Gameday 59 (Mon 18 Mar) - Results

Carolina v NY Rangers 1-2 - The New York Rangers didn't find the offense they've been lacking for the past week, but on Monday night, one goal was good enough for a much-needed two points. Rick Nash and J.T. Miller scored in the shootout and Henrik Lundqvist made 29 saves through 65 minutes and two more in the tiebreaker to give the Rangers a 2-1 victory against the Carolina Hurricanes at Madison Square Garden. The win snapped a three-game losing streak that dropped the Rangers out of the playoff picture in the Eastern Conference. Derek Stepan's eighth goal of the season was all the Rangers could muster before the shootout. It was the fourth straight game in which the Rangers failed to score more than one goal, but all that mattered to the players afterward was finding a way to get a win. The win moved the Rangers into ninth place in the Eastern Conference and within two points of the eighth-place New Jersey Devils. The teams will meet in Newark, N.J., on Tuesday night. If the Rangers want to match the result they earned Monday night, they know they need to play like they did over the final two periods when the outshot the Hurricanes 25-13 and avoid their lackluster play in the first 20 minutes when they left the ice down 1-0 and trailing the Hurricanes 14-6 in shots. The Hurricanes capped a dominant first period when captain Eric Staal scored with 51 seconds remaining to break a scoreless tie. The Rangers' top line, Marian Gaborik-Brad Richards-Rick Nash, was on the ice for an extended shift and had a hard time defending in their own end. Nash nearly tipped the pass of Hurricanes defenseman Joni Pitkanen, but it made it across the ice for Staal's one-timer goal. From that point on, the Rangers began forechecking with more urgency and it paid off with Stepan's goal at 11:06 of the second period. Callahan had his initial shot stopped by goaltender Dan Ellis, who was terrific while making 35 saves, five in overtime, to help the Hurricanes squeeze out a point on the road to move back into first place in the Southeast Division. But Stepan fired home the rebound. Ellis had no chance at the second shot, as he was knocked down by Callahan cutting through his crease. There was no penalty, however, as Callahan was steered into Ellis by Pitkanen. Ellis made a huge save in the final 11 seconds of regulation, getting a pad on a tough shot by Gaborik to make sure the Hurricanes earned at least a point. The Rangers came out firing on the first shift of overtime, and defenseman Ryan McDonagh nearly won it 27 seconds into the extra session. The Hurricanes became preoccupied with the stickhandling of Nash, who fed a streaking McDonagh for a 1-on-1 chance with Ellis. Despite faking the goaltender to the ice, McDonagh shot the puck over the net from just above the goal line. In the shootout, Nash beat Ellis by forcing the goaltender to his right, then one-handing the puck into an open net on his backhand. Lundqvist stopped Jiri Tlusty, then Callahan missed the net attempting his patented wrist shot high to the blocker side, and Alexander Semin hit the post on the backhand with Lundqvist out of position. That's when it came down to Miller, who turned a near gaffe into a goal that put the game away. The 20-year-old went to the net slowly and attempted to deke to his backhand. Instead, he lost control, but was able to corral the bouncing puck and beat Ellis from a sharp angle. Reuniting Gaborik, Richards and Nash didn't lead to the offensive spark coach John Tortorella wanted Monday, but the trio had 10 shots and hope some of those start to find the back of the net against the Devils on Tuesday.

