Category: Sports News

TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — Andrei Vasilevskiy made 28 saves for his second shutout of the season and 42nd of his career, Darren Raddysh scored on a power play late in the second period, and the Tampa Bay Lightning beat the Utah Mammoth 2-0 on Monday night.

Brandon Hagel added a power-play goal in the final minute for the Lightning, who have won 15 of 17 and swept the season series against Utah. Tampa Bay moved atop the Eastern Conference standings with 70 points, one ahead of Carolina and Detroit.

Vasilevskiy, who leads the league in goals-against average, improved to 2-0-0 against the Mammoth, both shutouts. He blanked them last season, the inaugural campaign for the Utah franchise.

Raddysh took a feed from Nikita Kucherov and one-timed it above the shoulder of Karel Vejmelka for a 1-0 lead with 2:22 left in the second.

Vejmelka made 25 saves for Utah, which lost in regulation for only the second time in its past 12 games.

RANGERS 4, BRUINS 3, OT

NEW YORK (AP) — Matthew Robertson scored at 3:53 of overtime as New York beat Boston to snap a three-game losing streak.

Will Cuylle, J.T. Miller and Will Borgen also scored for the Rangers, and Jonathan Quick got his 408th career win — passing Hall of Fame goalie Glenn Hall for 12th place on the NHL list. Quick made 21 saves and assisted on the overtime winner.

The Rangers, last in the Eastern Conference, took two of three against Boston this season. They improved to 6-13-4 at home and won for only the third time in 14 games overall.

Elias Lindholm had two goals and Morgan Geekie also scored for the Bruins. David Pastrnak added three assists to reach 900 career points. He has nine assists in his last five games. Joonas Korpisalo stopped 24 shots.

ISLANDERS 4, FLYERS 0

NEW YORK (AP) — Ilya Sorokin stopped 21 shots for his NHL-best sixth shutout of the season and Jean-Gabriel Pageau scored two goals to lead New York to a win over Philadelphia.

Mathew Barzal and Tony DeAngelo also scored for the Islanders. The Islanders scored power-play, short-handed and even-strength goals.

A game after they were shut out for the first time this season, Pageau snapped the scoreless streak with his ninth goal of the season on a short-handed shot past Samuel Ersson.

The Flyers allowed their fifth short-handed goal of the season.

OILERS 7, DUCKS 4

EDMONTON, Alberta (AP) — Mattias Ekholm scored a hat trick and Edmonton rode a dominant second period to a victory over Anaheim.

Zach Hyman and Connor McDavid each added a goal and an assist for the Oilers, Spencer Stastney scored his first in an Edmonton jersey and Darnell Nurse also scored.

Leon Draisaitl contributed four assists and Tristan Jarry stopped 36 of the 40 shots he faced.

Three of Anaheim’s four goals came from Mikael Granlund on the power play, starting with his 10th tally of the season 3:24 into the game.

EDMONTON, Alberta (AP) — Mattias Ekholm scored a hat trick and the Edmonton Oilers rode a dominant second period to a 7-4 victory over the Anaheim Ducks on Monday.

Zach Hyman and Connor McDavid each added a goal and an assist for the Oilers, Spencer Stastney scored his first in an Edmonton jersey and Darnell Nurse also scored.

Leon Draisaitl contributed four assists and Tristan Jarry stopped 36 of the 40 shots he faced.

Three of Anaheim’s four goals came from Mikael Granlund on the power play, starting with his 10th tally of the season 3:24 into the game.

His linemate Alex Killorn added an even-strength tally 55 seconds into the middle frame, Beckett Sennecke notched two assists, and Ville Husso made 25 saves in the loss.

The result snapped a seven-game win streak for the Ducks, who downed the Calgary Flames 4-3 in overtime on Sunday.

The Oilers got some fresh faces into the lineup with winger Kasperi Kapanen returning after missing three games with an injury and center Josh Samanski made his NHL debut.

Cutter Gauthier helped out on Granlund’s first goal of the night and extended his point streak to five games with three goals and four assists across the stretch.

Up next

Ducks: Visit the Vancouver Canucks on Thursday.

Oilers: Host the San Jose Sharks on Thursday.

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The Chicago Blackhawks are showing clear signs of improvement this season. The Blackhawks currently have a 21-23-8 record and are sixth in the Central Division standings. This is after they finished the 2024-25 season with a 25-46-11 record. 

