Nick Bjugstad scored his second goal of the game to cap the Utah Hockey Club’s three-goal flurry in a 2 1/2-minute span of the third period in a 4-1 victory over the visiting Carolina Hurricanes on Wednesday night.
Jack McBain and Mikhail Sergachev also scored for Utah, which won at home after losing three of four on the road. Michael Kesselring had two assists and Karel Vejmelka had a career-high 49 saves to get his first win in five games.
Martin Necas scored for Carolina, which lost for just the second time in 11 games and ended a streak of nine straight games with at least four goals. Pyotr Kochetkov gave up three goals on 18 shots before he was replaced after giving up Sergachev’s goal that made it 3-1 at 7:11 of the third period. Spencer Martin stopped two of the three shots he faced.
MAPLE LEAFS 4, CAPITALS 3, OT: Mitch Marner tied it in the final minute of the third period, John Tavares scored the overtime winner and visiting Toronto rallied from a two-goal deficit to beat Washington.
William Nylander sparked the comeback with his goal with 4:09 left and set up Marner’s 6-on-4 power play goal with 47.8 seconds left in regulation with goaltender Joseph Woll pulled for an extra attacker and the Capitals’ Nic Dowd in the penalty box.
The Capitals led 3-1 on goals by Taylor Raddysh, Dylan Strome and Aliaksei Protas.
RED WINGS 3, PENGUINS 2, OT: Simon Edvinsson scored 1:30 into overtime, and visiting Detroit beat Pittsburgh.
Patrick Kane had a goal and an assist for the Red Wings. Jonatan Berggren also scored, and Cam Talbot stopped 32 shots in his 250th career win.
Kane scored during a power play in the second. It was his first goal since Oct. 24 and his third on the season.
Anthony Beauvillier and Bryan Rust scored for the Penguins.
PENGUINS TRADE ELLER BACK TO CAPITALS: The Washington Capitals have reunited with veteran center Lars Eller, who was surprised the Pittsburgh Penguins traded him so early in the season.
Washington sent a 2025 fifth-round pick and a 2027 third-round pick to Pittsburgh on Tuesday for Eller, who spent seven seasons with the Capitals and helped the club win the franchise’s first Stanley Cup in 2018 — including the winning goal in the final-clinching Game 5.
“I never really wanted to leave in the first place,” Eller said Wednesday night during the first intermission of the Capitals’ game at home against Toronto. “If anybody had told me when the season started, within two months I was going to be playing for the Caps, I probably wouldn’t believe you. But things change quickly.”
The 35-year-old Eller was in the second season of a two-year deal he signed with the Penguins in the summer of 2023.
Eller has 182 goals and 227 assists in 1,053 games with Montreal, Washington, Colorado and Pittsburgh.