The Carolina Hurricanes, led by Dmitry Orlov’s four-point night, scored four third-period goals en route to routing the Ottawa Senators 7-2 on Sunday.
Both teams were playing the second half of back-to-back games, but the Hurricanes (42-20-6) fared much better late in the game.
Evgeny Kuznetsov, Seth Jarvis, Jalen Chatfield, Jake Guentzel and Brendan Lemieux also scored for Carolina. Sebastian Aho chipped in with three assists. Frederik Anderson made 31 saves.
Thomas Chabot and Tim Stützle responded for the Senators (28-34-4), who saw their three-game win streak halted. Anton Forsberg stopped 30 shots.
Some poor defensive coverage by the Senators allowed Chatfield to walk in and wrist a shot past Forsberg to make it 4-2 early in the third. Just over three minutes later the Hurricanes controlled the play as if they were on the power play and it ended with Orlov firing a puck from just inside the blue line.
Carolina put the game out of reach when Guentzel beat Artem Zub and scored his first with the Hurricanes, since being acquired by Pittsburgh. Lemieux later tipped a Brent Burns shot for his third of the season.
Carolina took a 2-1 lead early in the second with a power-play goal by Kuznetsov. Ottawa tied the game at 4:51 with an impressive effort by Stützle who threaded a shot through traffic for his 17th of the season. The Hurricanes regained the lead when Aho made a cross-ice pass to Jarvis who snapped it past a sprawling Forsberg with 22 seconds left in the period.
Brendan Lemieux made a great pass to send Orlov in all alone and he made no mistake beating Forsberg glove side to open the scoring at 7:19. Chabot, making his return after missing the past five games, scored from the bottom of the faceoff circle at 13:52 to tie the game.
Carolina’s Teuvo Teravainen missed his second straight game with an upper-body injury. He’s expected to return some time this week.
The Senators next play on Tuesday in Boston against the Bruins.
Hurricanes 5, Maple Leafs 4 (SO)
Jake Guentzel scored in the shootout and Carolina rallied from two goals down late to beat Toronto on Saturday night. Sebastian Aho had two goals and an assist, Jordan Martinook and Seth Jarvis also scored, and Guentzel and Brent Burns each had two assists for Carolina. Pyotr Kochetkov stopped 36 shots. Burns skated in his 1,400th regular season game, becoming the 42nd player in NHL history to reach the milestone. John Tavares had a goal and an assist, and William Nylander, Nick Robertson and David Kampf also scored for Toronto. Morgan Rielly had two assists and Ilya Samsonov made 36 saves.
“We got good efforts,” said Leafs head coach Sheldon Keefe, who was without injured forwards Mitch Marner and Calle Jarnkrok. “The results sucks, but I thought we stood in there.”
Toronto was without forwards Mitch Marner (high ankle sprain) and Calle Jarnkrok (hand injury). Marner missed a third straight game, but has resumed skating. Jarnkrok got hurt in Thursday’s 6-2 victory in Philadelphia and is considered week-to-week. Toronto’s next game is in Philadelphia on Tuesday night to open a two-game trip.
Capitals 2, Canucks 1
VANCOUVER – Alex Ovechkin scored his 841st career goal and Washington beat Vancouver. Tom Wilson also scored as the Capitals pulled into a tie with the New York Islanders, one point behind Detroit for the second wild-card berth in the Eastern Conference. Charlie Lindgren finished with 21 saves. Ovechkin pulled 53 goals behind Wayne Gretzky for first place on the NHL’s career scoring list. Brock Boeser scored for the Canucks. After a slow start to the campaign, Ovechkin has 11 goals in his last 20 games.
“The guy’s amazing,” Canucks coach Rick Tocchet said. “Even at this age, he finds somehow to contribute. I’ve seen that guy score a lot of goals live.” The Canucks fought to get back in the game in the third period, outshooting the Capitals 11-4. Washington’s T.J. Oshie played his 1,000th regular-season NHL game. The milestone was announced over the loud speaker during the game’s first TV timeout, drawing loud cheers from the crowd as Oshie waved from the bench. The 37-year-old, picked 24th overall by St. Louis in the 2005 draft, has 301 goals and 388 assists across his career.
Avalanche 3, Oilers 2 (OT)
EDMONTON – Artturi Lehkonen scored with one second remaining in overtime and Colorado battled their way to their sixth straight win, beating the Edmonton Oilers. Nathan MacKinnon sent the puck across to a hard-charging Lehkonen, who scored his 12th of the season. With the assist, MacKinnon extended his points streak to 15 games. Sean Walker had both goals in regulation for the Avalanche and Alexandar Georgiev made 32 saves. Warren Foegele and Sam Carrick scored for the Oilers, who had won two in a row. Connor McDavid was held without a point, ending his home points scoring streak at 26 games. Stuart Skinner stopped 40 shots.
Flames 5, Canadiens 2
CALGARY – Mikael Backlund had two goals and an assist, and Calgary beat Montreal in the first game since coach Martin St. Louis took an indefinite leave because of family reasons. Nazem Kadri had a goal and an assist, helping Calgary to its second straight victory. Martin Pospisil and Daniil Miromanov also scored. The Flames remained in distant playoff contention with 15 games remaining in their regular season.