Gameday 29 (Sat, 16 Feb) - Results

Tampa Bay v Florida 6-5 - The Tampa Bay Lightning had a third consecutive third-period comeback Saturday afternoon. This time, they made it count. Benoit Pouliot scored his second goal 1:19 into overtime as the Lightning rallied from a two-goal deficit and snapped a six-game losing streak by beating the Florida Panthers 6-5. In their previous game Thursday, the Lightning trailed 4-1 in the third period before losing 4-3 against Washington. On Tuesday, Tampa Bay erased a 3-0 third-period deficit before losing to Montreal 4-3 in a shootout. Pouliot scored on an easy tap-in after Marc-Andre Bergeron's shot from close range went wide but bounced off the backboards and caromed off the skate of Florida defenseman Tyson Strachan to the front of the net. The Lightning sent the game to overtime when Teddy Purcell scored with 10.4 seconds left in regulation. With Anders Lindback on the bench for an extra attacker, Purcell tied the game after Steven Stamkos won a battle behind the net and fed him a backhand pass in the slot. Purcell was all alone when he one-timed a shot that beat Jose Theodore high to the stick side. Stamkos began Tampa Bay's comeback with his second of the game at 7:28 with a 4-on-3 power-play goal when he one-timed a slap shot from the left faceoff dot. While beating the Panthers for the sixth consecutive time dating back to last season, the Lightning also extended Florida's losing streak to four games (0-1-3). Tampa Bay, which improved to 7-0-0 when leading after the first period, won for the first time since beating Winnipeg 8-3 at home on Feb. 1. Rookie Alexander Killorn scored his first career goal for the Lightning, while Stamkos had two goals and an assist, snapping a five-game goal-less skid. Purcell and Martin St. Louis each had two assists. Lindback, back in net after missing Thursday's game against Washington because of illness, made 25 saves. Jonathan Huberdeau and Tomas Kopecky scored 1:31 apart early in the third period to give Florida a 5-3 lead. Shawn Matthias and Jack Skille each had a goal and an assist for the Panthers, who lost in overtime for the third consecutive game. Jerred Smithson had the other Florida goal, while veteran defenseman Mike Weaver matched his career high with two assists. Jose Theodore stopped 30 shots. It was the second time this week the Panthers squandered a 5-3 third-period lead; they did the same thing Tuesday night in a 6-5 overtime loss to Washington. After not going past regulation in any of their first eight games, the Panthers have played extra hockey five times in their last six. They're 1-4 in those games, the only victory coming in a shootout on Feb. 7 against the Philadelphia Flyers. Florida is 0-4-2 against the Lightning since a 7-4 victory at Tampa Bay on Oct. 17, 2011. The game was tied 3-3 entering the third period after Smithson scored with 4.2 seconds left in the second period. Following a turnover in the Tampa Bay zone, Smithson fired the puck toward the net, but it hit teammate Alex Kovalev instead. Kovalev then put a backhander on net before Smithson poked home the rebound. Smithson had gone 77 games without a goal since scoring against the New Jersey Devils on Oct. 15, 2011 while a member of the Nashville Predators. Huberdeau gave Florida the lead at 1:53 of the third when he redirected Drew Shore's pass across the crease behind Lindback. The goal was Huberdeau's sixth of the season, tying him with St. Louis' Vladimir Tarasenko for the most among rookies in the NHL. Kopecky scored at 3:24 on a delayed penalty. Kopecky scored from a sharp angle after Stephen Weiss' pass attempt to the front of the net was blocked by a Tampa Bay defenseman. After being shut out twice in their last three games, the Panthers needed only 48 seconds to get on the board in this one. Matthias scored the Panthers' fastest goal of the season when he tipped in Weaver's wrist shot from the point. Pouliot tied it at 4:48 after two nifty passes from St. Louis and Vincent Lecavalier, and Killorn scored at 6:51 when his seemingly harmless wrist shot from the slot found its way between Theodore's pads. Skille tied the game 2:27 into the second period after Weaver blocked B.J. Crombeen's dump-in attempt at the blue line. Matthias grabbed the loose puck and flipped a backhanded saucer pass to the slot to Skille, who one-timed it past Lindback. Stamkos gave Tampa Bay the lead again at 1:15 later on a rebound after Theodore had made a spectacular save on Purcell's redirection.

