NHLbest Leafs top lastplace Senators
Alexander Kerfoot broke a tie with 9:14 left, Frederik Andersen made 27 saves and the NHLleading Maple Leafs beat the lastplace Senators 21 on Wednesday night.
Auston Matthews added his NHLleading 14th goal for leagueleading Toronto in the second game of threegame series in Toronto. Jake Muzzin had two assists.
“This was a huge win for us bouncing back from a tough loss,” Kerfoot said. “It’s really big in a shortened season like this to stop that negative momentum.”
Brady Tkachuk scored for Ottawa, and Matt Murray made 26 stops.
In the opener Monday, Ottawa overcame a 51 deficit in a 65 overtime victory. The series wraps up Thursday night.
Not long after a Toronto power play ended, Kerfoot fished a puck out of a scramble in front of Murray following Muzzin’s initial shot for his third goal of the season.
Toronto opened the scoring at 4:32 of the second on Matthews’ 13th goal in his past 12 games. Moments after Joe Thornton had one of his own waved off for the second time in the game — a high stick on this occasion — Matthews took a pass from Justin Holl and rifled a onetimer past Murray.
“There’s nothing you can really do” about disallowed goals, Matthews said. “Once we scored there right after the high stick, the boys were saying, ‘The puck don’t lie.’ ”
Tkachuk tied it with 1:22 left in the second for his 100th NHL point.
Canucks 5, Flames 1: Goalie Braden Holtby turned away 35 of 36 shots as visiting Vancouver completed a split of a four-game series. Holtby also stopped a personal three-game losing streak. Brock Boeser had a goal and two assists for Vancouver.
Panthers 4, Hurricanes 3: Jonathan Huberdeau scored his second goal of the game midway through overtime to lift Florida past Carolina. Huberdeau also had an assist to help the Panthers improve their franchisebest road start to 5-0-1. Alex Wenneberg and Juho Lammikko — with his first in the NHL — added goals, and Chris Driedger made 32 saves. Jordan Staal, Sebastian Aho and Vincent Trocheck scored for Carolina.
Oilers 3, Jets 2: Leon Draisaitl scored twice and Connor McDavid and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins each had two assists as host Edmonton won for the seventh time in nine games. Mark Scheifele and Neal Pionk had Winnipeg’s goals.
Blackhawks 2, Red Wings 0: Kevin Lankinen made 29 saves for his first career shutout and fellow rookie Philipp Kurashev scored a pretty goal as Chicago won in Detroit. The Blackhawks are 4-0 against the Red Wings this season. Alex DeBrincat added an empty-net goal with 58 seconds left.