By Canadian Press

NHL roundup: Panthers record sixth straight win by beating Sabres 4-0

Mar 8, 2025 | 11:56 PM

SUNRISE, Fla. (AP) — Vitek Vanecek stopped all 21 shots he faced in his Florida debut, and the Panthers beat the Buffalo Sabres 4-0 on Saturday night.

A.J. Greer, Carter Verhaeghe, Anton Lundell and Sam Bennett all scored as the Panthers won their sixth-straight game. Vanecek, acquired from San Jose on Wednesday, got his first shutout of the National Hockey League season and 10th of his career.

Captain Aleksander Barkov had an assist, giving him six points in his past two games. Nate Schmidt added two assists.

Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen, made 32 saves for the Sabres, who lost their sixth straight game.

Elsewhere in the NHL on Saturday:

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KRAKEN 4 FLYERS 1

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Matty Beniers, Chandler Stephenson and Tye Kartye scored in the second period, helping Seattle beat Philadelphia 4-1.

Brandon Montour also scored for the Kraken, who had lost four of five. Philipp Grubauer made 23 saves.

Beniers’ 15th goal gave Seattle a 2-1 lead with 1:03 left in the second. Stephenson added a short-handed goal with 22 seconds remaining in the period.

Owen Tippett scored his 19th goal for Philadelphia in the first period. Samuel Ersson had 28 saves.

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SENATORS 4 RANGERS 3 (OT)

OTTAWA, Ont. (AP) — Brady Tkachuk capped a two-goal effort with the game-winning marker 33 seconds into overtime as Ottawa beat New York 4-3.

With the win, the Senators (32-25-5) took over the first wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference. Meanwhile, the Rangers (31-26-6) remain just outside with Columbus holding the second spot.

Trailing 3-1 early in the third period, the Senators rallied back to force the extra period.

Ridly Greig got Ottawa within one, burying a Dylan Cozens rebound at 10:16. With 2:52 remaining in regulation, Michael Amadio tied the game 3-3 jumping on a loose puck.

Artemi Panarin gave the Rangers a 3-1 lead at 7:08 of the third when he was able to get behind Ottawa’s defence and beat Linus Ullmark’s high glove to extend his goal streak to four games. Ullmark made 20 saves.

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AVALANCHE 7 LEAFS 4

DENVER (AP) — Valeri Nichushkin completed a hat trick with an empty-net goal after Nathan MacKinnon knocked in the go-ahead goal with 4:15 remaining and Colorado rallied from two goals down to beat Toronto 7-4.

It was Nichushkin’s first three-goal game in the regular season. He also had a hat trick in Game 4 of a first-round playoff series in 2024. Nichushkin tied his career-high with four points.

With Colorado on the power play, MacKinnon sent a wrist shot over the glove of Anthony Stolarz to give Colorado the lead. The Avalanche tied the game on Jonathan Drouin’s goal with 8:05 left. It was part of five consecutive goals for Colorado after trailing 4-2 in the second period.

Joel Kiviranta also scored and MacKinnon closed it out with an empty-netter for the Avalanche, who improved to 5-0 on their six-game homestand.

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BRUINS 4 LIGHTNING 0

TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — Jeremy Swayman stopped all 26 shots he faced to lead Boston to a 4-0 victory against Tampa Bay.

Cole Koepke scored twice against his former team. Mark Kastelic and Nikita Zadorov also scored for Boston, which won for just the second time in 10 games.

Swayman recorded his fourth shutout of the season and 16th of his career.

Andrei Vasilevskiy finished with 21 saves for Tampa Bay.

Boston took the lead after Casey Mittelstadt intercepted a Nick Perbix pass in the neutral zone and found Koepke. As Koepke cut to the net and tried to slip a puck through the pads that Vasilevskiy stopped, Oliver Bjorkstrand tried to clear the puck out of the paint but hit Vasilevskiy’s pad and the puck rebounded into the net at 10:32 of the second period.

