Thomas scored the game-winning goal in overtime as the St. Louis Blues rallied from a 3-1 third-period deficit to defeat the visiting Calgary Flames 4-3 on Tuesday.
Thomas scored on the first shift of the overtime by converting a two-on-one rush with Jordan Kyrou, who had a goal and two assists in the game. Pavel Buchnevich and Nikita Alexandrov also scored for the Blues, while Jordan Binnington made 28 saves.
Andrew Mangiapane, Milan Lucic and Mikael Backlund scored for the Flames, and Jacob Markstrom made 23 saves. Mangiapane made it 3-1 just 62 seconds into the second period with a point-blank shot set up by Blake Coleman and Noah Hanifin’s pressure behind the Blues net.
The Blues tied the game 3-3 with two goals 28 seconds apart in the first 2:48 of the third period. Steven Santini put a shot on net from the right wing and Alexandrov converted the rebound before Kyrou took a drop pass from Buchnevich and made a toe-drag move to the middle to score from the high slot.
Rangers 4, Wild 3 (SO)
Artemi Panarin scored in the third round of a shootout as New York rallied for a victory over visiting Minnesota.
Filip Chytil scored the tying goal off a chaotic sequence with 6:25 remaining in regulation and the Rangers earned their 12th win in the past 16 games (12-2-2) when Panarin lifted a backhander over goalie Marc-Andre Fleury.
Defenseman Jon Merrill and Kaprizov scored in the first period as the Wild took a 2-0 lead before losing their third straight (0-1-2). Fleury made 40 saves and helped Minnesota get to overtime after allowing Chytil’s tying goal.
Devils 5, Hurricanes 3
Dawson Mercer finished with two goals and an assist as New Jersey rallied from a two-goal deficit to defeat Carolina at Raleigh, N.C.
Mercer’s 10th goal of the season came at 8:53 of the third period, giving the Devils their first lead of the game. Jesper Boqvist and Nico Hischier each added a goal and an assist and Jonas Siegenthaler also scored for New Jersey, which produced four goals on its first 18 shots. Michael McLeod provided two assists. It was Mercer’s first two-goal game in his 123-game career.
The Devils overcame giving up two short-handed goals in sending the Hurricanes to their fourth consecutive loss. Sebastian Aho had a goal and an assist, and Jesperi Kotkaniemi and Max Pacioretty also scored for Carolina. Pyotr Kochetkov stopped 18 shots.
Kraken 4, Sabres 3
Justin Schultz, Matty Beniers and Jordan Eberle each had a goal and an assist to lift Seattle past host Buffalo for its sixth straight win.
Yanni Gourde also scored, Andre Burakovsky had two assists and Philipp Grubauer made 32 saves for the Kraken. Alex Tuch had two goals and Rasmus Dahlin had a goal and an assist for Buffalo, while Jeff Skinner and Dylan Cozens each had two assists. Eric Comrie made 18 saves for the Sabres, who dropped their second straight game.
Beniers broke a 2-2 tie at the 1:06 mark of the third period when Comrie failed to make a clean save off Vince Dunn’s shot from the point after getting a pass from Burakovsky. Beniers pounced on the loose puck near the goal line and swatted it into the back of the net. Schultz netted the would-be game winner a little more than four minutes later.
Lightning 6, Blue Jackets 3
Nikita Kucherov tallied two goals and two assists as Tampa Bay swept the season series against visiting Columbus and stretched its home winning streak to eight.
Nicholas Paul had a goal and an assist, and Vladislav Namestnikov, Ross Colton and Brayden Point also found the back of the net. Victor Hedman and Steven Stamkos had two assists apiece, and Andrei Vasilevskiy made 21 saves. Brandon Hagel posted his 100th point with a first-period assist for the Lightning, who went 3-0 against the Blue Jackets this season.
