PITTSBURGH — Patric Hornqvist picked up his 20th goal of the season, Matt Murray finished with 38 saves and the Pittsburgh Penguins sped past the slumping Columbus Blue Jackets 4-1 on Tuesday night.
Jake Guentzel and Carter Rowney also scored for Pittsburgh. Brian Dumoulin of Biddeford added his first regular season goal in more than two years as the Penguins moved three points ahead of Columbus in the race to have home-ice advantage in the first round of the playoffs.
Pittsburgh won its third straight to inch closer to opening its Stanley Cup defense at home
CAPITALS 4, MAPLE LEAFS 1: Lars Eller and Kevin Shattenkirk gave Washington a two-goal lead halfway through the game, and the visiting Capitals snapped Toronto’s four-game winning streak.
Toronto lost center Brian Boyle to an upper-body injury, possibly from a hard collision with Wilson in the first period.
SENATORS 2, RED WINGS 0: Erik Karlsson and Tom Pyatt scored and Craig Anderson made 24 saves for his fifth shutout of the season and the Ottawa won at home.
The win also snapped a five-game losing streak for Ottawa and was just its third victory in its past 12 games.
ISLANDERS 2, PREDATORS 1: Thomas Hickey scored 1:25 into overtime, and visiting New York preserved its thin playoff hopes for at least another game.
DEVILS 1, FLYERS 0: John Moore scored 59 seconds into overtime and host New Jersey snapped a six-game losing streak.
JETS 5, BLUES 2: Patrik Laine scored twice and Mark Scheifele had a goal and an assist as visiting Winnipeg won its fifth straight.
NOTES
OLYMPICS: Alex Ovechkin isn’t budging. Jonathan Toews is preparing for a possible showdown with owners. Justin Faulk is just plain angry that the NHL pulled the plug on the Olympics.
A day after the NHL said that it will not participate in the 2018 Winter Games in South Korea, disappointed players hit the ice and tried to understand how something they have treasured for the past 20 years could be taken away so easily.
The NHL insisted the matter is closed, but a host of questions remain, from how national teams will fill their rosters to how the league will deal with players who plan to go anyway.
“Somebody going to tell me, like, don’t go, I don’t care – I just go,” said Alex Ovechkin of the Washington Capitals.
Faulk, a Carolina Hurricanes defenseman who played for the United States in Sochi in 2014, called the NHL decision “brutal” and said he didn’t read the full explanation because “I don’t believe half of their reasoning.”
PANTHERS: The team has decided interim coach Tom Rowe’s stint will end when the season does Sunday, a person with knowledge of the situation told The Associated Press. Rowe, who coached the Portland Pirates at the start of last season, may still stay with the organization, said the person who spoke on condition of anonymity because Florida has not revealed any details publicly.
Rowe essentially gave up his duties as general manager to take over as interim coach when the Panthers fired Gerard Gallant in late November. It’s unclear if he would reclaim the GM role going forward. The coach on opening night in October will be Florida’s fifth in a span of less than four years, following Kevin Dineen, Peter Horachek, Gallant and Rowe.
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