Ottawa v Toronto 0-3 - Ben Scrivens stopped 34 shots for his first NHL shutout as the Maple Leafs (9-6-0) beat the Senators (7-6-2) 3-0 at Air Canada Centre for their fifth win in six games. Scrivens, recently forced into a starting role with Reimer out due to a lower-body injury, was at his best in the second period when he turned aside all 19 shots from an Ottawa team missing three of its big guns, defenseman Erik Karlsson, center Jason Spezza and forward Milan Michalek. Scrivens denied Sergei Gonchar's deflection early in the period, got his shoulder on Eric Condra's blast from the slot and denied good chances by Zack Smith and rookie Derek Grant. He's now 3-3-0 with a .927 save percentage and the shutout, but he was the first to admit that he had plenty of help against Ottawa. Frazier McLaren and Tyler Bozak scored against Ottawa's Craig Anderson before John-Michael Liles hit the empty net in the final minute. McLaren got his first goal as a Maple Leaf at 3:14 of the opening period, shoveling the rebound of Mark Fraser's shot behind Anderson. Known more for his toughness, McLaren was able to get in scoring position behind Senators defenseman Marc Methot for his second career goal. The other came on Nov. 29, 2009, as a member of the San Jose Sharks. With Mike Brown returning from injury, McLaren was projected to be a scratch; instead, , coach Randy Carlyle kept him in the lineup and removed David Steckel. Jay McClement spent time centering the fourth line and was instrumental in setting up the opening tally. McClement controlled the puck off the cycle and found Fraser for the point shot, earning him the second assist on the play. McLaren's goal was a rude awakening for a trio of recent call-ups by the Senators. Defenseman Eric Gryba along with forwards Dave Dziurzynski and Grant, all playing in their first NHL game, were on the ice when the goal was scored. After a scoreless second period in which Ottawa controlled most of the play, Bozak gave the Leafs some insurance at 8:32 of the third. The Senators argued that Bozak kicked Dion Phaneuf's slap pass behind Anderson, but the goal was allowed after a video review. The Senators began to go hard to the net after the midway point in the third, but their dogged pursuit of a goal may have cost them an attempt to get back in the game. Mika Zibanejad was assessed a minor penalty for goaltender interference at 13:55, leaving the Senators down a man at a key time in the game. Liles scored his first of the season into the empty net with 38 seconds left. Anderson, who entered the game with a League-leading .949 save percentage, stopped 26 shots, including an excellent right pad stop on James Van Riemsdyk in the second period. Blanked on the scoresheet and with some of their top offensive threats sidelined indefinitely, the Senators tried to stay upbeat after losing for the fourth time in five games. Prior to the opening faceoff, Toronto celebrated the 50th anniversary of the 1963 Maple Leafs team that won the Stanley Cup. Nine players from that team are now in the Hall of Fame, including Dave Keon who made a rare appearance at Air Canada Centre for the ceremony.

