Players of the Night:
Cedric Paquette, Tampa Bay Lightning: Paquette scored twice and added an assist as the Lightning thumped the New York Rangers 7-3 on Friday. Paquette had five shots on goal and the Lightning threw 50 at Ondrej Pavelec to regain first place in the Atlantic Division. Tampa matched its regular-season record for points with 108.
Semyon Varlamov and Jonathan Bernier, Colorado Avalanche: The duo (but mostly Varlamov) combined for the first combined shutout in Avs history on Friday. Varlamov made 30 saves in 53:31 before he was injured in a collision with Chicago Blackhawks forward Tomas Jurco. Bernier finished the game, making three more saves to complete the blanking.
Rickard Rakell, Anaheim Ducks: Double R scored the OT winner to give the Ducks a 2-1 win against the Los Angeles Kings, putting the Ducks into the first wildcard in the Western Conference, one point back of L.A. The Ducks have a game in-hand on their California counterparts.
Highlights of the Night:
Domingue’d
Hello, Andrighetto:
MacKinnon saves:
Juke and jive:
Rakell’s OT winner was special:
Factoids of the Night:
Scores:
Hurricanes 4, Capitals 1
Maple Leafs 5, Islanders 4
Lightning 7, Rangers 3
Avalanche 5, Blackhawks 0
Ducks 3, King 2 (OT)
Golden Knights 4, Blues 3 (OT)
Scott Billeck is a writer for Pro Hockey Talk on NBC Sports. Drop him a line at phtblog@nbcsports.com or follow him on Twitter @scottbilleck