Philadelphia v Tampa Bay 2-4 - On the night he became the fourth-youngest player in NHL history to reach the 200-goal mark, Steven Stamkos wanted to talk instead about Teddy Purcell instead. Stamkos' milestone came on an empty-netter after Purcell scored the tiebreaking goal midway through the third period as the Tampa Bay Lightning beat the Philadelphia Flyers 4-2 on Monday night. The Flyers overcame two one-goal leads to tie the game before Purcell put the Lightning ahead to stay at 9:25 of the final period by deflecting defenseman Keith Aulie's point shot behind Ilya Bryzgalov. Purcell has scored in back-to-back games after going 13 games without a goal. Stamkos iced the win when he scaled the puck into the empty net with 3.0 seconds remaining to become the fourth-youngest player to score 200 goals, only Wayne Gretzky, Mario Lemieux and Dale Hawerchuk did it faster. It was his League-leading 21st of the season. The Lightning (13-15-1) won for the second time in three nights. Philadelphia (13-16-1) fell to 4-12-0 away from home. The Flyers knotted the game for the second time when Lightning forward Cory Conacher failed to get good wood on his clearing attempt. The puck trickled to Claude Giroux, who beat goaltender Anders Lindback with a snap shot from the slot at 15:21 of the second period for his ninth goal of the season. The unassisted goal gave Giroux 20 points in his past 17 games. The Lightning led 2-1 after a wide-open first period. Ondrej Palat put the Lightning in front at 6:38 when Dana Tyrell found him cruising down the slot. Tyrell’s pass from the right side boards was perfect, as was Palat’s shot. It was his second goal of the season and second in as many games. Before the game finished, the two teams combined for 58 hits, lead by Ryan Malone who had eight. Max Talbot tied it at 13:55 when he swung between Martin St. Louis and Purcell, broke toward the net and skated through the crease before backhanding the puck under Lindback. Andrej Meszaros got an assist. Tom Pyatt put Tampa Bay back in front at 17:03 when he got his stick on a centering pass from Tyler Johnson and slipped the puck behind Bryzgalov. Lindback got the win with 28 saves while Bryzgalov made 23 saves while taking his 13th loss of the season. Although the Flyers have a five-day break in their schedule following this game before they return Sunday night against the Penguins in Pittsburgh, they might prefer to get right back on the ice after such a tough loss. With the Lightning's two third-period goals, the Flyers have been outscored 33-20 in the final 20 minutes of their 30 games. In addition to adding to his point total with an assist, Lightning center Tyler Johnson has yet to lose a faceoff in the two games he has appeared for the Lightning. He is now 14-0 in the faceoff circle. The win wraps up a three-game homestand for the Lightning who head out on a three-game Canadian road trip, visiting Toronto, Ottawa and Winnipeg. But they may be a little shorthanded, both Malone and defenseman Victor Hedman left the ice in the final period after sustaining hard hits and will be evaluated Tuesday with upper-body injuries. Flyers defenseman Kimmo Timonen celebrated his 38th birthday by playing in his 1,000th NHL game. He is the 282nd NHL player, and sixth from Finland, to reach the milestone.

Calagry v Dallas 3-4 - Two nights after their worst performance ever in Dallas, the Stars got back on track. Loui Eriksson scored twice as the Stars bounced back from Saturday's 8-1 loss to Chicago by beating the Calgary Flames 4-3 on Monday night. Chicago pummeled the Stars in front of a sellout crowd at American Airlines Center in the worst home loss since the franchise relocated from Minnesota in 1993. But there were no after-effects on Monday, the Stars scored three times in the first period against Calgary backup goaltender Joey MacDonald and held off the Flames. Kari Lehtonen stopped 16 shots for his 10th victory of the season. Dallas came out playing inspired hockey, taking the first six shots on goal before Dennis Wideman got a long slapper that Lehtonen had to stop with his glove. Just 20 seconds later, Wideman hooked Dallas' Antoine Roussel, who has just finished serving a penalty for tripping, as he was driving to the Calgary net, resulting in a penalty shot. Roussel skated in on MacDonald but flipped a backhand just wide of the right post to keep the game scoreless. However, the Stars began a three-goal blitz in just over five minutes when Erik Cole's wrister from just above the right circle deflected off the left skate of Calgary defenseman Derek Smith and went past MacDonald at 13:07. Eric Nystrom made it 2-0 at 15:49 with his third goal of the season. The fourth-line forward beat MacDonald with a short wrister from the left side for his first goal since Feb. 13, a span of 10 games. That goal also came against the Flames. After Cody Eakin and Flames captain Jarome Iginla dropped the gloves with 3:28 remaining before intermission, Dallas made it 3-0 when Eriksson flipped a 10-foot wrister into the top of the net at 18:11 for his eighth of the season. Ray Whitney picked up the primary assist after skating from behind the Flames goal before spotting Eriksson, who was streaking toward the net. Dallas outshot Calgary 12-5 in the opening 20 minutes. MacDonald made a huge glove save on Brenden Morrow's wrister midway through the second period, giving his team a chance to get back in the game, and the Flames did just that. Calgary made it 3-1 at 11:30 when Jiri Hudler deflected a long-range blast from T.J. Brodie behind Lehtonen for a power-play goal. The Flames had gone on the power play after Eakin earned roughing and interference penalties after a hard hit on Calgary's Matt Stajan. Wideman also earned a roughing call for his role in the altercation after coming to Stajan's defense. Dallas defenseman Jordie Benn was whistled for hooking Calgary's Lee Stempniak at 13:05, and again the Flames capitalized. Jay Bouwmeester made it 3-2 with a backhander from the slot that glanced off the crossbar and landed in the back of the net. Eriksson flipped home his second of the night at 12:06 of the third period to restore Dallas' two-goal lead. After Jamie Benn's pass caromed off the skate of Calgary's Matt Giordano, Eriksson collected the deflection and quickly finished. That goal stood up as the winner when Alex Tanguay got behind the defense and put a backhander past Lehtonen with 4:46 remaining. The Flames pulled MacDonald with 1:27 remaining but were unable to get the equalizer. With the loss, Calgary is now 0-6-1 in its last seven road games; the Flames' last win away from home was on Feb. 17 at Dallas.