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FLAMES 1 CANADIENS 0

CALGARY, Alta. (AP) — Joel Farabee scored the only goal and Dustin Wolf made 26 saves as Calgary moved back into a playoff spot with a 1-0 victory over Montreal.

The win moves the Flames into the second wild-card spot in the Western Conference, one point up on the idle Vancouver Canucks.

Montreal, which entered the game with points in six straight (5-0-1) games, was shut out for the fourth time this season.

Wolf, who collected his third shutout, improves to 22-12-4. He also moves to 3-0-0 in his career against the Canadiens.

Jakub Dobes made 23 stops for the Canadiens.

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KINGS 2 BLUES 1 (OT)

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Quinton Byfield scored on a wrist shot 27 seconds into overtime to give Los Angeles a 2-1 win over St. Louis.

Byfield got his 13th goal of the season, capitalizing on a turnover forced by Adrian Kempe before scoring from the left circle to end the Kings’ five-game skid.

Anze Kopitar had a goal, Darcy Kuemper made 19 saves, and Los Angeles picked up a win in three games against St. Louis in the past eight days.

Nick Leddy scored and Joel Hofer made 22 saves, helping the Blues pick up a point for the 11th time in 13 games to surge back into wild-card contention.

Leddy’s first goal of the season came early in the third period on a slap shot through traffic, cancelling out Kopitar’s tip of a shot from Drew Doughty late in the first.

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PREDATORS 3 BLACKHAWKS 2 (OT)

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Steven Stamkos scored at 2:39 of overtime to complete his 14th career hat trick and Nashville beat Chicago 3-2.

Justus Annunen finished with 17 saves as the Predators got their third straight win.

Ilya Mikheyev and Alex Vlasic scored for the Blackhawks, who were 3-0-1 in their last four games. Arvid Soderblom had 38 saves.

Vlasic gave the Blackhawks a 1-0 lead 1:56 into the second period.

Chicago’s Alec Martinez was sent off for high-sticking 25 seconds later, and Stamkos tied the score just 15 seconds into the power play.

Stamkos put the Predators ahead nearly 10 minutes later.

Mikheyev tied it with 7:38 left in regulation.

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OILERS 5 STARS 4

EDMONTON, Alta. (AP) — Zach Hyman had two goals and an assist and Edmonton hung on to beat Dallas 5-4.

Connor McDavid had a goal and an assist and Viktor Arvidsson and Connor Brown also scored for the Oilers, who have won back-to-back games and three of their last four. Stuart Skinner made 22 saves, but Edmonton nearly blew a 5-1 lead after two periods.

Trade deadline acquisition Mikko Rantanen had a goal and an assist in his debut for Dallas, which had its four-game winning streak stopped. Wyatt Johnston, Jamie Benn and Matt Dumba also scored for the Stars. Jake Oettinger stopped 22 shots.

Stars forward Roope Hintz took a puck to the face in the second period and didn’t return.

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ISLANDERS 4 SHARKS 2

SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) — Jean-Gabriel Pageau had a goal and two assists, Ilya Sorokin stopped 38 shots and New York beat San Jose.

Anders Lee, Anthony Duclair and Adam Boqvist also scored for the Islanders, who have won four of their last five games. Noah Dobson and Simon Holmstrom each had two assists.

Nikolai Kovalenko and Will Smith scored for the Sharks, who have lost 10 of their last 12 (2-7-3). Macklin Celebrini had two assists and Alexandar Georgiev finished with 24 saves.

Duclari scored on a power play midway through the opening period and Pageau made it 2-0 with 39 seconds left in the first.

Kovalenko’s power-play goal got the Sharks on the scoreboard at 6:27 of the second.

Lee and Boqvist scored about 2 1/2 minutes apart early in the third, before Smith pulled the Sharks within two with 1:27 remaining.

The Associated Press