Scheifele’s hat trick gets the Jets past Maple Leafs

NHL HIGHLIGHTS

Mark Scheifele, left, of the Winnipeg Jets celebrates his hat trick goal against the Toronto Maple Leafs with Kyle Connor during the third period of a 5-2 Jets victory in Toronto on Monday. Chris Tanouye / Getty Images

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The Associated Press

Mark Scheifele scored a hat trick and an assist while Kyle Connor collected two goals and an assist to spark the NHL-leading Winnipeg Jets to a 5-2 win over the host Toronto Maple Leafs on Monday.

The Jets enter the Christmas break with back-to-back wins, while the Maple Leafs dropped their second in a row at Scotiabank Arena without wounded captain Auston Matthews (upper body).

John Tavares scored twice for the Maple Leafs and William Nylander extended his point streak to seven games with assists on both of Tavares’ goals.

DEVILS 5, RANGERS 0: Jack Hughes had his second two-goal game of the season against the Rangers and Jacob Markstrom had his second straight 12-save shutout to lead host New Jersey.

Timo Meier, Stefan Noesen and Dawson Mercer also scored for the Devils.

BRUINS 4, CAPITALS 1: Elias Lindholm scored with 6:19 left to break a third-period tie, and host Boston killed a five-minute penalty without allowing a shot on goal on to beat Washington.

Charlie Coyle, Brad Marchand (empty-netter) and Justin Brazeau also scored for the Bruins, who won for the fourth time in five games

Jakub Vrana scored for the Capitals, who are second in the Eastern Conference.

PENGUINS 7, FLYERS 3: Sidney Crosby scored a goal and added three assists to tie Mario Lemieux’s franchise record for most assists in team history and host Pittsburgh beat Philadelphia.

Crosby scored a third-period empty-net goal and helped on three of Pittsburgh’s four first-period goals. Crosby and Lemieux both have 1,033 assists, which ranks 12th all-time in NHL history.

Noah Cates scored his fourth goal in as many games for the Flyers.

LIGHTNING 4, PANTHERS 0: Nikita Kucherov scored before he was ejected for kneeing Matthew Tkachuk and visiting Tampa Bay beat Florida in a chippy game.

Jake Guentzel and Mitchell Chaffee also scored for the Lightning.

Tkachuk had to be helped off the ice and to the dressing room after Kucherov crashed into his right leg late in the first period. Kucherov was given a five-minute major penalty and a game misconduct for the hit, and Tkahcuk returned a couple minutes into the second.