Philadelphia v Montreal 1-4 - The Montreal Canadiens and Philadelphia Flyers are moving in opposite directions nearly a third of the way through the season, but that's not unexpected. What's surprising is the direction each team is going. Brendan Gallagher and Rene Bourque each had a goal and an assist, and Peter Budaj made 18 saves to earn his first win of the season as the Canadiens ran their win streak to three games with a 4-1 victory against the struggling Flyers on Saturday. The victory allowed the Canadiens (9-4-1) to take over first place in the Northeast Division from the idle Boston Bruins, who hold two games in hand. Following a 6-0 beating at the hands of the Toronto Maple Leafs on home ice last Saturday that was Montreal's third loss in a row, the Canadiens swept a two-game road trip in Florida before soundly defeating the Flyers to erase the only rough patch they've gone through thus far. The Flyers (6-9-1) lost for the second time in as many nights and a third time in four games to remain near the bottom of the Eastern Conference. The Flyers have played more games than anyone in the League and could be last in the East if the three teams behind them win their games in hand. David Desharnais and Tomas Plekanec scored, and Max Pacioretty added two assists for the Canadiens. Danny Briere got the lone goal for the Flyers. It was the first time in nine games the Flyers were unable to generate more than a goal, and captain Claude Giroux said he and his teammates did not want it bad enough to get a second one. Things could be getting worse for the Flyers. This was the second of four straight games on the road, and their record away from home is 2-8-0. Brian Boucher made 25 saves in goal to lose the battle of the backup goalies in his first start of the season. Budaj was called on to start when Carey Price came down with a stomach flu Friday night. The Flyers came out very slow after having lost 5-3 to the New Jersey Devils on Friday night, getting their second shot on goal at 14:23 of the first and not getting another one before the intermission. Gallagher scored his fifth of the season, moving him within one of the League leaders for rookies, but he did not finish the game after falling awkwardly into the boards early in the third period. Pacioretty also left the game after crashing into the goalpost in the Philadelphia end at 11:52 of the third. Therrien did not have an update on either after the game other than they were both upper-body injuries. Therrien moved Gallagher onto a line with Pacioretty and Desharnais for the first time, and the trio combined for five points. Flyers defenseman Kimmo Timonen, who did not play in the third period Friday night in New Jersey, was in uniform and played a regular shift. But he was victimized on the opening goal when Gallagher took a Pacioretty feed, quickly stopped to shed Timonen's coverage and beat Boucher with a quick shot at 8:53 of the first period. It was the 11th time in their 14 games the Canadiens scored the first goal, and they improved to 8-2-1 when doing so. Desharnais scored his fourth of the season at 1:15 of the second on a nice effort by Pacioretty to get the puck out front from behind the net before the Canadiens took four straight penalties in the period. But Briere's goal did not come on a power play; what appeared to be a fanned shot hit the skate of Montreal defenseman Andrei Markov and dribbled past Budaj at 13:56 of the second. The goal came on the Flyers' seventh shot. It might have been their eighth were it not for P.K. Subban, who saved one by blocking a Tye McGinn shot with a wide-open net after Budaj turned over the puck. Plekanec re-established Montreal's two-goal margin at 4:32 of the third period on some nice work by Bourque, who blocked a Brayden Schenn clearing attempt before finding Plekanec alone in the slot area. Plekanec moved across the net and tried to surprise Boucher by spinning around for a shot, but it was blocked by Braydon Coburn. Plekanec was able to retrieve the puck and, with Boucher still sitting on the ice, fired a shot high for his team-best seventh of the season. Bourque iced the victory with an empty-net goal at 18:56 of the third.

New Jersey v NY Islanders 1-5 - For a while, it seemed as though the New York Islanders would never solve Johan Hedberg. The New Jersey Devils' goaltender, who shut out the Isles in this building just 13 days ago, spent the early portion of Saturday night's game making one dazzling save after another. One began to assume frustration would set in and the Islanders would lose for the sixth time in seven tries on home ice. John Tavares scored twice during a three-goal binge late in the second period and completed his fourth career hat trick in the third, helping the Islanders move back within a game of the .500 mark with a 5-1 victory at Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum. Tavares, the top pick in the 2009 NHL Draft, now has goals in five consecutive games and is tied with Buffalo's Thomas Vanek and Pittsburgh's