ST. LOUIS (AP) — Rookie goalie Calvin Peterson earned his first NHL shutout and rookie forward Matt Luff scored his first goal for Los Angeles, as the Kings defeated St. Louis 2-0 Monday night, hours before the Blues fired coach Mike Yeo.
St. Louis general manager Doug Armstrong named Craig Berube as the team’s interim coach. At 7-9-3, the Blues are in last place in the Central Division, and their 17 points rank next-to-last in the NHL, ahead of only Los Angeles.
The 45-year-old Yeo had joined the Blues as an assistant in 2016 after five seasons with Minnesota.
The Kings, last in the Pacific Division, had lost four of their last five games before picking up the win.
The Blues, last in the Central Division, have lost four of their last five games and were shut out for the third time this season.
Anze Kopitar added an empty-netter with 30 seconds left.
SABRES 5, PENGUINS 4
PITTSBURGH (AP) — Jake Eichel’s shot squirted past Casey DeSmith 45 seconds into overtime as surging Buffalo rallied to beat struggling Pittsburgh.
The Sabres won their sixth straight by overcoming a three-goal deficit. Casey Mittelstadt tied it with just over 9 minutes to go in regulation and Eichel won it with a shot from the right circle that found its way by DeSmith.
Tage Thompson, Zach Bogosian and Casey Nelson also scored for Buffalo, which has won six straight for the first time since the 2009-10 season. Carter Hutton withstood an early flurry from Pittsburgh and finished with 36 saves.
Tanner Pearson had a goal and an assist for the Penguins, his first points with Pittsburgh since being acquired in a trade with Los Angeles last week. Phil Kessel picked up his 10th for the Penguins and Jake Guentzel and Derick Brassard also scored.
DeSmith made 35 saves for Pittsburgh, which has won just once in its last 10 games.
MAPLE LEAFS 4, BLUE JACKETS 2
TORONTO (AP) — Zach Hyman scored two goals late in third period and Toronto extended its winning streak to four games.
Hyman’s second goal of the season came with 4:22 left in regulation when he redirected a shot from the point by Morgan Rielly. Hyman added an empty-netter with 61 seconds left.
Cam Atkinson and Pierre-Luc Dubois each had a goal and an assist for Columbus. Sergei Bobrovsky made 22 stops.
The Blue Jackets lost in regulation for the first time in eight games (5-1-2).
RANGERS 2, STARS 1
NEW YORK (AP) — Filip Chytil scored the tiebreaking goal 4:32 into the third period to rally New York.
Jimmy Vesey also scored and Henrik Lundqvist stopped 16 shots to help the Rangers win their sixth straight at home. New York has also won eight of its last 10 overall (8-1-1). Chytil, the 21st overall pick in the 2017 NHL draft, scored for the fourth straight game to become the first teenager in franchise history to score accomplish that feat.
Tyler Seguin scored early in the second period to give Dallas the lead. Ben Bishop made 12 saves before leaving after two periods due to a lower body injury. Anton Khudobin stopped nine of the 10 shots he faced in the third.
The Stars snapped a two-game win streak and fell to 3-3-2 in their last eight.
PANTHERS 7, SENATORS 5
OTTAWA, Ontario (AP) — Mike Hoffman scored and extended his point streak to 16 games in his return to Ottawa after being traded to Florida.
Troy Brouwer, Aleksander Barkov, Jared McCann, Evgenii Dadonov, Micheal Haley and Frank Vatrano also scored for Florida.
Juho Lammikko picked up four assists. James Reimer stopped 33 shots.
Matt Duchene had a pair of goals for the Senators. Drake Batherson, Zack Smith and Brady Tkachuk also scored.
Craig Anderson allowed six goals on 22 shots before being replaced by Mike McKenna. McKenna gave up one goal on nine shots.
CAPITALS 5, CANADIENS 4, OT
MONTREAL (AP) — Lars Eller scored with less than 90 seconds left in overtime as Washington rallied past Montreal.
Alex Ovechkin scored twice for the Capitals, while Brett Connolly and Nicklas Backstrom added goals in regulation.
Pheonix Copley, making his fourth consecutive start, gave up four goals on 22 shots before getting pulled in the second period. Braden Holtby stopped all 22 shots he faced in relief.
Mike Reilly, Brendan Gallagher, Jeff Petry and Kenny Agostino scored for the Canadiens. Carey Price made 29 saves.
PREDATORS 3, LIGHTNING 2
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Ryan Johansen had a goal and an assist and Pekka Rinne stopped 29 shots as Nashville won its second straight.
Kyle Turris and Filip Forsberg also scored for Nashville.
Rinne improved to 9-0-1 in his career against the Lightning.
Victor Hedman and Nikita Kucherov had the goals for Tampa Bay, which snapped its two-game winning streak. Louis Domingue finished with 31 saves.
FLAMES 7, GOLDEN KNIGHTS 2
CALGARY, Alberta (AP) — Matthew Tkachuk and Johnny Gaudreau tied career-highs with four points each for Calgary.
Tkachuk finished with two goals and two assists and Gaudreau added a goal and three assists. Sean Monahan also had a big night with two goals and an assist. TJ Brodie and Sam Bennett rounded out the scoring for Calgary, which plays Vegas again on Friday.
Second-year Czech goaltender David Rittich made 20 saves to improve to 7-1-0.
Nick Holden and Max Pacioretty scored third-period goals for Vegas.
JETS 6, CANUCKS 3
VANCOUVER, British Columbia (AP) — Patrik Laine recorded a hat trick and led Winnipeg.
Laine put the puck into an empty net with less than two minutes to go seal the victory.
Bryan Little, Mark Scheifele, Kyle Connor also scored for Winnipeg.
Elias Pettersson, Tyler Motte and Nikolay Goldobin scored for Vancouver, which lost its sixth straight game.
Connor Hellebuyck stopped 22 shots for the Jets. Jacob Markstrom made 43 saves for the Canucks.
Photo credit – Jeff Roberson / Associated Press / St. Louis, MO