Chicago v Colorado 5-2 - Maintaining control of the top spot in the NHL was of more concern to the Chicago Blackhawks than avenging their shocking loss to the Colorado Avalanche on March 8. Still, the Blackhawks were plenty pleased to exit the Pepsi Center on Monday night with a 5-2 win in the building where the Avalanche handed them a 6-2 loss that ended their season-opening 24-game streak of earning at least one point. Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews each had a goal and two assists, and goalie Ray Emery made 17 saves to stretch his league record for consecutive wins without a loss to start a season to 11. The Blackhawks have won the first three games of a four-game road trip that ends Wednesday in Anaheim against the Pacific Division-leading Ducks. The only downer: right wing Marian Hossa didn't play in the final two periods because of what Blackhawks coach Joel Quenneville called an upper-body injury. Hossa left after a first-period hit by Avalanche defenseman Ryan O'Byrne. The Blackhawks appear to be back on track after successive regulation losses to the Avalanche and Edmonton Oilers. The same can't be said for the Avalanche, who have been outscored 20-9 during a season-worst four-game losing streak and remain in last place in the Western Conference. The Blackhawks bolted to a quick 2-0 lead in the opening period on goals by Jimmy Hayes and Andrew Shaw that came 57 seconds apart on consecutive shots against Avalanche goalie Semyon Varlamov. Hayes, playing in his third game of the season, was in the slot when he converted a pass from Kane at 3:47 on the Blackhawks' second shot of the game. Kane intercepted Avalanche defenseman Jan Hejda's behind-the-back pass in the right corner to set up the goal. Shaw scored on a 2-on-1 rush with Viktor Stalberg at 4:44 with Greg Zanon the lone Avalanche defenseman back. Landeskog's goal gave the Avalanche some hope, but it was as close as they would come because Kane took over the game in the second period with a goal and an assist. Kane, who has four goals and six assists during a four-game point-scoring streak, scored from deep on the left side at 7:49, then fed Brent Seabrook with a cross-ice pass for a one-timer from the right circle at 14:40 to give the Blackhawks a 4-1 lead. Kane nearly added to his total at 1:30 of the third period when he skated down the middle on a clean breakaway. But Varlamov swatted the puck away with his glove. Toews closed out the scoring with 3:30 remaining in the period. The Blackhawks outshot the Avalanche 10-4 over the final 20 minutes, making it easy for Emery. Milan Hejduk scored for the Avalanche at 18:34 of the second period for the 375th goal of his NHL career, tying him for 104th place on the all-time list with Butch Goring and Trevor Linden, but he couldn't enjoy the milestone.

