Jason Chimera had a third-period goal and added an assist, goalie Braden Holtby made 29 saves, and the Washington Capitals defeated the Montreal Canadiens 3-1 for their seventh straight win at the National Hockey League on Saturday.
Center Evgeny Kuznetsov and right winger Jay Beagle also scored for Washington, which is 14-1-1 over its last 16 games.
The third period was scoreless until Chimera out-skated Montreal defenseman Alexei Emelin for a loose puck and then lifted a shot past goalie Mike Condon for his 10th goal of the season.
Defenseman Nate Schmidt and right winger Tom Wilson had two assists apiece as Washington won a battle of Eastern Conference division leaders headed in opposite directions.  Left winger Daniel Carr scored for the Canadiens, losers of six straight and 10-of-11.
‘’We had a successful run before we had this break and we wanted to extend it,’’ Capitals coach Barry Trotz said. ‘’On the other hand, Montreal hasn’t been going well. Sometimes a break can be cleansing a little bit, so we talked about trying to win the first period.’’
The Canadiens never pulled out of the first-period deficit and lost their sixth straight. Montreal has been outscored 22-6 during the skid and has dropped 10 of 11 since Dec. 1.
‘’We need to come in this room after the first period and not be in a hole,’’ forward Max Pacioretty said. ‘’That’s the truth. If we’re not scoring goals, we can’t get scored on. It sounds simple, but we need to come into this room after the first period and feel good about ourselves.’’

Blues 3, Stars 2 (SO)
Center David Backes scored in the ninth round of the shootout to give the St Louis Blues a 3-2 win over the Dallas Stars.
Goalie Jake Allen stopped a shot by center Vernon Fiddler after Backes’ goal to end the long shootout.
Rookie left winger Robby Fabbri tied the game for the Blues with just 1:50 to go in the third period with his eighth goal of the season, converting a pass from defenseman Jay Bouwmeester to extend his goal-scoring streak to three games.

Sabres 6, Bruins 3
Rookie center Jack Eichel scored twice and set up another goal in a five-goal barrage in the final 9:39, finishing with four points as Buffalo stormed from behind to defeat Boston.
Eichel tied the game 3-3 with nine minutes left and then scored from his own end into an empty net for his first two-goal game in the NHL. He then assisted on center Ryan O’Reilly’s empty netter.

Red Wings 3, Predators 2
The Detroit Red Wings started a stretch of nine road games in their next 10 contests by getting a fourth-line goal to break a third-period tie and earn a win.
Luke Glendening’s deflection of a shot by Brendan Smith at 6:45 gave Detroit the win over Nashville at sold-out Bridgestone Arena.
The goal was just the second of the season for Glendening, enabling the Red Wings to sweep the season series from Nashville.

Penguins 3, Wild 1
Sidney Crosby made an impressive return from an injury, scoring a goal and adding an assist in Pittsburgh’s win over Minnesota.
Eric Fehr and Patric Hornqvist also scored for the Penguins, who won their second game in a row. They got 25 saves from Matt Murray and improved to 2-4-0 since Mike Sullivan took over as coach on Dec. 12.
Hurricanes 3, Devils 1
Justin Faulk’s first even-strength goal of the season broke a third-period tie as Carolina defeated New Jersey at PNC Arena.
Faulk’s previous 12 goals came on power plays. He’s the first player in NHL history to have his first 12 goals of a season come via power-plays.

Lightning 5, Blue Jackets 2
Buoyed by three power-play goals in the second period, Tampa Bay pulled away to a win over Columbus at Amalie Arena.
The Lightning had scored five goals or more just twice in their first 31 games but have now done it three times in their last five games, building momentum in the middle of a six-game homestand.

Kings 4, Coyotes 3 (OT)
The Los Angeles Kings finally broke through against the Arizona Coyotes when center Anze Kopitar scored on a partial breakaway 36 seconds into overtime for a 4-3 victory at Gila River Arena.
The win was the Kings’ first against the Coyotes (16-15-3) in three meetings this season and handed Arizona its first loss in six games against southern California teams, Anaheim and L.A.

Canucks 2, Oilers 1 (OT)
Right winger Jannik Hansen scored two goals, including the overtime winner, as the Vancouver Canucks edged the Edmonton Oilers 2-1.
Hansen whipped home a slapshot from the right wing with 59 seconds left in the sudden-death session after taking a pass from defenseman Matt Bartkowski.