Saturday Round-Up: Bolts Smoke Rangers, Cats Blanked By Canadiens

TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — Brayden Point and Nikita Kucherov each had a goal and two assists to lead the Tampa Bay Lightning past the reeling New York Rangers 6-2 on Saturday night.

Anthony Cirelli and Ryan McDonagh both had a short-handed goal. Jake Guentzel and Nick Paul also scored for the Lightning, who have won six of seven. Andrei Vasilevskiy finished with 42 saves.

Artemi Panarin had a power-play goal and Vincent Trocheck scored short-handed for New York. Igor Shesterkin allowed five goals on 13 shots before being pulled at the 8:08 mark of the second period. Jonathan Quick allowed one goal on 12 shots.

After a strong start, the Rangers are 4-14 in their past 18 games.

Tampa Bay pulled away with three goals in the second, one by Point. He has 23 this season, one behind Edmonton star Leon Draisaitl for the NHL lead.

Veteran forward Chris Kreider returned to the Rangers’ lineup after being a healthy scratch Monday against New Jersey.

Takeaways

Rangers: Shesterkin was pulled from a start for the third time this season.

Lightning: Tampa Bay captain Victor Hedman became the franchise leader in games played (1,083), surpassing Steven Stamkos. … Cirelli became the fourth Lightning player with two short-handed points in a game. He moved past Rob Zamuner for the second-most short-handed goals (15) in team history.

Key moment

The Rangers were on a power play with the game tied 1-all when McDonagh went end-to-end against his former team. He put a shot through Shesterkin at 18:11 of the first to give Tampa Bay a 2-1 lead after the period despite being outshot 17-6.

Key stat

The Lightning scored two short-handed goals in a game for the 10th time in franchise history and first since March 2020 against Boston.

Up next

The Rangers play at Florida on Monday in a rematch of last season’s Eastern Conference final. Tampa Bay hosts Montreal on Sunday.

SUNRISE, Fla. (AP) — Jakub Dobes stopped 34 shots in his NHL debut, Kirby Dach had his first two-goal game in nearly two years, and the Montreal Canadiens beat the Florida Panthers 4-0 on Saturday.

Dobes, a 23-year-old from the Czech Republic, went 9-3-1 with a 2.44 goals-against average and a .910 save percentage in the minors this season, his second as a pro.

He became the first goaltender to record a shutout against the defending Stanley Cup champion in his NHL debut since Daren Puppa for Buffalo at Edmonton on Nov. 1, 1985, according to STATS.

Cole Caufield and Jake Evans also scored for Montreal, and Alex Newhook had two assists.

Spencer Knight stopped 21 shots for Florida, which has been shut out in back-to-back games for the second time this month.

Takeaways

Canadiens: Dobes became the first Montreal goalie to get a shutout in his NHL debut since Yann Danis in 2005.

Panthers: This marks the first time since 2003 that Florida was blanked in consecutive home games. Florida lost 4-0 to Tampa Bay on Dec. 23, its most recent game before Saturday’s matchup with Dobes and the Canadiens.

Key moment

Evans’ short-handed goal with 2:41 left in the second seemed to put the game out of reach.

Key stat

The Panthers are 10-0-1 in their last 11 games in which they have scored at least one goal. They’ve also been shut out four times in that span.

Up next

The Canadiens visit Tampa Bay on Sunday. Florida remains home to face the New York Rangers on Monday.