By The Canadian Press

Lafreniere sparks a long-awaited home breakthrough as the Rangers rout the Leafs 6-2

Mar 5, 2026 | 8:53 PM

NEW YORK (AP) — Alexis Lafreniere scored the go-ahead goal on a deflection in the third period, and the New York Rangers beat the Toronto Maple Leafs 6-2 on Thursday night to pick up their first regulation win at home in more than three months.

It was the Rangers’ 19th game at Madison Square Garden since defeating St. Louis on Nov. 24. They had lost 13 of 18 since, with the only victories during that stretch coming in overtime or a shootout.

Falling behind 13 seconds in, they rallied to win for just the eighth time in 28 home games all season.

Jaroslav Chmelar scored his first career NHL goal a few minutes after Lafreniere put the Rangers up, bringing some joy to the team and crowd at the three-quarter mark of a season that long ago went off the rails.

Playing on the eve of the trade deadline, who was not in uniform for New York and Toronto to safeguard them from injury was just as notable if not more notable than who was on the ice.

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The Rangers scratched centers Vincent Trocheck and Sam Carrick. The Maple Leafs for a second consecutive night opted not to dress defenseman Oliver Ekman Larsson and forwards Scott Laughton and Bobby McMann. Roster management was the reason given.

Toronto, which traded center Nicolas Roy to Colorado earlier Thursday, lost its sixth game in a row coming out of the Olympic break. The Leafs’ longest-active playoff streak is well on its way to ending at nine.

SABRES 5, PENGUINS 1

PITTSBURGH (AP) — Ryan McLeod and Alex Tuch scored short-handed goals and Buffalo beat Pittsburgh.

McLeod now has a league-best five short-handed goals this season. Josh Norris added a power-play goal, Owen Power scored and Mattias Samuelsson scored an empty-net goal for the Sabres, who won their fifth straight game.

Tage Thompson established a career-best, nine-game point streak with an assist. Buffalo has points in 10 straight road games, matching the longest road point streak in franchise history.

Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen stopped 26 shots for the Sabres, who are 11-2-1 in their last 14 games.

Bryan Rust scored a short-handed goal for the Penguins, who lost consecutive games in regulation for the first time since Jan. 10-11.

BLUE JACKETS 4, PANTHERS 2

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Jet Greaves made 26 saves, Mathieu Olivier scored twice and Columbus dealt another blow to Florida’s playoff hopes with a victory.

Two-time defending champion Florida is in danger of becoming the first Cup-winning team to miss the playoffs the following season since Los Angeles in 2014-15. Ten points behind Boston for the final wild-card spot in the East, the Panthers have lost the first four games of a trip that ends Friday night in Detroit.

Defenseman Ivan Provorov had a goal and two assists and Boone Jenner also scored to help Columbus, fighting for a wild-card spot in the East, win its third straight. The Blue Jackets were coming off a back-to-back sweep, beating the Rangers 5-4 in overtime in New York on Monday night and Nashville on Tuesday night to open a four-game homestand.

Defenseman Niko Mikkola and Sam Bennett scored for Florida in a 5:36 span of the third period.

Gustav Forsling appeared to tie it with 2:55 to go, but Columbus successfully challenged for goaltender interference. Olivier then put it away with an empty-netter with 1:42 left.

MAMMOTH 3, FLYERS 0

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Vitek Vanecek stopped 16 shots in his 100th career win and Dylan Guenther assisted on two Utah goals as it beat Philadelphia.

Nick Schmaltz and Clayton Keller scored in the second period for the Mammoth, and Michael Carcone added an empty-net goal at 18:12 of the third.

Vanecek earned his first shutout of the season and the 11th of his career. The 30-year-old had four shutouts during the 2021-22 with the Washington Capitals.

Utah has won two straight games and five of its last seven while completing a two-game season sweep of the Flyers.

Dan Vladar made 20 saves for Philadelphia and slipped to 19-10-6. The Flyers had their three-game winning streak halted.

