (0-3-0) and seven
of 10 (3-6-1). Goalie Jaroslav Halak made 33 saves.
Both teams scored goals immediately off faceoffs within a 73-second span shortly before the midway point of the first.
After
the Bruins’ Riley Nash won a faceoff deep in the New York zone with
John Tavares, the puck bounced to Heinen, whose shot from the circle
sailed past Halak 8:17 into the period.
Bergeron won his faceoff
against the Islanders’ Mathew Barzal in the Boston zone, after which the
puck skittered towards the net as Eberle and Bruins defenseman Brandon
Carlo chased after it. But Carlo fell, which left Eberle all alone in
front of Rask. Eberle maneuvered the puck to the left of the net and,
with Rask falling to the right, tucked a shot into the corner.
Bergeron
put the Bruins ahead with an unusual goal 8:28 into the second. Brad
Marchand’s shot from point-blank range skipped over the head of Halak
and behind the net, where Bergeron caught it, dropped it and wrapped a
shot off the back of Halak’s skate and into the back of the net.
Marchand and Schaller scored a little less than six minutes apart in the
third to put the game away for the Bruins.
Ovechkin guides Caps past Hurricanes
Alex
Ovechkin scored the tying and winning goals as the Washington Capitals
rallied for a 5-4 overtime victory against the Carolina Hurricanes on
Tuesday night in Raleigh, N.C.
Ovechkin’s 26th goal of the season
came unassisted 1:57 into overtime as the Metropolitan Division-leading
Capitals snapped Carolina’s six-game, home-ice winning streak. Ovechkin
tied the game at 4-4 with 7:15 to play in regulation. Alex Chiasson,
Devante Smith-Pelly and Dmitry Orlov also scored for the Capitals, who
were playing in their only game of the week.
Carolina (18-13-8) lost
its second game in a row following a season-high, four-game winning
streak. Victor Rask collected two goals for the Hurricanes, and Elias
Lindholm and Teuvo Teravainen also scored.
The Boston Bruins players celebrate a goal by Danton Heinen (left) in the first period of their NHL game against the New York Islanders at the Barclays Centre. (Getty Images/AFP)