James Neal for the League lead with 11 in 14 games. Tavares, who also had an assist, wasn't the only Islander to contribute to the team's second straight win. Matt Moulson had a goal and three assists, Brad Boyes had two assists and Evgeni Nabokov made 30 saves for the Islanders (6-7-1), who host the Philadelphia Flyers on Monday afternoon. Marek Zidlicky scored the lone goal for New Jersey, which lost at the Coliseum for the first time in three meetings this season. The Devils (9-3-3), who went 1-for-5 on the power play, host the Ottawa Senators on Monday. Hedberg (2-1-1) made two big saves just over a minute into the game. After getting his pad on a wrister by Moulson from the slot, he stretched across the crease and robbed Boyes on the rebound. David Ullstrom had a golden opportunity to get the Islanders on the board late in the first period, when he was awarded a penalty shot after being hooked from behind on a breakaway by Devils defenseman Henrik Tallinder. But Ullstrom, who returned to the lineup after being a healthy scratch Thursday night, hit the crossbar on a backhand attempt. It was the second penalty shot for the Islanders in a week; Tavares also hit the post against Buffalo last Saturday. Hedberg has allowed only two goals on 11 penalty shots in his NHL career. He came up with another huge save less than five minutes into the second period. With the teams skating 4-on-4, Frans Nielsen made a backhand feed into the slot, where Michael Grabner was all alone. But Hedberg sprawled out to make a dazzling save with his right pad, robbing the speedy winger from point-blank range. New York finally solved Hedberg with 3:14 remaining in the second period when Tavares tallied his ninth goal of the season. With the teams at even strength, Boyes fired a wrister from the right circle that Hedberg denied with his right pad. But Tavares was right there for the rebound and ripped it into an open net to give the Islanders a 1-0 lead. He doubled the lead just 1:23 later. Just moments after Salvador was penalized for retaliating to a hit by Matt Martin, the Islanders cashed in as Tavares swatted Moulson's rebound past Hedberg from just in front of the crease to make it 2-0. While it won't land on the scoresheet, it clearly was the work of Martin to draw the penalty on Salvador that led to the Islanders' second goal. Indeed, New York's improvements on the fourth line this season (Martin, Casey Cizikas and Colin McDonald) are beginning to pay huge dividends. Another Devils' penalty, this one on Tallinder, allowed the Islanders to grab a 3-0 lead. Moulson scored his seventh goal of the season with 53.4 seconds left in the period when he took a nice feed by Boyes from behind the net and quickly whacked it past Hedberg. It marked the first time Hedberg allowed more than two goals in his four appearances this season. New York finished 3-for-6 with the man advantage. Zidlicky got New Jersey on the board via the power play 8:47 into the third period. With Isles captain Mark Streit in the box, Zidlicky took a pass from Patrik Elias and rifled a slap shot from the right point past Nabokov to make it 3-1. It was Zidlicky's first goal of the season. Ilya Kovalchuk notched the secondary assist on the goal, extending his point streak to six games. He has 10 points (three goals, seven assists) in that span. It was also Kovalchuk's 800th NHL point. Tavares completed the hat trick on a power-play goal with 5:15 remaining. Just as a two-man advantage expired, Tavares took a pass from Streit and unleashed a gorgeous wrist shot from the right circle that rocketed just underneath the crossbar to make it 4-1. Grabner added his sixth of the season with 35 seconds left.

Anaheim v Nashville 3-2 - Pekka Rinne's shutout streak ended. Viktor Fasth's winning streak did not. Fasth's Anaheim Ducks defeated Rinne's Nashville Predators 3-2 in a shootout Saturday night at Bridgestone Arena. Fasth has opened his NHL career by going 8-0-0, including four shootout victories. He made 32 saves before stopping two of three attempts in the tiebreaker. Ray Emery of the Chicago Blackhawks holds the record by winning his first nine NHL starts. Corey Perry scored the shootout winner after Nick Bonino got one past Rinne in the opening round. The Ducks, now 11-2-1, have won four in a row and eight out of nine, including a franchise-best five of six on this just-finished road trip. Anaheim had to kill off a Nashville power play at the start of overtime due to a bench minor for too many men near the end of regulation. Mike Fisher had a redirection that went off the crossbar. Rinne allowed his first goal in almost eight periods, and Predators defenseman Shea Weber scored his first of the season. Weber's goal, the 100th of his career, was a long shot from the right-wing boards that likely deflected off Anaheim defenseman Luca Sbisa and went past Fasth at 9:31 of the second period. It came 30 seconds after Nashville killed off a 5-on-3 power play during which it allowed just one shot on goal. For Weber, who