BOSTON (AP) — Garnet Hathaway broke a third-period tie to lead Boston to a 3-2 victory over the Detroit Red Wings on Saturday, giving the Bruins their 50th win of the season — making them the fastest team to reach the milestone in NHL history.
The Bruins needed only 64 games to reach 50 wins, beating the record of 66 set by the 1995-96 Red Wings and matched by the 2018-19 Lightning. The Bruins also became the first team to clinch a playoff berth this season when the Washington Capitals beat the New York Islanders.
Hampus Lindholm and Patrice Bergeron scored 88 seconds apart to help Boston rally from a two-goal deficit, and Linus Ullmark stopped 30 shots. The Bruins have won 11 of their last 12.
Magnus Hellberg made 35 saves for Detroit, which has lost seven of eight. Andrew Copp scored a short-handed goal in the second minute of the first period, and Alex Chiasson also scored.
RANGERS 2, SABRES 1, OT
BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP) — Artemi Panarin converted a blocked shot to score a power-play goal 2:02 into overtime and New York won for the fourth time in six games.
Patrick Kane scored his second goal in four games since being acquired by the Rangers in a trade with Chicago, and Igor Shesterkin overcame a near costly miscue to finish with 32 saves in one of his strongest outings in weeks.
The Rangers maintained their hold on third place in the Metropolitan Division and continued their domination of their cross-state rivals by improving to 10-0-1 in the past 11 meetings.
Jeff Skinner scored and Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen stopped 24 shots.
PREDATORS 2, KINGS 1, SO
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Matt Duchene scored in the second round of the shootout and Nashville snapped Los Angeles’ five-game winning streak.
Duchene, who scored his 27th shootout goal in 71 chances, put a shot between Kings goalie Pheonix Copley’s legs for the only score in the tiebreaker.
Tommy Novak scored for the Predators and Kevin Lankinen made 26 saves.
Mikey Anderson had the Kings’ goal in regulation, and Copley stopped 30 shots.
AVALANCHE 3, COYOTES 2, OT
DENVER (AP) — Cale Makar scored at 1:38 of overtime, Nathan MacKinnon ran his franchise-record home goals streak to nine games and Colorado beat Arizona.
MacKinnon also extended his home points streak to 16 games. Denis Malgin opened the scoring for Colorado in the first period, Alexandar Georgiev made 18 saves and Mikko Rantanen had two assists.
Jack McBain and Clayton Keller scored for Arizona in the first period, with Keller giving the…