NHL Roundup: Andre Burakovsky Nets Hat Trick in Avs’ Win

Colorado Avalanche left wing Andre Burakovsky (95) celebrates his goal with teammates left wing J.T. Compher (37) and right wing Mikko Rantanen (96) in the second period against the Florida Panthers at Ball Arena in Denver, on Dec 12, 2021. (Ron Chenoy/USA TODAY Sports via Field Level Media)

Andre Burakovsky had three goals to record the first hat trick of his career, Darcy Kuemper had 29 saves and the Colorado Avalanche beat the Florida Panthers 3–2 in Denver on Sunday night in a game that included a brutal hit on Avs defenseman Jacob MacDonald.

MacDonald was taken off the ice on a stretcher at 2:15 of the second period after taking a hard check from Florida’s Ryan Lomberg along the boards in the Colorado zone. MacDonald went down on his back and wasn’t moving when he was attended to by the Colorado medical staff.

He was placed on a stretcher after a few minutes and was carried off the ice. It was later reported he did not need to leave the arena and was alert with feeling in all extremities.

Mikko Rantanen had three assists and Nathan MacKinnon had two for Colorado. Joe Thornton and Brandon Montour scored goals for the Panthers, while Carter Verhaeghe had two assists and Sergei Bobrovsky stopped 23 shots for the Panthers.

Predators 1, Rangers 0

Juuse Saros made 16 of his 32 saves in the third period for his second shutout of the season and visiting Nashville ran its winning streak to a season-high five games with a victory over New York.

The Predators completed a three-game sweep in the New York area as Saros recorded his 16th career shutout. Rookie Philip Tomasino scored against the Rangers for the second time this year as Nashville improved to 16–6–1 in its past 23 games.

The Rangers were blanked for the second time and lost for only the third time in 15 games. New York goalie Alexandar Georgiev made 23 saves and only faced 11 shots in the final 40 minutes.

Ducks 3, Blues 2 (OT)

Troy Terry scored twice, including the winning goal on an overtime penalty shot, to lift visiting Anaheim over St. Louis.

Buddy Robinson also scored and Anthony Stolarz made 23 saves for the Ducks, who have earned points in seven of their last eight games (5–1–2).

Oskar Sundqvist and Nathan Walker scored and Brayden Schenn had two assists for the Blues, whose home-ice winning streak ended at seven games. Fill-in goaltender Jon Gillies—who signed as a free agent after Jordan Binnington (COVID-19 protocols) and Ville Husso (lower-body injury) went down—made 36 saves.

Golden Knights 6, Wild 4

Mark Stone and Max Pacioretty each had a goal and two assists, Zach Whitecloud scored twice and host Vegas outlasted Minnesota.

Evgenii Dadonov contributed a goal and an assist for Vegas, which has won four of its past five. Alex Pietrangelo had a goal and Chandler Stephenson tallied four assists.

Alex Goligoski, Mats Zuccarello, Nick Bjugstad, and Marcus Foligno each scored for Minnesota. Jared Spurgeon had three assists but the Wild lost for the second time in as many nights.

Canucks 2, Hurricanes 1

Thatcher Demko made 28 saves as Vancouver defeated visiting Carolina, winning its fourth game in seven days under new coach Bruce Boudreau.

Brock Boeser and Elias Pettersson scored for the Canucks. Martin Necas tallied for Carolina, which had its four-game winning streak snapped and dropped to 3–1–0 on a five-game trip that wraps up Tuesday in Minnesota. Goalie Antti Raanta stopped 24 of 26 shots.

The Hurricanes played without leading scorer Sebastian Aho, who had two goals and an assist Saturday night at Edmonton. The team said Aho was suffering from an illness.