TAMPA, Fla. — Nikita Kucherov scored in the fourth round of the shootout Saturday to lift the Tampa Bay Lightning to a 3-2 victory against the Montreal Canadiens.

Kucherov tied it late in the third period with his 34th goal of the season. Tyler Johnson scored his 20th of the season, and Louis Domingue made 27 saves and stopped three of four shooters in the shootout.

Brayden Point also scored in the shootout for Tampa Bay, his 10th conversion in 15 career shootout attempts.

Artturi Lehkonen and Alex Galchenyuk scored for Montreal. Charles Hudon had two assists, and Antti Niemi finished with 32 saves for the Canadiens.

CAPITALS 2, SHARKS 0: Philipp Grubauer made 24 saves for his fifth career shutout and Nicklas Backstrom scored late in the second period to help Washington salvage the final game of its California swing with a win over San Jose.

Washington’s Alex Ovechkin, two goals short of 600 for his career, was held scoreless for the third straight game. Marc-Edouard Vlasic thwarted one chance for Ovechkin to get goal No. 599 with a strong back check, and goalie Martin Jones robbed Ovechkin on a partial breakaway midway through the third period to keep San Jose’s deficit at 1-0.

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Lars Eller’s empty-net goal sealed the win for the Capitals.

GOLDEN KNIGHTS 2, SABRES 1: Erik Haula scored the decisive shootout goal and Vegas set an NHL record for road victories by an expansion team with a win over Buffalo.

Golden Knights defenseman Deryk Engelland forced overtime by scoring from a bad angle with 4:14 left in regulation. Marc-Andre Fleury got his 399th career victory by stopping 31 shots through overtime.

Justin Bailey scored for Buffalo. Lehner made 31 saves.

The Pacific Division-leading Golden Knights improved their road record to 20-12-3, beating the league record of 19 wins set by Anaheim in 1993-94.

The Golden Knights (44-19-5) have already set NHL expansion-team records for wins, home wins, points and longest winning streak – an 8-0 run from Dec. 14 to Jan. 2.

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FLYERS 2, JETS 1: Claude Giroux and Andrew MacDonald scored in the second period and Philadelphia overcame Patrik Laine’s 40th goal of the season in a victory at home that snapped a five-game losing streak.

Laine moved into a tie with Alex Ovechkin for the most goals in the league when he scored on a one-timer on the power play in the third period.

The 19-year-old Finn has 15 goals and six assists during an 11-game point streak.

BLUES 7, KINGS 2: Struggling St. Louis got goals from seven players and handed host Los Angeles its worst defeat of the season.

Robert Bortuzzo, Colton Parayko, Alex Pietrangelo, Ivan Barbashev, Vladimir Tarasenko, Kyle Brodziak and Jaden Schwartz scored for the Blues, who had lost nine of 10. Jake Allen made 40 saves.

Drew Doughty and Dustin Brown scored for the Kings.

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AVALANCHE 5, COYOTES 2: Blake Comeau and Carl Soderberg each had a goal and an assist in a first-period burst, Jonathan Bernier won his ninth straight home game but left in the third period for an undisclosed reason, and Colorado beat Arizona.

PANTHERS 4, RANGERS 3: Vincent Trocheck scored the deciding goal in the shootout to lift Florida to a victory over New York for its franchise-record eighth straight home win.

Aleksander Barkov also scored in the tiebreaker for the Panthers, who have points in nine straight games. The Panthers are one point behind New Jersey for the final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference, with three games in hand.

NOTES

OLYMPICS: NHL Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly says participation in the 2022 Olympics in China is possible but not essential to the league’s efforts to grow the sport in the world’s largest country.

The NHL was criticized by the International Olympic Committee and fans for not allowing NHL players to compete in the recent Olympics in South Korea.

China could be different, as the NHL eyes a market of 1.4 billion people.


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