signed a 14-year, $110 million contract this offseason, it was his third point and first regular-season goal since March 31, 2012. Ducks forward Patrick Maroon scored his first NHL goal to tie the game 2-2 at 16:08 of the second. Kyle Palmieri skated out from behind the Nashville net, up the left-wing boards, turned and took a shot that Maroon, a 24-year-old picked in the 2007 draft, deflected past Rinne. Anaheim's Matt Beleskey tied the game 1-1 when his hard shot from the slot off a behind-the-net feed from Perry beat Rinne glove side with 2:35 left in the first. That ended Rinne's scoreless streak at 155:06. He had not allowed a goal since Chicago's Patrick Kane scored 4:27 into the third period of a 3-0 loss to the Blackhawks on Feb. 10. Rinne shut out the San Jose Sharks and Phoenix Coyotes in his next two starts, then made 20 saves Yesterday. Nashville's David Legwand scored in front of Fasth 13:31 into the game, 14 seconds after a Predators power play ended. A shot by Jonathon Blum created a short rebound that Legwand swept in. Personally I was hoping Nashville could have won, as I followed the game online, and I have a new friend who is a big Predator's fan, but they went as close as anyone has to beating the Ducks in recent games.

Columbus v Phoenix 3-5 - Martin Hanzal had eight goals in 64 injury-plagued games last season, and the Phoenix Coyotes missed the production from his power game around the net. Hanzal has been a constant presence in the crease this season, and the results are showing. Hanzal ended an 0-for-17 Phoenix power-play drought by sweeping home his own rebound in the crease 8:18 into the third period to break a tie, then added an empty-netter as the Coyotes beat the struggling Columbus Blue Jackets 5-3 at Jobing.com Arena on Saturday night. Hanzal has played only 11 games this season but leads the team with seven goals; he has 10 points after Saturday's three-point night. The Coyotes have won five of seven and are 6-2-2 after a 1-4-0 start. Keith Yandle added three assists to tie a career high and Steve Sullivan had two, the first was the 450th of his career, the second his 50th career point in 49 career games against Columbus. Phoenix cashed in on only one of seven power-play chances, but it was enough to win. The Blue Jackets, who played without center Artem Anisimov and defenseman James Wisniewski and lost forward Brandon Dubinsky during the game, lost for the second time in as many nights to start a six-game road trip and have won just once in their last six games. Hanzal was standing two feet from the net when he got the tic-tac-toe pass from Yandle and Sullivan. He put his first shot off the post before collecting and stuffing home the rebound to put Phoenix ahead for the third and final time. Jared Boll, Matt Calvert and Derek MacKenzie scored in the first 40 minutes for Columbus and David Moss, Radim Vrbata and Kyle Chipchura matched for Phoenix. Vrbata, who leads Phoenix with 12 points, left the game in the second period with a lower-body injury and did not return. Steve Mason made 30 saves for Columbus, while Mike Smith made 17 saves for his fifth win of the season. The Coyotes, who scored just three goals on the three-game road trip they completed with Thursday's 3-0 loss at Nashville, had three in the first 17:40 on Saturday, and nine different players got on the scoresheet. They did it despite coming up empty on three power-play chances. The Blue Jackets scored on their first shot just 2:07 into the game when Boll flipped a puck from the half boards toward the Phoenix net and it deflected off the skate of Hanzal and past a surprised Smith. The Coyotes didn't have a shot in the first five minutes but cashed in on their first chance. Mikkel Boedker's shot on the rush was stopped by Mason, but Moss, coming out of the box after serving a hooking penalty, crashed the crease and put home the rebound at 5:30 for his second goal of the season and first point in seven games. Phoenix took the lead 1:30 lead later when Vrbata settled down Hanzal's saucer pass and ripped it past Mason for his first goal in seven games. But Phoenix's lead lasted all of a minute until Calvert and Nick Foligno came in 2-on-1 on Smith. Calvert held the puck and beat Smith with a shot off the post at 8:00 to tie it. The Coyotes scored the fifth goal of the period and regained the lead at 17:40 on a nice play by ex-Blue Jacket Raffi Torres, who won a puck battle in the neutral zone and fed a speeding Yandle in stride. Yandle teed up Chipchura in the slot for a one-time that beat Mason cleanly for his first goal to cap a wild first 20 minutes. Columbus kept coming and pulled even 5:16 of the second on a pretty play by two players who had three combined points this season. MacKenzie flattened Torres at the Columbus blue line, stole, fed Boll and kept skating for a return pass up the slot. MacKenzie kept his shot on the ice and it skidded past Smith to make it 3-3. That's the way it stayed until Fedor Tyutin's interference penalty finally cost Columbus.

