Noel Acciari scored his second straight hat trick, racking up three consecutive goals during Florida’s five-goal second period, as the Panthers defeated the Dallas Stars 7-4 on Friday night in Sunrise, Fla.
Pavel Bure is the only other Panthers player ever to record consecutive hat tricks, accomplishing the feat in February 2001. But Bure scored 437 career goals, including 60 each in back-to-back seasons. Acciari, meanwhile, has just 29 goals in five seasons.
His improbable barrage started right after Panthers coach Joel Quenneville adjusted all four of his lines on Monday, and the unit of Acciari, Jonathan Huberdeau and Vincent Trocheck has erupted with a combined eight goals and 18 points in two games.
Huberdeau, Trocheck, Anton Stralman and Colton Sceviour also scored for the Panthers. Huberdeau had three assists, Trocheck and Aleksander Barkov had two apiece, and Acciari had one. Dallas got two goals from Tyler Seguin and one each from Jamie Benn and Denis Gurianov. Corey Perry added two assists.
Penguins 5, Oilers 2
Five Pittsburgh players scored, and goaltender Tristan Jarry made 26 saves as the visiting Penguins continued their mastery of Edmonton.
Chad Ruhwedel, Joseph Blandisi, Jared McCann, Kris Letang and Brandon Tanev scored for Pittsburgh, which extended its point streak against the Oilers to 19 games (15-0-4), a franchise record and the longest active stretch in the NHL.
Zack Kassian and Riley Sheahan scored for Edmonton, which dropped to 1-5-1 in its past seven games. Goalie Mike Smith, making his first start since allowing six goals in a loss to Minnesota on Dec. 12, stopped 21 of 25 shots.
Capitals 6, Devils 3
Nicklas Backstrom recorded four points to give him 900 in his career, and Washington beat New Jersey as Backstrom had two goals and two assists in Newark, N.J.
His 900th point came on the night he and Alex Ovechkin became the 21st set of NHL teammates to play 900 games together.
Ovechkin and John Carlson added a goal and an assist each. Jonas Siegenthaler and Richard Panik also scored, and Ilya Samsonov made 24 saves. Kyle Palmieri scored for the third straight game for New Jersey, which was looking for its first three-game winning streak of the season. Blake Coleman and Miles Wood also scored.
Maple Leafs 6, Rangers 3
William Nylander had two goals and an assist to lift Toronto to a win at New York.
Toronto’s Mitch Marner also scored twice, Auston Matthews had two assists, Ilya Mikheyev a goal and assist, and Pierre Engvall also scored. Frederik Andersen made 19 saves for the Maple Leafs, who have won five of their past six.
Pavel Buchnevich had a goal and an assist, Brady Skjei and Ryan Strome also scored, and Alexandar Georgiev made 34 saves for the Rangers, who have dropped three in a row overall and four straight at home.
–Field Level Media
