NEW YORK — The Tampa Bay Lightning picked right back up on the tear they were on before the All-Star break, returning to the ice Wednesday with a 3-1 win over the Detroit Red Wings at Amalie Arena.
A pair of power-play goals lifted Tampa Bay (28-18-14) to a ninth win in 10 games, with center Tyler Johnson scoring the go-ahead goal in the second and right-winger Nikita Kucherov, who assisted on that effort, adding a goal in the third period.
Detroit (25-17-8) got only one goal past Lightning goalie Ben Bishop, who finished with 24 saves after playing in the All-Star Game in Nashville Sunday.
Bishop earned his 100th regular-season win with Tampa Bay in four seasons with the Lightning.
Sabres 4, Canadiens 2
Left-winger Johan Larsson scored the game-winning goal to lift the Buffalo Sabres to a 4-2 win over the Montreal Canadiens at the Bell Centre.
Left-wingers Marcus Foligno and Jamie McGinn and right-winger Brian Gionta also scored for the Sabres.
Right-winger Dale Weise and left-winger Alex Galchenyuk scored for Montreal.
Goaltender Robin Lehner made 32 saves for Buffalo (21-26-4). Counterpart Mike Condon stopped 28 shots for the Canadiens (24-24-4).
Flames 4, Hurricanes 1
Center Sean Monahan had a goal and three assists as the Calgary Flames ended a day of bad off-ice news with a 4-1 win over the Carolina Hurricanes Wednesday.
Calgary lost defenseman Dennis Wideman to a 20-game suspension earlier in the day for his Jan. 27 hit on a linesman that the NHL deemed intentional.
Left-winger Johnny Gaudreau and defensemen Marc Giordano and Dougie Hamilton also scored for Calgary, and each added an assist.
Monahan had the first assist on all three goals for the first four-point night of his three-year career. His goal was into a virtually open net off a nice feed from Gaudreau at 2:47 of the third period. Center Elias Lindholm had the lone goal for Carolina.
Wideman suspended for 20 games
The NHL suspended Calgary Flames defenseman Dennis Wideman 20 games Wednesday for cross-checking a linesman last week during a game, the second-longest suspension in NHL history for abusing an official.
Wideman was suspended for violating the league rule on physical abuse of officials after he struck linesman Don Henderson and knocked him down during the Flames’ game against Nashville on Jan. 27.
The 32-year-old will forfeit $564,516 in salary as a result of the suspension. Only Gordie Dwyer of the Tampa Bay Lightning, who was suspended 23 games in part for abuse of officials during an exhibition game in 2000, was suspended longer for such a violation.
