NHL: Quinton Byfield scored a great goal against the Blue Jackets

LOS ANGELES — There are those goals that leave a lasting impression, and the one Quinton Byfield scored Tuesday night is on that list.

The Los Angeles Kings forward scored one of the best goals of the season in the National League against the Columbus Blue Jackets.

The Kings (28-16-10) finally won 5-1, posting their fourth straight win since being humiliated 7-0 by the Buffalo Sabres a week ago.

Byfield grabbed the puck from the standoff in his own zone and carried it toward enemy territory. He then used a nifty trick to get rid of Zach Werenski by sliding the puck between the defender's skates.

He passed under the nose of Adam Boqvist, who was in the front row, to see the Kings player beat goalie Elvis Merzlikins with a backhand shot to open the scoring for Los Angeles.

Byfield is 21 years old and having the best season of his young career. He just scored his 18th goal of the season and has 42 points on his record.

He also made a partner at the net midway through the period for Pierre-Luc Dubois. His personal high was 22 points last season.

Dubois scored another goal ten minutes after his first goal of the evening. It was only the second time this season, and the first since mid-October, that the Quebec team collected a brace in a game.

Veteran goaltender Cam Talbot stopped 33 shots. He has won both of his starts since returning from an appearance in the NHL All-Star Game.

Other scorers for the Kings were Kevin Fiala and Drew Doughty, both late in the first period.

Only Boqvist has threaded the needle for Columbus (17-27-10).

Ovechkin continues his momentum

Alex Ovechkin is really on the move and now we wonder how far behind Wayne Gretzky he will finish the season.

The forward found the back of the net twice, giving him eight straight goals in as many games, in the Washington Capitals' 6-2 win over the New Jersey Devils on Tuesday.

The 38-year-old Russian has 16 goals to his name this season and 838 since the start of his career. He's certainly still a long way from Gretzky's 894, but his streak dating back to January 27 is enough to reignite discussions in this race. The only game he hasn't scored in since then was last Saturday against the Montreal Canadiens.

Ovechkin beat Niko Daus with a quick shot after a face-off won by Dylan Strome midway through the third period. Then he raised the score to 4-1 international match. Just under five minutes earlier, Aoife spotted Strom in the pocket and the latter flashed the red light.

He returned to the power play late in the game. Once again, on a handoff from Strome, the Caps captain added to his tally by easily pushing the puck past Daws.

Connor McMichael also scored twice and Michael Sgarbossa was the other scorer in the Caps' win. Max Pacioretty had an assist. Charlie Lindgren had a good performance in front of the Capitals cage, making 37 saves.

This setback hurts the Devils who are looking to stay in the playoff picture. They are four points behind the Detroit Red Wings and are in last place among teams drafted in the East. Alexander Holtz and Erik Haula scored the defeat for the New Jersey team. Doss finished his evening with six goals allowed on 25 shots.

But the Capitals lost the services of midfielder Nick Dodd, who left the game in the first half due to an upper body injury.

Shesterkin smokes the Rangers' eighth straight

Igor Shesterkin made 41 saves, and the New York Rangers recorded their eighth straight win, this time by a score of 3 to 1 over the Dallas Stars.

The Rangers' last winning streak of at least eight wins dates back to the 2015-16 season.

Adam Fox, Kaapo Kakko and Vincent Trocheck have pulled the ropes for the Rangers in this duel between the leaders of the Metropolitan and Central divisions.

Miro Heiskanen scored the only goal for the Stars, who lost their second match in as many days. They lost 4-3 in a shootout on Monday to the Boston Bruins.

Scott Wedgwood stopped 23 of the 25 shots he faced.

The Rangers are 9-1-1 in their last 11 games. They dramatically won the Stadium Series game 6-5 in overtime against the New York Islanders on Sunday at MetLife Stadium.

Shesterkin improved his personal record to 23-12-1 and allowed two or fewer goals in 17 of his wins. He made an acrobatic glove save on Wyatt Johnston at 17:28 of the second period and turned away several chances in the slot late in the third.

He particularly frustrated veteran Tyler Seguin by making a miraculous save with his stick, when Seguin thought he had a big net, with about five minutes remaining in the duel.

The Rangers have won four of their last five meetings against the Stars.

No fireworks and victory for the wild

The Minnesota Wild clearly left a lot of their offense on the ice from Monday's ten-goal game as they were no match for the Winnipeg Jets, who won 6-3.

Yesterday, the Wild defeated the Vancouver Canucks after a 17-goal marathon.

The Jets made their mark on this game by scoring the first three goals of the game, including goals from Gabriel Vilardi and Mason Appleton within 14 seconds of the first period. Those are the Jets' two fastest goals since the Dec. 10, 2019 game when they scored two goals in a span of 11 seconds.

Vilardi finished the match with two goals and an assist. For his part, Kyle Connor reached the 20-goal plateau for the seventh time in his career, in addition to being a partner in two other goals for the Jets.

Sean Monahan loves scoring. After a hat-trick the day before, the former Montreal Canadiens tight end scored his 18th goal midway through the third period.

Nino Niederreiter completed the empty net.

Adam Lowry and Josh Morrissey each had two assists in the win.

After trailing by four goals, the Wild tried to come back from two goals down at the end of the third period, but the damage had already been done. Marco Rossi scored twice while Kirill Kaprizov scored his 24th goal of the season.

Laurent Brossoit made 29 saves to seal the win while Marc-Andre Fleury was stopped five times on 27 shots.

The Preds cause an upset in Vegas

Tommy Novak scored his fourth goal in five games to lead the Nashville Predators to victory over the Vegas Golden Knights 5-3.

Former Golden Knights Cody Glass scored the winning goal. Luke Evangelista, Cole Smith and Gustav Nyquist were the other scorers for the Predators.

Roman Josi and Ryan McDonagh each had two assists in the win. In his first start since Jan. 27, Kevin Lankinen made 23 saves.

The Predators have won two games in a row for the first time since Jan. 12-13.

Alex Pietrangelo, William Karlsson and Michael Amadeo answered for Nevada, which was playing its second game in as many evenings. Adin Hill made 35 stops.