Cam Atkinson scored twice and the Columbus Blue Jackets stretched their winning streak to 15 games by stopping Minnesota’s 12-game run with a 4-2 victory over the Wild on Saturday night.
Never in NHL history had two teams taken winning streaks that long into a game, and Sergei Bobrovsky and the Blue Jackets made sure their party would stretch into the new year. Bobrovsky made 29 saves, yielding two or fewer goals for the 10th time during the run, and defensemen Jack Johnson and Seth Jones each had goals assisted by Brandon Saad in a frenetic second period sparked by consecutive fights.
Jason Zucker reignited the arena with his breakaway flip past Bobrovsky just 24 seconds into the third period for the Wild after he raced past Jones, but that was as close as they came. Devan Dubnyk stopped 21 shots, surrendering four goals for the second straight game after allowing three or fewer in his first 27 turns.
Mikael Granlund had the first goal for the Wild, who also had a franchise record-tying eight-game home winning streak end.
CAPITALS 6, DEVILS 2
NEWARK, N. J. (AP) — T. J. Oshie and Alex Ovechkin scored 33 seconds apart in the second period to power Washington to a victory and a split of a home-and-home series with New Jersey.
The Devils stunned the Capitals with a 2-1 shootout victory on Thursday in Washington.
This one was all Capitals, with six different players all hitting the net. Brett Connolly, Jay Beagle, Justin Williams and Marcus Johansson also scored as Washington snapped a two-game losing streak.
Backup goalie Philipp Grubauer made 21 saves, improving his record to 6-1-1. Grubauer saw action for the first time in six games as Braden Holtby rested.
Kyle Palmieri and Beau Bennett scored for the Devils, who have only two wins in their last 12 games (2-9-1). Keith Kinkaid stopped 20 and New Jersey wasted nine power plays.
PENGUINS 4, CANADIENS 3, OT
PITTSBURGH (AP) — Evgeni Malkin scored a power-play goal 1:54 into overtime and the Pittsburgh Penguins rallied to beat the Montreal Canadiens 4-3 on Saturday night for their fourth straight victory.
Montreal was whistled for too many men on the ice 1:10 into OT, and then Malkin scored his 16th of the season. Conor Sheary tied it with 55 seconds left in the third period by scoring his ninth goal of the season.
Patric Hornqvist and Phil Kessel also scored for the Penguins, who won for the fifth time in six games. Pittsburgh won 12 of 15 games in December, finishing with 12 wins in a calendar month for the fourth time in team history and the second under coach Mike Sullivan.
Alexander Radulov, Paul Byron and Brian Flynn scored for the Canadiens, who have one win in their last five games. Montreal, on a season-high seven-game road trip, has seven wins in 17 road games this season.
Carey Price made 37 saves for Montreal.
ISLANDERS 6, JETS 2
WINNIPEG, Manitoba (AP) — John Tavares and Ryan Strome each had a goal and an assist to help New York beat Winnipeg.
Nikolay Kulemin, Shane Prince, Anders Lee and Andrew Ladd also scored, Josh Bailey and Brock Nelson each had two assists, and Thomas Greiss made 32 saves. The Islanders have won four of their last five to get to.500 at 15-15-6.
Shawn Matthias scored a short-handed goal and Nikolaj Ehlers had a power-play tally for Winnipeg.
Connor Hellebuyck allowed four goals on 15 shots and was replaced by Michael Hutchinson with 5:47 left in the second period. Hutchinson made seven stops in relief.
LIGHTNING 3, HURRICANES 1
TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — Brian Boyle and Jonathan Drouin scored first-period power-play goals, Andrei Vasilevskiy made 26 saves and Tampa Bay beat Carolina.
Alex Killorn also scored for the Lightning, and Nikita Kucherov and Victor Hedman had two assists each.
Carolina got a goal from Sebastian Aho, and Cam Ward stopped 22 shots. The Hurricanes beat Chicago 3-2 on Friday night to extend their home point streak to 11 games (10-0-1). Carolina is 3-7-2 on the road over the same stretch.
BRUINS 3, SABRES 1
BOSTON (AP) — Patrice Bergeron and Tim Schaller scored second-period goals to help Boston beat Buffalo and complete a sweep of home-and-home games.
The victory also gave Boston a sweep of its four-game season series against the Sabres.
Frank Vatrano scored the other goal for Boston, which had lost five of its previous nine games but improved to 12-1-2 in the last 15 meetings against the Sabres. Tuukka Rask stopped 26 shots.
Former Boston University star and Hobey Baker winner Jack Eichel scored for Buffalo. Robin Lehner made 25 saves.
