Worldwide Sports News

SUNRISE, Fla. (AP) — Florida goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky made 15 saves in the third period and 28 overall as the Panthers defeated the Boston Bruins 2-1 on Thursday night.

The two-time defending Stanley Cup champion Panthers avoided elimination from the playoffs with the win.

Florida got first-period goals from Mackie Samoskevich and Sam Bennett in their second straight win.

Boston, which had won four straight, got a goal from Fraser Minten. Jeremy Swayman made 22 saves in the loss.

The Panthers also used a fast start in a 6-3 win over the Ottawa Senators on Tuesday night, scoring five goals in the opening period.

Samoskevich opened the scoring with his third goal in as many games when he intercepted a pass deep in the offensive zone and sent a wrist shot past Swayman.

Bennett made it 2-0 at 7:39 of the first, scoring from the slot.

Boston pulled to within a goal in the closing minute of the first period.

The Bruins put two shots on Bobrovsky near the front of the net, and the puck squirted out along the goal line right to where Minten was all alone.

Minten had plenty of time to grab the puck, put it on his backhand, and beat a sprawled out Bobrovsky to make it 2-1 with 27 seconds left in the period.

Bobrovsky, who has won five of his past seven starts, had a big challenge in the third, but held strong.

The two-time defending Stanley Cup champion Panthers avoided elimination from the playoffs with Thursday's win.

Up next

Bruins: At Tampa Bay on Saturday.

Panthers: At Pittsburgh on Saturday.

___

AP NHL: https://apnews.com/hub/nhl

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — Logan Stankoven scored two goals in the first nine minutes, and the Carolina Hurricanes clinched a playoff berth for the eighth season in a row by beating the Columbus Blue Jackets 5-1 on Thursday night.

Alexander Nikishin added a first-period short-handed goal and Jordan Martinook and Andrei Svechnikov also scored as the Metropolitan Division-leading Hurricanes were on the way to winning for the third time in their last four games. Taylor Hall and Sebastian Aho each had two assists and Frederik Andersen made nine saves.

For Carolina, the 10 shots allowed matched the fewest shots against in franchise history.

The Hurricanes have qualified for the playoffs in each season under coach Rod Brind’Amour, a former team captain.

Denton Mateychuk scored for the Blue Jackets, who are winless in their last five games (0-4-1). Elvis Merzlikins stopped 16 shots.

In the third meeting between the teams in less than 2½ weeks, Stankoven scored 2:27 into the game on a deflection in front of Merzlikins on Carolina’s first shot of the game. Stankoven's 17th goal of the season – adding to his career-high total – came at 8:52 when he tapped in a loose puck in the crease.

Nikishin became the franchise’s first rookie defenseman to score a short-handed goal.

By the end of the first period, Carolina had more goals (3) than the Blue Jackets had shots (2).

Mateychuk got Columbus on the board with 8:36 left in the second, but 13 seconds later Martinook scored by sending the puck on net from just inside the blue line.

Hurricanes captain Jordan Staal played in his 1,400th career game.

Stankoven had one goal when Carolina won 5-2 on Tuesday night at Columbus.

Up next

Blue Jackets: Home Saturday vs. Winnipeg

Hurricanes: Home Saturday vs. New York Islanders

___

AP NHL: https://apnews.com/hub/nhl

Pregame

The Penguins welcome back Bryan Rust from injury and shake up the lines a little to put Rickard Rakell back at center and put Ben Kindel up with Evgeni Malkin. Stuart Skinner gets a second-straight game in net.

Their hosts are rolling with this lineup.

First period

Tampa starts off the game hot getting seven of the first nine shots, and the first goal. Anthony Cirelli follows up on a rebound to open the scoring.

The Penguins settle down after that and get to their game. Sam Girard steps up in the zone and makes a pass over to Rickard Rakell. Rakell uses his skates to kick the puck up to his stick for a nifty move and finish. 1-1.

Pittsburgh takes their first lead, courtesy of Egor Chinakhov. Chinakhov skates to the outside of the defense then gets a rising backhand shot that goes far-side. 2-1 Pens.

Next up come the first power plays of the night, Connor Clifton is guilty of interference when a Tampa player drives to the net. While on the PK, Erik Karlsson lifts a sky pass for Noel Acciari and a Lightning player has to hold Acciari on his drive to the net.

Shots are 11 a piece, good news for the Penguins to be able to create their looks at the net. They made the most of it and take a one-goal lead into the first break.

