COLUMBUS, Ohio — Jimmy Vesey scored the go-ahead goal in the third period while Antti Raanta stopped 30 shots as the New York Rangers beat the Columbus Blue Jackets 3-2 on Monday.
Dan Girardi and Kevin Hayes also scored for the Rangers, who won their sixth straight game and moved into a three-way tie for second place with Columbus and Pittsburgh in the tough Metropolitan Division. Raanta made two big saves in the final 23 seconds after the Blue Jackets pulled the goalie for a sixth skater and were swarming.
Brandon Dubinsky and Nick Foloigno scored for Columbus and Sergei Bobrovsky finished with 20 saves.
Hayes put the Rangers up 2-1 after stripping the puck from David Savard and on a breakaway 4:49 into the third period.
Foligno knotted the score again with 8:07 left in regulation. Vesey then got the game-winner less than two minutes later with a wrister from the bottom of the right circle.
Coyotes 5, Flames 0
Mike Smith stopped 36 shots for his 32nd career shutout while Christian Dvorak had two goals and an assist as Arizona beat Calgary. Martin Hanzal, Ryan White and Justin Martinook also scored for the Coyotes, who are 6-2-1 in their last nine.
Chad Johnson had 19 saves through two periods and was replaced by Brian Elliott to start the third with the Flames trailing 4-0. Elliott stopped eight of the nine shots he faced.
Dvorak got his third multi-point game in the last five to give the rookie five goals and seven points over that span. He had just 13 points in the first 45 games.
Rust out ‘longer term,’ Malkin return imminent
Pittsburgh Penguins forward Bryan Rust’s upper-body injury may be worse than the team initially feared. Coach Mike Sullivan classified Rust’s injury as “longer term.” Rust left during the second period of a 4-1 win over Colorado last Thursday after crashing into the net. Sullivan said Monday that the team is hopeful the injury isn’t season ending but he is reluctant to put a specific time frame on it. Rust has 12 goals and 13 assists in 50 games for Pittsburgh this season.
Center Evgeni Malkin skated with his teammates on Monday and is a game-time decision for Tuesday’s visit by Vancouver. Malkin has missed seven straight games with a lower-body injury. He had hoped to return last Saturday against Arizona but was a late scratch.