After a scoreless first period, the Mammoth outshot the Flyers 14-7 in the second period and took a lead they never relinquished.

PREDATORS 6, BRUINS 3

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Matthew Wood scored twice to lead Nashville to a victory over Boston.

Filip Forsberg had a goal and two assists, Nicolas Hague, Erik Haula and Luke Evangelista also scored for the Predators. Juuse Saros made 20 saves for Nashville, which snapped a three-game losing streak. The Predators trail the Seattle Kraken for the Western Conference’s second wild card by three points.

Charlie McAviy and Viktor Arvidsson each had a goal and an assist and Morgan Geekie also scored for Boston. Joonas Korpisalo made 24 saves for the Bruins, who have lost two of their last three games. Boston is one point ahead of Columbus for the Eastern Conference’s second wild card.

Hague scored the game’s first goal at 13:53 of the opening period on a slap shot between Korpisalo’s pads.

Wood made it 2-0 at 1:24 of the second with a short-handed goal.

JETS 4, LIGHTNING 1

WINNIPEG, Manitoba (AP) — Connor Hellebuyck made 26 saves, Mark Scheifele had a goal and an assist and Winnipeg beat Tampa Bay.

Morgan Barron, Gustav Nyquist and Kyle Connor, into an empty net, also scored for Winnipeg. The Jets improved to 25-26-10, extending their home winning streak against Tampa Bay to five games.

Nyquist scored his first goal in 41 regular-season games dating to last season. He gave Winnipeg a 3-1 lead at 5:34 of the third period.

Brayden Point scored for Tampa Bay, and Andrei Vasilevskiy stopped 26 shots. The Lighting have lost four straight to fall to 38-18-4.

Point scored at 1:52 of the third period to spoil Hellebuyck’s shutout bid. Jake Guentzel picked up his 39th assist, matching his total last season.

SENATORS 4, FLAMES 1

CALGARY (AP) — Dylan Cozens scored a power-play goal 6:33 into the third period to snap a tie and lift Ottawa to a win over Calgary.

Brady Tkachuk found Cozens alone in front and he beat Devin Cooley on the blocker side to give the Senators a 2-1 lead. Tim Stutzle and Shane Pinto added empty-netters for the final score. Lars Eller also had a goal as the Senators, who are 7-1-2 in their last 10 games, moved within four points of the Boston Bruins for the second wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference.

Eller’s goal ended a 34-game goalless drought. His last goal came on Oct. 30 against Calgary.

Linus Ullmark made 19 stops to improve to 8-0-3 in his last 11 decisions.

Martin Pospisil scored his first goal of the season for Calgary and Cooley made 33 saves.

KINGS 5, ISLANDERS 3

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Artemi Panarin scored his first goal in a Kings uniform, and Los Angeles beat New York for the club’s first victory under interim head coach D.J. Smith.

Panarin, Mikey Anderson and Adrian Kempe had a goal and an assist apiece for the Kings, and Darcy Kuemper made 31 saves. Samuel Helenius and Alex Laferriere also scored in just Los Angeles’ second victory since January.

Kings captain Anze Kopitar had an assist while playing his 1,500th game, becoming the 25th player in NHL history to hit the mark. The Slovenian center, who is retiring this spring after 20 seasons in Los Angeles, is just five points away from passing Marcel Dionne to become the Kings’ career scoring leader.

Bo Horvat scored an improbable goal off a faceoff taken with a second left in the second period for the Islanders, but it didn’t prevent a second straight blowout loss for New York in Southern California.

Adam Pelech scored the second short-handed goal of his 11-year career and Ilya Sorokin stopped 30 shots for the Isles, who had won five straight before losing to Anaheim and Los Angeles by a combined 10-4 over the past two nights.

Emil Heineman scored with 1:59 to play while Sorokin was pulled for the final 8 1/2 minutes of the third period.

The Associated Press