Second period

Pittsburgh starts the period on a short carryover power play, but it’s Tampa who scores. An odd bounce handcuffs Karlsson and Rust which Cirelli corals and is off to the races. He dekes and beats Skinner to make it a 2-2 game.

Tampa gains momentum for that and nearly score again if not for Girard pulling a puck away from the crease in a scramble. A bit later Girard stays active by breaking up a Nikita Kucherov pass that might have done damage if it got through.

The Lightning re-gain the lead with 5:52 to play. Tampa’s top line pushes up the ice, Jake Guentzel’s shot goes wide but the puck ramps back into the danger zone where Brayden Point gets it and scores from in close. 3-2 TB.

Tampa gets a goal in the last minute, Yanni Gourde passed from behind the net to Zemgus Girgensons and he was able to work it to the backhand and put in a goal to extend the lead to 4-2.

Tough period for the Pens, giving up goals at the beginning and end of it puts them behind. Shots are 9-8 TB in the second period, but shot attempts in the game are 47-33 TB through 40. They’re playing the type of game they want to play.

Third period

Evgeni Malkin’s temper boils over out of frustration, he gets four minutes worth of penalties after a scrum, taking a Tampa player away for two. The Lightning get their second power play of the night but come no closer to scoring than a post hit by Darren Raddysh.

Letang skates up the ice and gets hooked to draw a power play. It doesn’t go well, the Pens match their number of shots in the first ten minutes of the period (0) on their power play.

Soon after that expires, Connor Dewar is the latest to get rung up on a penalty, though Tampa’s power play is soon negated by a penalty by themselves.

Nikita Kucherov is at the point of the game where he’s trying to create a special highlight; he puts the puck through Girard’s triangle —twice — on a rush but doesn’t score. On his next shift, Kucherov whips a rolling puck on a bit of a no-look all the way from wall that beats Skinner high. 5-2. Yep, that’s a highlight goal from a special player.

Pittsburgh lifts Skinner for an extra skater with over 5 minutes to go. Doesn’t last that long until Cirelli completes his hat trick. 6-2.

The Penguins get a late power play and Chinakhov provides a somewhat meaningless buzzer beater to wrist an absolutely filthy wrister in with 1:5 seconds left. Not that meaningless I guess, being as it’s Chinakhov’s 20th of the season.

Some thoughts

• Chinakhov often, often, often will cut into the middle of the ice on a rush with the puck on his stick (such a play got him crushed with an open ice hit against Calgary early in his Pittsburgh stint). That’s gotta be the book on him, so it was brilliant to go off-script and use his speed to beat Ryan McDonagh towards the outside in the first period. The finish to get enough on a backhander to beat a goalie the caliber of Vasilevskiy speaks for itself, what a talent Chinakhov is.
• Sam Girard looks much more comfortable and confident lately, today was probably his best game yet as a Penguin. He’s starting to use his legs to extend plays and then he’s got the hands to make something happen. Two assists in the first period and a couple of other sequences were very positive to see. His partner Kris Letang also looks like he’s settling into a physical and more careful role, which from an article earlier today has been working lately. It truly helps the team so much seeing that pair gel and continue to stack up quality performances.
• Glad to see Evgeni Malkin apparently shake off blocking a shot to the skate in the first period. With the way Malkin’s second half of the season has been going it’s been one bad break after another, the last thing he needed was taking more damage. Malkin usually has great games against Tampa, this certainly wasn’t one of them.
• Rust came back from injury to play, but he visibly didn’t look that good moving around the ice. He was skating at times in an unnatural and unsteady way, not looking like a fluid NHL skater. Maybe he’s on the upswing from his unspecified lower body injury, didn’t look excessively comfortable out there on this day. After watching Rust for a decade you gain a little bit of knowledge for seeing him out there, something didn’t look quite right.
• The Pens looked good at times early on, though for the most part Tampa played like a stronger team. They’re very persistent when it comes to puck battles and don’t give up much easily without getting on the opponent and competing for every inch. Wouldn’t blame Crosby if he has a nightmare tonight where Gourde is hounding him relentlessly considering that happened all night.
• By the end of the night, maybe the Pens packed it in but they sure didn’t make a push in the third period. That’s unlike them, they usually don’t go away as quietly as they did today. The damage was done with a poor second period and there wasn’t anything in the cards for even the faintest hints of a comeback attempt.
• This always kinda seemed like a house money game for the Penguins after the hugely important wins on Monday and Tuesday. Maybe all that exertion caught up with them, maybe they just caught a very good opponent on one of their better nights. (And, as always, it’s tends to be a bit of both). The good news for Pittsburgh is this won’t hurt them too much thanks to the other scores: Columbus and Philadelphia lost in regulation, even Washington looks like they’re about to fall. This was the ‘game in hand’ over the Islanders, who didn’t play tonight and now have as many GP as the Pens. Playoff positioning didn’t take any hits tonight – and now Pittsburgh gets to play all of their last six games against teams who won’t be going to the playoffs.