While the Blackhawks still have more work to become a playoff team again, they are heading in the right direction. One reason why the Blackhawks have improved this season is that multiple of their youngsters are making a big impact. Louis Crevier is one of them, as he has been enjoying a nice breakout year for the Original Six club. 

Crevier has not only cemented himself a spot on the Blackhawks' NHL roster this season but has also played on Chicago's top pairing with Alex Vlasic. When noting that Crevier has shown that he can be a very solid shutdown defenseman, he has certainly earned this opportunity with Chicago. 

In 49 games so far this season with the Blackhawks, Crevier has recorded new career highs with four goals, 10 assists, 14 points, and 79 hits. Overall, he has been a nice part of the Blackhawks' roster and is undoubtedly creating more excitement from fans about his future with the team because of it. 

It will now be interesting to see how Crevier builds on his breakout season with the Blackhawks, but the 6-foot-8 defenseman has been quite a nice story so far. 

NEW YORK (AP) — Matthew Robertson scored at 3:53 of overtime as the New York Rangers beat the Boston Bruins 4-3 on Monday night to snap a three-game losing streak.

Will Cuylle, J.T. Miller and Will Borgen also scored for the Rangers, and Jonathan Quick got his 408th career win — passing Hall of Fame goalie Glenn Hall for 12th place on the NHL list. Quick made 21 saves and assisted on the overtime winner.

The Rangers, last in the Eastern Conference, took two of three against Boston this season. They improved to 6-13-4 at home and won for only the third time in 14 games overall.

Elias Lindholm had two goals and Morgan Geekie also scored for the Bruins. David Pastrnak added three assists to reach 900 career points. He has nine assists in his last five games. Joonas Korpisalo stopped 24 shots.

Cuylle opened the scoring midway through the first period with his 12th of the season. Borgen’s wrist shot tied the game at 3 with 6:17 remaining in the third.

The Rangers celebrated their 1994 championship team before the game as part of the franchise’s centennial celebration.

Up next

Bruins: Host the Nashville Predators on Tuesday.

Rangers: Visit the New York Islanders on Wednesday.

The Buffalo Sabres have been one of the NHL's biggest surprises this season. After having a cold start to the campaign, the Sabres now have a 29-17-5 record and are third in the Atlantic Division standings.

There are many reasons for the Sabres being in this good of a position right now, and goaltender Alex Lyon is undoubtedly one of them. The 33-year-old goaltender has been fantastic for the Sabres this season and is only getting better as the campaign rolls on. 

In 23 games on the season so far with the Sabres, Lyon has recorded a 12-6-3 record, a 2.70 goals-against average, a .911 save percentage, and has tied his career-high in shutouts with two. With this, he has certainly been making a big impact for the Sabres this campaign. 

Lyon has also won each of his last nine appearances for the Sabres, which has tied him for the longest winning streak in franchise history with Gerry Desjardins. That is incredibly impressive stuff. 

When noting that Lyon has a bargain $1.5 million cap hit until the end of the 2026-27 season, it is absolutely clear that he has been a complete steal for the Sabres. 

The Montreal Canadiens have one of the most exciting prospect pools in the NHL. Among their notable promising youngsters is defenseman Adam Engstrom, as the 2022 third-round pick has the potential to emerge as a solid NHL defenseman. 

Engstrom played his first American Hockey League (AHL) season with the Laval Rocket during this past campaign. In 66 games with the AHL club, he posted five goals, 22 assists, 27 points, and a plus-14 rating. Overall, the left-shot defenseman demonstrated plenty of promise with Laval this past season but has been taking another step forward with his play so far in 2025-26.

In 28 games so far this season with Laval, Engstrom already has seven goals, 15 assists, and 22 points. With numbers like these, there is no question that the young defenseman has provided Laval with some solid offense from the point this campaign.

Engstrom is continuing to make an impact with Laval as the season rolls on, too. Over his last nine games with Laval, he has two goals and six points. This included him recording a goal and an assist in Laval's Jan. 24 contest against the Calgary Wranglers on Jan. 24. 

The Canadiens will be hoping that Engstrom can continue to impress as the season rolls on. If he does, he certainly has a chance of getting another look on the NHL roster soon. 

There were some lineup swaps tonight with Cal Ritchie (lower body injury) and Simon Holmstrom (illness) out. Max Tsyplakov and Marc Gatcomb drew into the lineup, giving both of them an opportunity to make an impression after a tough game for the Islanders against Buffalo.

