FRIDAY SPORTS

Thatcher Demko stopped all 36 shots he faced to earn a shut out as the Vancouver Canucks defeated the Florida Panthers 4-0 on a night they honoured former star goalie Roberto Luongo. Dakota Joshua scored twice for Vancouver in its fourth straight win. Luongo was inducted into the Canucks’ Ring of Honour before the game.

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Kent Johnson scored his second goal of the game at 3:26 of overtime to give Columbus the victory after Toronto overcame a five-goal deficit in the third period. Auston Matthews scored Toronto’s final two goals to break a tie for the NHL lead with 23. William Nylander, Mitch Marner and Jake McCabe also scored and Ilya Samsonov stopped 29 shots to help Toronto run its points streak to eight at 5-0-3.

Steven Stamkos scored four goals, Andrei Vasilevskiy made 53 saves and the Tampa Bay Lightning beat Edmonton 7-4 to end the Oilers’ winning streak at eight. Nikita Kucherov had a goal and two assists to push his NHL-leading points total to 50. The Oilers outshot the Lightning by 33 shots in the game but Vasilevskiy stood on his head.

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Robert Thomas had two goals and an assist and the St. Louis Blues won in interim coach Drew Bannister’s N-H-L coaching debut, beating the Ottawa Senators 4-2 to end a four-game losing streak. Bannister replaced Craig Berube who was fired Tuesday night. Dominik Kubalik and Mathieu Joseph scored for Ottawa. The Senators have dropped three of four.

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Mats Zuccarello and Matt Boldy scored in the shootout to lift the Minnesota Wild over the Calgary Flames 3-2. Boldy and Marco Rossi scored in regulation for Minnesota and Filip Gustavsson stopped 36 shots in goal. Yegor Sharangovich and Blake Coleman scored while Dan Vladar made 30 saves for the Flames, who are 1-5-and-1 in their last seven games.

The Las Vegas Raiders scored 42 points by halftime and rolled to a record 63-21 victory over the L-A Chargers. The Raiders led 42-0 at the break, just three points shy of the NFL record for halftime margin that was set in 2009 when New England led Tennessee 45-0.

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Naz Reid scored 19 of his season-high 27 points in the first half, Karl-Anthony Towns had 21 points and a season-high 17 rebounds, and the Minnesota Timberwolves shook off an early 15-point deficit to beat the Dallas Mavericks 119-101. The Wolves avoided their first losing streak of the season and matched Boston for the NBA’s best record at 18-and-5. Luka Doncic had 39 points and 13 rebounds for the Mavericks.

(Canadian Press)