Five players scored a goal apiece Tuesday night for the Boston Bruins, who remained red-hot with a 5-1 win over the New York Islanders at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, N.Y.
Danton Heinen scored in the first, Patrice Bergeron scored the go-ahead goal in the second and Brad Marchand and Tim Schaller provided insurance goals in the third for the Bruins (22-10-6), who capped the scoring with an empty-netter by Noel Acciari with 2:13 left. Boston has won seven of its last 10 (7-1-2).
Bruins goalie Tuukka Rask, who was named the NHL’s first star of the month for December earlier Tuesday, recorded 25 saves in winning his sixth straight start. Rask went 9-0-1 last month.
Jordan Eberle scored for the Islanders (20-16-4), who have lost three straight (0-3-0) and seven of 10 (3-6-1). Goalie Jaroslav Halak made 33 saves.
Both teams scored goals immediately off faceoffs within a 73-second span shortly before the midway point of the first.
After the Bruins’ Riley Nash won a faceoff deep in the New York zone with John Tavares, the puck bounced to Heinen, whose shot from the circle sailed past Halak 8:17 into the period.
Bergeron won his faceoff against the Islanders’ Mathew Barzal in the Boston zone, after which the puck skittered towards the net as Eberle and Bruins defenseman Brandon Carlo chased after it. But Carlo fell, which left Eberle all alone in front of Rask. Eberle maneuvered the puck to the left of the net and, with Rask falling to the right, tucked a shot into the corner.
Bergeron put the Bruins ahead with an unusual goal 8:28 into the second. Brad Marchand’s shot from point-blank range skipped over the head of Halak and behind the net, where Bergeron caught it, dropped it and wrapped a shot off the back of Halak’s skate and into the back of the net. Marchand and Schaller scored a little less than six minutes apart in the third to put the game away for the Bruins.

Ovechkin guides Caps past Hurricanes
Alex Ovechkin scored the tying and winning goals as the Washington Capitals rallied for a 5-4 overtime victory against the Carolina Hurricanes on Tuesday night in Raleigh, N.C.
Ovechkin’s 26th goal of the season came unassisted 1:57 into overtime as the Metropolitan Division-leading Capitals snapped Carolina’s six-game, home-ice winning streak. Ovechkin tied the game at 4-4 with 7:15 to play in regulation. Alex Chiasson, Devante Smith-Pelly and Dmitry Orlov also scored for the Capitals, who were playing in their only game of the week.
Carolina (18-13-8) lost its second game in a row following a season-high, four-game winning streak. Victor Rask collected two goals for the Hurricanes, and Elias Lindholm and Teuvo Teravainen also scored.