
NEWARK, N.J. -- Brian Boyle scored one of the most meaningful goals of his career to help the New Jersey Devils beat the Vancouver Canucks 3-2 on Friday night.
The Devils were marking "Hockey Fights Cancer Night," a battle especially meaningful to Boyle, who was diagnosed with chronic myelogenous leukemia during training camp and missed the first 10 games of the season while undergoing treatment.
The Prudential Center erupted with cheers when Boyle, set up by a beautiful drop pass from Will Butcher, scored at 10:17 of the second period to snap a 1-1 tie.
Taylor Hall got the second assist as part of his big night. The Devils' leading scorer had a goal and two assists as the Devils picked up points in a third straight game (2-0-1).
Damon Severson also scored for New Jersey and Cory Schneider made 23 saves to improve to 6-1-2 against the team that made him a first-round draft pick in 2004.
The win gave the Devils a sweep of the two-game season series, having beaten the Canucks 2-0 in Vancouver on Nov. 1 (see full recap).
Pastrnak goal in 3rd lifts Bruins past Penguins
BOSTON -- Matt Grzelcyk scored his first career goal, David Krejci had a goal and an assist and the Boston Bruins stretched their season-long winning streak to four straight in a 4-3 win over the Pittsburgh Penguins on Friday.
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David Pastrnak's goal on a breakaway 5:06 into the third broke a 3-all tie and Anton Khudobin shut out the Penguins the rest of the way to win his fourth straight start. Khudobin finished with 17 saves for Boston, which outshot Pittsburgh 33-20 and has its longest winning streak of the season.
Sydney Crosby had a goal and an assist for Pittsburgh, which rallied from deficits of 2-0 and 3-1 to tie it with three goals in the second period. Jake Guentzel and Phil Kessel also scored for the Penguins, who lost their third straight.
After being outshot 14-4 in the first period, Pittsburgh pulled within 2-1 just 1:02 into the second on a one-timer by Jake Guentzel with assists by Crosby and Kris Letang.
Grzelcyk put Boston back up 3-1 at 10:31 of the second, when Krejci misfired on a slap shot from the blue line and the puck slowly, found Grzelcyk for a wrist shot that hit Murray's glove and continued into the net. Grzelcyk is the seventh Boston player to score his first career goal this season (see full recap).
Atkinson scores twice as Columbus tops Ottawa
COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Cam Atkinson scored twice to lift Columbus over the Ottawa Senators 5-2 on Friday night, extending the Blue Jackets' league-high winning streak to six games.
Sergei Bobrovsky turned back 24 shots for his 14th win in 19 starts. Columbus improved to 15-7-1 and leads the Metropolitan Division with 31 points.
Ottawa's Craig Anderson stopped 27 shots as the Senators (8-7-6) lost their fifth straight.
Tom Pyatt got the scoring started off the Senators' second shot in the first period, taking a cross-crease pass from a driving Derick Brassard and going top shelf over Bobrovsky's left shoulder. It was Pyatt's fourth goal of the season, assisted also by Mark Stone.
Atkinson tied the score less than 30 seconds later, stealing the puck from Alex Burrows just inside the Jackets' blue line and creating his own breakaway. He slipped the puck under Anderson's left skate for his fifth goal of the season. It was Atkinson's first score in eight games.
A shot got behind Bobrovsky 17 seconds into the second period but was swept off the goal line by Boone Jenner without crossing (see full recap).
Streaking Jets roll past Ducks on Ehlers' 2 goals
ANAHEIM, Calif. -- Nikolaj Ehlers scored two goals in the game's first 5 minutes, and the streaking Winnipeg Jets went on to beat the Anaheim Ducks 4-1 on Friday.
The Jets have won six of their last seven.
Bryan Little also had a goal and two assists for Winnipeg. Ehler added an assist to his two goals. Kyle Connor scored an empty-net goal from the red line, his sixth goal of the season.
Conner Hellebuyck stopped 30 shots for the Jets.
Anaheim's lone goal came from Francois Beauchemin. John Gibson stopped 34 of 36 shots for the Ducks.
Winnipeg scored on two of its three power plays, while Anaheim was unable to score during its two man-advantage situations.
The Jets went up 3-1 on a power play midway through the second period, Little slipping one past Gibson. Little assisted on Winnipeg's first two goals (see full recap).