The Islanders bounced back tonight in Philadelphia, with JG Pageau scoring twice, including one shorthanded goal, Mat Barzal responding well to his third-period benching with a goal and an assist, and Ilya Sorokin recording his league-leading sixth shutout this season.

[NHL Gamecenter | Game Summary | Event Summary | Natural Stat Trick]

Early on in the first, though, Tsyplakov’s impact was just a hooking penalty, which the Islanders killed.

Noah Cates went to the box for holding, and we were treated to two very bad mixed up power play units, which bumped Barzal to the second unit, separated from Bo Horvat and Matthew Schaefer. That power play went poorly, and the Flyers killed it.

Then, the other swap in the lineup, Gatcomb, went to the box as well, but JG Pageau scored short handed, assisted by Casey Cizikas.

In the second period, the Flyers got an early power play after Adam Boqvist was called for high sticking. Before that started, Ilya Sorokin was down in the crease, but seemed to shake it off, after a Matvei Michkov shot hit him in the back of the leg and went in after the whistle blew.

With 30 seconds left on that power play, Scott Mayfield and Owen Tippett were both sent to the box for slashing and crosschecking respectively. The Islanders killed all of that, despite being down two defensemen.

Later, Barzal got a tip on an Isaiah George shot, putting it past Samuel Ersson after some cycling in the Flyers zone.

Cam York was called for tripping, and the Islanders took advantage of a shorthanded turnover at the blue line and Anthony Duclair passed the puck to Barzal who set up Tony DeAngelo to make it 3-0.

At the end of the second, Jonathan Drouin took a puck to the face and went right down the tunnel. Drouin came back for the third with some stitches, but otherwise was fine.

Emil Heineman collided with a ref behind the play and labored to the bench, but it wasn’t anything more serious as he played his normal shifts the rest of the game.

Schaefer drew a high sticking penalty, sending Tippett to the box, but the Isles couldn’t convert on the man advantage.

Tsyplakov then set up Pageau for his second of the night (and Tsyplakov’s first assist of the season!) to make it 4-0 and entirely bury any chance of a comeback from the Flyers.

The Islanders closed out the game and Ilya Sorokin picked up his sixth shutout of the season and extended his franchise record total, while Barzal, Duclair, and Pageau each scored two points (1G/1A, 2A, 2G respectively) and Isaiah George got his first assist of the season in just his second game back up in the NHL.

Up Next

Next, the Islanders have a home-and-home back-to-back with the New York Rangers starting Wednesday at UBS Arena. There’s been a rare trade between these two teams (not yet officially-official at time of posting, but Carson Soucy to the Islanders for a 2026 3rd round pick) so Soucy will likely debut against his old team and become the stable bottom pair defenseman this team has been missing almost all season.

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Ilya Sorokin stopped 21 shots for his NHL-best sixth shutout of the season and Jean-Gabriel Pageau scored two goals to lead the New York Islanders to a 4-0 win over the Philadelphia Flyers on Monday night.

Mathew Barzal and Tony DeAngelo also scored for the Islanders. The Islanders scored power-play, short-handed and even-strength goals.

A game after they were shut out for the first time this season, Pageau snapped the scoreless streak with his ninth goal of the season on a short-handed shot past Samuel Ersson.

The Flyers allowed their fifth short-handed goal of the season.

Pageau smashed home his second goal late in the third to finish off a listless Flyers team.

Barzal tipped-in Isaiah George’s shot for his 12th of the season at 5:41 into the second and DeAngelo — a former Flyer — added a power-play goal later in the period to help send the Islanders to their first win over the Flyers in three games this season.

The Flyers’ surprising season that had them in a playoff spot just three weeks ago took a detour with a six-game losing streak. The Flyers rebounded to win two of three on the road — including a 7-3 stunner at Colorado, who boast the best record in the NHL — but failed to carry that momentum with them home.

The Flyers never made Sorokin work with tough shots on goal and were just flat in front of a sparse crowd largely affected by a massive winter storm.

The few Flyers fans that stayed until the end chanted “at least get one!”

No luck. Sorokin earned his third shutout this month and second in four starts.

The Islanders snapped a two-game losing streak and kept third place in the Metropolitan Division.

Up next

Islanders host the Rangers on Wednesday, and the two teams play the next night at Madison Square Garden.

Flyers play Wednesday at Columbus.