The Blue Jackets’ Gavin Bayreuther, Tim Berni and Kirill Marchenko had goals. Patrik Laine had two helpers. With goalie Joonas Korpisalo remaining in Columbus for the birth of his first child, Elvis Merzlikins started and stopped 40 shots.
Penguins 5, Canucks 4
Evgeni Malkin had two goals and two assists as Pittsburgh erased a three-goal deficit with five striaght before holding on to beat visiting Vancouver.
Jason Zucker added a goal and an assist, Sidney Crosby scored and Bryan Rust and Ty Smith each had two assists for the Penguins, who won their second straight following a six-game skid (0-4-2). Goaltender Casey DeSmith gave up three goals on five shots and was pulled for Dustin Tokarski, who made 18 saves in his Penguins debut.
Quinn Hughes and Brock Boeser each had a goal and an assist, Conor Garland and Travis Dermott also scored and Luke Schenn had two assists for the Canucks, who have lost five of six.
Red Wings 7, Jets 5
Lucas Raymond had a goal and two assists, Moritz Seider recorded a career-high four assists and host Detroit snapped a three-game losing skid while ending Winnipeg’s five-game winning streak.
Jake Walman, Jonatan Berggren, Oskar Sundqvist (one assist), Dominik Kubalik, Dylan Larkin (one assist) and Robby Fabbri also scored for the Red Wings. Andrew Copp added a pair of assists and Ville Husso made 32 saves in the win.
Neal Pionk, Sam Gagner, Nate Schmidt, Nikolaj Ehlers and Mark Scheifele scored for the Jets — with Pionk, Scheifele and Ehlers adding helpers. Connor Hellebuyck only stopped 16 of 22 Detroit shots.
Stars 2, Islanders 1 (SO)
Jason Robertson scored in the first period and then collected the lone goal in the shootout for Dallas, which edged host New York.
Robertson scored his 29th goal of the season early in the first before opening the shootout with a shot over the glove of Ilya Sorokin. Goalie Jake Oettinger made 27 saves in regulation and overtime before turning back all three Islanders attempts in the shootout as the Stars won their second straight and improved to 6-2-0 in their last eight games.
Anders Lee scored in the first for the Islanders, who have lost three straight (0-2-1) for the third time this season. Sorokin recorded 25 saves. The Islanders outshot the Stars 10-9 in the third and had the bulk of serious scoring chances. Oettinger stopped Jean-Gabriel Pageau at point-blank range with 16:43 left and again with 2:17 left before denying Scott Mayfield and Zach Parise near the net in the final 10 seconds.
Sharks 4, Coyotes 2
Matt Nieto scored on his first shift of the third period and San Jose won in Tempe, Ariz., to hand Arizona its sixth straight loss.
The Sharks’ come-from-behind performance gets them back in the win column after two straight losses and marks the beginning of a two-game road trip after a 4-2 loss at home to the Boston Bruins on Saturday.
Kevin Labanc, Nico Sturm, and Jaycob Megna also scored, and Erik Karlsson had an assist for San Jose, while goaltender Kaapo Kahkonen made 27 saves in the win. Christian Fischer and Barrett Hayton scored goals for the Coyotes, whose losing streak is now at six games, tied for a season high and the longest current slide in the league.
Panthers 5, Avalanche 4
Matthew Tkachuk scored twice, including a go-ahead goal late in the third, and Florida beat Colorado in Denver.
Sergei Bobrovsky turned away 27 shots for Florida, and Aleksander Barkov, Brandon Montour and Sam Bennett had a goal and an assist apiece. Mikko Rantanen and J.T. Compher each had a goal and an assist, Nathan MacKinnon and Andrew Cogliano also scored goals, Kurtis MacDermid had two assists and Alexandar Georgiev had 32 saves for the Avalanche.
The game was tied when Rantanen went off for interference at 14:40 of the third and Tkachuk made it sting when he scored on the power play at 16:30, his 22nd goal of the season.
–Field Level Media