Not a banner night for the Pens, they got ahead early but gave up a shorthanded goal that took a lot of wind of their sails and Tampa ended up going right by them. On to the next on Saturday afternoon against Florida.

The Rangers enjoyed a rare stretch filled with rookie debuts, milestones and wins, but reality is one heck of a buzzkill.

Canadiens star Cole Caufield delivered the reality check.

Thursday’s 3-2 loss to the Canadiens at Madison Square Garden snapped the Blueshirts’ three-game winning streak, as Caufield potted goals Nos. 48 and 49 of the season to stifle the home team’s two-goal, third-period comeback.

A notable number of Montreal jerseys were in the MSG stands to see it.

You could hear just how many there were after each Canadiens goal.

And they shot out of their MSG seats as Caufield made a slick move around Vladislav Gavrikov with just over five minutes left in regulation to put Montreal ahead.

J.T. Miller looked caught off guard by linesman Dan Kelly’s puck drop on the faceoff that led to Caufield’s goal. Asked about it after the game, The Rangers captain said he didn’t want to get into it.

“There’s a lot that goes on in the game,” he said. “I have a lot of respect for Dan. I’ve known him a long time. It’s a moment that nobody wanted to have for me and him and sorry, we’ll leave it at that.”

The Rangers fell behind 2-0 in a lopsided second period in which they were outshot 11-5.

They rallied with two goals in just under five minutes in the third.

After Adam Fox put in a loose puck, Will Cuylle ended a 13-game drought dating to March 7 when Jonny Brodzinski’s shot deflected off him and past Montreal goalie Jacob Fowler.

Entering the game, the Rangers had picked up points in nine consecutive games (7-0-2) against the Canadiens, as well as in 14 of their past 17 meetings. (12-3-2) dating to November 2019.

“We talked about it between periods, just getting the next goal,” head coach Mike Sullivan said. “Trying to get it in striking distance. Our effort, I thought, was there all night long. It’s unfortunate the goal that beat us, but seemed like a nothing play. As far as the effort, and how hard our guys competed to get back in the game, I give them a lot of credit.”

Miller is the 2025-26 Rod Gilbert “Mr. Ranger” Award winner.

The annual award, created in the 2021-22 season in honor of the late Rod Gilbert, is given to the Blueshirt who “best honors Rod’s legacy by exemplifying leadership qualities both on and off the ice and making a significant humanitarian contribution to his community.”

• CHECK OUT THE LATEST NHL STANDINGS AND RANGERS STATS

“It’s an honor,” Miller said after the loss. “I feel proud, but feel a lot of pride for that Mr. Gilbert was an unbelievable Ranger and wore the crest as well as anybody. I know what he means to the city and the organization and the Rangers, so to be able to go down there and be a part of that. It meant a lot to my wife, Natalie, and I. This is something we’re just getting started with, and it’s been awesome so far being back being a Ranger. It means the world to me.”

In January, Miller and his wife, Natalie, donated $154,000 to the Garden of Dreams Foundation, marking the largest donation to the nonprofit organization made by a player in MSG sports history.

With this donation, Garden of Dreams purchased 10 suites to invite youth from varying partner organizations, such as NYPD Widows and Children’s Fund, SCAN-Harbor, Ronald McDonald House New York, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, and more, to attend Rangers games and to meet the Millers following the game.

At the beginning of the 2025-26 season, Miller also represented the Rangers at the BGC Charity Day in honor of the lives lost in the September 11 attacks. Miller participated in celebrity guest calls on the trading floor, met fans and helped raise funds for the Garden of Dreams Foundation.

Goalie Jonathan Quick returned from a seven-game absence due to an upper-body injury to serve as backup to Igor Shesterkin on Thursday.

Defenseman Urho Vaakanainen shed his red noncontact jersey during an optional morning skate Thursday but was sidelined for his eighth straight game with an upper-body injury.

NEW YORK (AP) — Cole Caufield scored his 48th and 49th goals of the season, and the Montreal Canadiens won their seventh game in a row to move closer to making the playoffs by defeating the New York Rangers 3-2 on Thursday night.

