Highlights of Thursday's NHL games

[February 24, 2017]  Feb 23 (The Sports Xchange) - Highlights of National Hockey League games on Thursday:

Predators 4, Avalanche 2

Filip Forsberg's torrid week continued Thursday night.

The Nashville Predators' right winger registered his second straight hat trick, lifting his team to a 4-2 win over the Colorado Avalanche at Bridgestone Arena.

Viktor Arvidsson also scored for the Predators, while Roman Josi and Ryan Johansen each bagged two assists. Pekka Rinne stopped 20 shots to earn the win as the Predators swept the season series from Colorado (16-40-3) 5-0-0.

Jarome Iginla led the Avalanche with a goal and an assist, while Patrick Wiercioch also contributed a goal. Jeremy Smith saved 25 of 28 shots in only his second NHL start.

Blackhawks 6, Coyotes 3

Patrick Kane registered his third career hat trick, and Jonathan Toews had two assists as Chicago won for the eighth time in their last nine games, beating Arizona.

Nick Schmaltz, Ryan Hartman and Michal Rozsival also scored for the Blackhawks.

Jakub Chychrun, Ryan White and Radim Vrbata registered the goals for the Coyotes, who got two assists from Alexander Burmistrov and 23 saves from goalie Mike Smith.

Rangers 2, Maple Leafs 1 (SO)

Mika Zibanejad scored the decisive goal in a shootout to give New York a victory over Toronto.

Connor Brown scored a first-period goal for the Maple Leafs and J.T. Miller tied the game for the Rangers in the third period.

Each goaltender was called upon to make big saves. Toronto's Frederik Andersen stopped 37 shots New York's Henrik Lundqvist made 32 saves.

Islanders 3, Canadiens 0

Anthony Beauvillier, Anders Lee and John Tavares scored as New York topped Montreal to improve to 12-4-2 under interim coach Doug Weight.

Carey Price stopped 21 shots for the Canadiens, who haven't won consecutive games since the first week of January. Thomas Greiss made 24 saves for the Islanders to register his third shutout of the season, all since mid-January.

Flames 3, Lightning 2

Calgary continued its strong play on the road, pulling out a win over Tampa Bay at Amalie Arena.

Dougie Hamilton, Mikael Backlund and Sean Monahan scored for the Flames.

Nikita Kucherov and Vladislav Namestnikov replied for the Lightning.

Bruins 4, Kings 1

David Pastrnak scored the decisive goal and Anton Khudobin made 27 saves as the Boston Bruins defeated the Los Angeles Kings 4-1 Thursday.

Brad Marchand also scored while Dominic Moore and David Krejci added empty netters at 18:58 and 19:52 of the third period for the final margin.

Kevin Gravel scored his first NHL goal and Peter Budaj stopped 21 shots for the Kings.

[© 2017 Thomson Reuters. All rights reserved.]

Copyright 2017 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.