Colorado v Edmonton 4-6 - The Edmonton Oilers just would not be denied, even after spotting Colorado a three-goal lead in the second period before roaring back with five unanswered goals for a 6-4 victory on Saturday night. Magnus Paajarvi, who dressed only because Lennart Petrell was hit in the head by a puck during warmups and couldn't play, broke a 4-4 tie when he scored with 1:34 left in regulation. Paajarvi tapped his game-winner into a wide-open net after Ryan Smyth, back in the lineup after being a healthy scratch on Tuesday, one-handed a perfect pass across the crease. Jordan Eberle, whose power-play goal midway through the final period tied the game, added an empty-netter with 1:09 remaining. Eberle's second goal came on the Oilers' team-record 56th shot as Edmonton became the first team in the NHL this season to win a game after trailing by three goals. Colorado lost for the fourth time in five games and fell to 5-7-1 despite a 50-save performance by Semyon Varlamov, who was left to fend for himself for much of the night. The 50 saves are the second-highest total in team history; Patrick Roy stopped 51 shots at Toronto on Dec. 10, 1997. The Avalanche needed only 1:22 to grab a quick 1-0 lead. John Mitchell won an offensive-zone draw to Milan Hejduk, who snapped a quick shot that Devan Dubnyk stopped but didn't control. Cody McLeod crashed the crease, found the loose puck next to Dubnyk before defenseman Ryan Whitney did and backhanded it into the net for his second of the season. Colorado then silenced the sellout crowd of 16,839 with two goals in 24 seconds late in the period, both set up by Edmonton misplays. Matt Duchene raced down the right side, realized that he was coming in on forward Sam Gagner rather than a defenseman, and cut toward the net. But before he could get off a shot, the puck slid off his stick, and through Dubnyk's legs at 18:47 for his sixth of the season. Duchene, the third player picked in the 2009 NHL Draft, then set up a 2-on-1 by tapping the puck to himself in the neutral zone. He carried into the Edmonton zone and set up Ted McGinn for a wide-open 10-footer that Dubnyk had no chance on. The Oilers (6-5-3) got nothing from their first 22 shots at Varlamov, but they capitalized on a lucky bounce to get on the board with 3.1 seconds left in the period. Off the faceoff following a boarding penalty to McLeod on an icing call, Taylor Hall's shot from the point hit the glove of Colorado defenseman Matt Hunwick and bounced right to Ales Hemsky, who slammed it home for his sixth of the season. Nikolai Khabibulin replaced Dubnyk to start the second period after Dubnyk allowed three goals on 12 shots in the first. But Duchene's speed continued to be more than the Oilers could handle. He raced up ice to back off the defense and fed McGinn, whose pass set up Mitchell for a one-timer past Khabibulin at 6:24 of the second period for a 4-1 lead. Still, the Avs led by three goals well into the middle period before the Oilers scored twice in 59 seconds to cut the deficit to one. Ryan Nugent-Hopkins took a pass from Hall and one-timed it past Varlamov at 15:59 for his first goal in 28 games. Hemsky then scored his second of the night after Smyth forced a turnover in the Colorado zone. Hemsky undressed defenseman Shane O'Brien and deked Varlamov before sliding the puck into an empty net at 16:58 for his seventh of the season to make it 4-3. Eberle was wide-open just off the left post when he took a feed from Gagner, played the puck off his foot and zipped it into the open side of the net to tie the game.