Caufield’s second was his NHL-best 12th winning goal, putting the Canadiens ahead 47 seconds after Will Cuylle tied it. He moved one back of Colorado’s Nathan MacKinnon for the league lead in goals and in the process extended his career high with 83 points.

This winning streak is the storied organization’s longest in nearly a decade, dating to an eight-game unbeaten run from Oct. 18-Nov. 2, 2016. Montreal has separated itself from the pack in the Eastern Conference and kept pace with Buffalo and Tampa Bay in a hot Atlantic Division race.

Alex Newhook scored the Canadiens’ first goal 4 1/2 minutes into the second period on their 12th shot against Igor Shesterkin, who was the only reason they hadn’t taken a lead earlier.

Jakub Fowler made 21 saves, the biggest on a penalty kill late in the second when he turned aside Alexis Lafrenière at the side of the net. Helped by his teammates controlling the puck for much of the night, the 21-year-old from South Florida improved to 8-5-2 in his first 15 NHL starts since getting called up in December.

Despite 22 saves from Shesterkin and the goals by Cuylle and Adam Fox, New York lost for a 26th time in 38 home games. Captain J.T. Miller was honored with an award named for Hall of Famer Rod Gilbert, who played his entire 18-season professional career with the Rangers.

Up next

Canadiens: Visit the New Jersey Devils on Saturday night to wrap up their five-game trip.

Rangers: Host the in-the-hunt Detroit Red Wings on Saturday.

All year long, the Islanders have been outrunning their defensive analytics, so maybe it is not a shock that in two pivotal games against the Penguins and Sabres, the results started to catch up.

The Islanders were not knocked below the playoff cutline with those two defeats, though they head into Friday’s home match against the Flyers with minimal cushion over the Senators, Red Wings and Philadelphia.

There are six games left in their season, and each of them is of the utmost importance.

So, too, is making life easier for Ilya Sorokin, who is likely to start at least five of the last six, with Saturday’s game in Carolina the only spot in which David Rittich might get a look.

Sorokin’s Vezina Trophy campaign could get over the line if the Islanders make the playoffs, and has been the single biggest reason for the disconnect between his club’s expected and actual goals allowed.

The goaltender cannot do it all by himself, though, and the Islanders can only learn that the hard way so many times.

“We want to do a good job in the inner area,” coach Patrick Roy said. “Meaning that when the puck’s behind the net, make sure we get good body position. Make sure we got good sticks protecting that net front. I think our expected goals against was a little high [against the Sabres] because of those areas.

“When the puck goes to the goal line, they like to take a shot from the blue line, we like to front. But if you front, you need to block the shot. So we need to do a better job and maybe clean up a little bit here and there. You don’t have to do a lot. I’ll give you an example: When we played Pittsburgh, [Sidney] Crosby had two plays behind the next. He came in front, it’s probably .40, .50 [xG]. So you clean up a couple goals like this, makes a big difference at the end of the night.”

Of course, the chances — and Roy pointed out it’s only a few per game — that carry a high expected goals against do so because they are Grade-A looks.

The analytics merely put a number on what everyone can see: Protect the inner slot and the areas below the hashes and the Islanders will cut out the opposing team’s best chances.

“I think we can protect the middle a little bit better,” Brayden Schenn said. “Shifts are gonna happen where you get caught in your own end. You have to force plays, keep it to the outside. I think all in all, we need to be a little better defensively, which ultimately leads to more offensively.”

Granted, that’s easier said than done, and won’t ever be perfect. But there’s a lot of ground to cover between perfect and the last couple of games. For example, the Sabres’ third goal Tuesday night, when no one picked up Peyton Krebs in transition, allowing him to streak in and get on the end of Alex Tuch’s pass, is the sort of thing that shouldn’t happen.

“A little bit of over-back-checking,” Scott Mayfield told The Post. “We’re trying to collapse the house and there’s a guy behind. But there’s kind of been different things that have been happening. I think in the end, we all know the way we need to play.”

That would be aggressively, getting the puck in the offensive zone and forechecking it to keep it there. It’s easiest to defend by playing offense, after all.

As for when that’s not working?

“In the D-zone, it’s all about closing quick,” Mayfield said. “I think when we let them get time and space, we kinda get a little mixed up on whose guy is who, it gets tough. When we’re getting in there, closing: hit, pin, find a puck — I think that’s when we’re at our best.”