Jason Zucker broke a tie in the second period and added an assist as the host Buffalo Sabres defeated the Tampa Bay Lightning 4-2 on Monday night.
Alex Tuch, Josh Norris and Jack Quinn also scored for the Sabres (47-23-8, 102 points), who snapped a two-game losing streak and moved into a tie with the Lightning atop the Atlantic Division. Defenseman Bowen Byram had two assists and Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen made 23 saves.
Jake Guentzel had a goal and an assist, and Nikita Kucherov got the other goal for Tampa Bay (48-23-6, 102 points), which had won four of its previous five. Defenseman Darren Raddysh had two assists, and Andrei Vasilevskiy stopped 25 shots.
Zucker gave Buffalo a 3-2 lead 7:38 into the second period when he tipped Byram’s shot from the right point at about waist level. Quinn added an empty-net goal with 1:54 left for Buffalo, which has four games remaining while Tampa Bay has five.
Kings 3, Predators 2 (SO)
Joel Armia and Scott Laughton scored in regulation and Adrian Kempe had the lone goal in the shootout to lift host Los Angeles past Nashville.
Anton Forsberg made 29 saves and did not surrender a goal in the shootout for the Kings (32-26-19, 83 points), who stretched their point streak to four games (3-0-1) and moved a point ahead of the Predators for the second Western Conference wild-card spot.
Roman Josi had a goal and an assist, Steven Stamkos also scored and Juuse Saros made 26 saves for the Predators (36-31-10, 82 points). Nashville had moved into the second wild-card spot with a 5-4 shootout victory in Los Angeles on Thursday and remained there following a 6-3 win at San Jose on Saturday.
Sharks 3, Blackhawks 2
William Eklund scored once and added an assist to pace host San Jose to a comeback victory over Chicago.
Kiefer Sherwood and Will Smith also scored for the Sharks, who have won five of six games and remain two points out of a playoff spot. Alex Nedeljkovic made 27 saves.
Frank Nazar collected one goal and one assist while Ryan Donato tallied for the Blackhawks, who have one win in seven games (1-5-1). Spencer Knight stopped 20 shots.
Jets 6, Kraken 2
Kyle Connor scored two goals and Mark Scheifele had three assists in Winnipeg’s win over visiting Seattle as the Jets try to remain within range of a playoff spot.
The Jets improved to 6-2-0 in their past eight games. This hot streak has put Winnipeg (34-31-12, 80 points) three points back of the final Western Conference wild-card berth. Gabriel Vilardi and Jonathan Toews each had a goal and an assist for Winnipeg while Connor Hellebuyck stopped 22 of 24 shots.
The Jets went 3-for-3 on the power play, winning the battle of struggling special-teams units. Winnipeg entered Monday with the fifth-worst power-play percentage (17.22%) in the NHL, while Seattle’s 72.77% penalty-kill percentage ranked second worst in the league. At 32-33-11 (75 points), the Kraken are eight points back of the final West wild-card spot.
