Sharks win 6th straight

VANCOUVER — Evander Kane scored two goals as the visiting San Jose Sharks downed the Vancouver Canucks 7-2 Monday night for their sixth consecutive victory.

Kane now has five goals in his past three games and 15 goals in 16 games since Jan. 1.

The Canucks took their fourth loss in five games.

Tomas Hertl, Joe Pavelski and Melker Karlsson each provided a goal and an assist for San Jose, which led 3-1 and 6-1 after the opening two periods. Timo Meier and Kevin Labanc also tallied for the Sharks.

San Jose veteran center Joe Thornton recorded his 1,050th career assist, overtaking Gordie Howe for ninth place on the NHL’s all-time helper list. Logan Couture had two assists for the Sharks.

Bo Horvat and Derrick Pouliot scored for the Canucks.

San Jose goaltender Martin Jones recorded 25 saves on 27 shots while playing in front of friends and family members in his hometown. Vancouver counterpart Mikey DiPietro, 19, stopped 17 of 24 in his NHL debut.

The Sharks gave DiPietro a rude welcome as they dominated early and scored on three of their first five shots.

Meier opened the scoring on San Jose’s first shot — 1:04 into the game — as he whipped Couture’s pass from behind the net. Pavelski also earned an assist on the play, recording his 400th career helper.

Kane put the Sharks up 2-0 on a fluke goal just over two minutes later. He lofted a high backhand shot from the blue line that bounced in off Canucks defenseman Ben Hutton’s glove and DiPietro’s blocker.

Karlsson gave the Sharks a 3-0 lead at 8:48 of the first as he deflected in a Brent Burns wrist shot.

Horvat put the Canucks on the scoreboard with 6.4 seconds left in the opening stanza as he one-timed Elias Pettersson’s cross-ice pass. However, the Sharks secured the win with three unanswered goals, from Kane, Hertl and Labanc in the middle frame.

Thornton reached his milestone by setting up Labanc on a two-on-one. Labanc’s goal was his fourth in two games. The Canucks trailed 6-1 despite outshooting the Sharks 22-15 in the first 40 minutes.

Pouliot reduced Vancouver’s deficit to 6-2 at 4:05 of the third period. He converted a pass from winger Zack MacEwen, who also made his NHL debut after being called up from Utica of the AHL. Pavelski closed out the scoring on a deflection 59 seconds later.

Penguins 4, Flyers 1

Sidney Crosby had one goal and two assists while Nick Bjugstad, Jake Guentzel and Kris Letang each scored one goal to lift Pittsburgh to a win at Philadelphia.

Matt Murray stopped a career-high 50 shots as the Penguins snapped a four-game losing streak.

Jake Voracek scored for the Flyers, who had won nine of 10 games coming in with a 10-game streak of securing points. Philadelphia goaltender Carter Hart made 24 saves and had a personal eight-game winning streak broken.

Capitals 6, Kings 4

Evgeny Kuznetsov finished with two goals and two assists while linemate Alex Ovechkin added one goal and two assists as Washington defeated visiting Los Angeles.

The Capitals completed a 4-1-1 homestand while the Kings closed out a 3-2-1 road trip. Brett Connelly, Christian Djoos and Jakub Vrana also scored for Washington. Los Angeles got two tallies from Austin Wagner and one apiece from Tyler Toffoli and Oscar Fantenberg.

Washington goalie Pheonix Copley made 29 saves in the win. Los Angeles’ Jonathan Quick stopped 25 shots. — Reuters