Minnesota v Vancouver 3-1 - Matt Cullen has been around for most of the Minnesota Wild's four-year drought in Vancouver, but the veteran forward didn't think it was a coincidence a pair of rookies unfamiliar with the funk helped him end it. Defenseman Jonas Brodin tied the game on a power play late in the second period, and fellow rookie Charlie Coyle tipped in the go-ahead goal 3:20 into the third as the Wild took sole possession of the Northwest Division lead by beating the Canucks 3-1 on Monday night. The win ended an 11-game losing streak for the Wild in Vancouver that dated back to Jan. 31, 2009, and moved Minnesota two points ahead in a Northwest Division the Canucks have won four straight seasons. After Niklas Backstrom kept it close in the first half, Brodin, a 19-year-old playing on the top defense pairing with Ryan Suter, scored his second goal of the season on a screened point shot with 4:54 left in the second period. Coyle put Minnesota ahead with his third of the season, a tip-in of Clayton Stoner's high point shot while parked atop the crease to Roberto Luongo's right, early in the third period. Cullen made it 3-1 when Canucks defenseman Keith Ballard turned a 2-on-2 rush into a breakaway from the left circle. Cullen fired a quick shot between the legs of Luongo to extend his point streak to five games. It probably wouldn't have mattered if not for Backstrom, who made most of his 35 saves in the first 30 minutes, including several on point-blank chances and tips. Henrik Sedin did end Vancouver's longest power-play drought in at least 16 years, but it wasn't enough for a team that has two wins in the last eight games. Luongo, making his fourth straight start for just the second time this season, matched Backstrom for quality, if not quantity, early in the game. But much like a 5-2 loss to the Detroit Red Wings on Saturday night, Luongo couldn't come up big in the third period; he ended up with 22 saves, and another loss. Despite a strong start, the only positive for the Canucks by the end of the night was their power play. After failing to score in 11 games, Vancouver switched up the personnel on its top unit, inserting righty-shooting forward Jannik Hansen and hard-shooting defenseman Jason Garrison at the point. The drought reached 0-for-36 as Garrison hammered away but missed the net on the first two chances, but the move finally paid off midway through the second period. Garrison's one-timer was stopped, but the rebound kicked straight out to Sedin in the slot and he wristed it into the vacant net with Backstrom stranded. The goal snapped a franchise record-tying streak of seven straight games scoring first for Minnesota, but it didn't take the Wild long to get even. After being outshot 21-9 to that point, and 11-2 in the second period, Minnesota began pushing back. The Wild recorded the next seven shots and Brodin tied it at the tail end of consecutive power plays that included a couple of great saves by Luongo during eight seconds of a 5-on-3 advantage. He couldn't see Brodin's point shot through traffic, however, and it beat Luongo high on the glove side.

San Jose v Anaheim 3-5 - The equivalent of hockey bliss for Ducks fans came roughly midway through the second period. Shortly after Anaheim announced on its scoreboard an eight-year contract extension for Corey Perry, there was one beautiful scoring rush after another. Peter Holland finished a tic-tac-toe play. Rookie Emerson Etem scored his first National Hockey League goal, and captain Ryan Getzlaf scored a shorthanded goal. Only two late goals by the San Jose Sharks marred Monday night for Anaheim, whose 5-3 win marked a franchise-record 12th straight home victory, and set set up a marquee matchup Wednesday with the Chicago Blackhawks (24-2-3). Chicago will get first crack at ending the 12-game home streak by the Ducks (21-3-4), the second-longest streak in the NHL since the start of the 2009-10 season. Getzlaf's finish off a great pass by Etem was the game-winner and capped a three-goal outburst in a 2:46 span of the second period. Sheldon Souray started the play by tying up Adam Burish while Francois Beauchemin hit Andrew Cogliano on the left side. A similar play led to a great finish by Etem, who broke in and roofed a shot past Antti Niemi in his 19th NHL game. It was a special moment for Etem, 20, who grew up in nearby Long Beach and was a 61-goal scorer for Medicine Hat in the Western Hockey League last season. Getzlaf buried Etem's pass into an open net with Matt Beleskey in the penalty box for hooking for a 4-1 lead. Three minutes earlier, San Jose coach Todd McLellan called timeout to regroup. San Jose got goals from Patrick Marleau on a great shot past Viktor Fasth at the end of the second period and closed to 4-3 in the third on Matt Irwin's shot that went in off Getzlaf's skate. Beauchemin ended any possibility of overtime with an empty-net goal. The Sharks have lost five straight regular-season road games for the first time since going 0-4-2 in 2010, despite getting Martin Havlat back in the lineup. San Jose actually scored more than two goals for only the second time in 13 road games but fell to 2-9-2 in that stretch. The Sharks came out of the first period tied 1-1 on a slap shot from Jason Demers that went through traffic high into the net. Tommy Wingels was in the slot to occupy defenders. San Jose occupied Anaheim's zone for most of the start but a bad line change resulted in a Ducks goal. David Steckel grabbed a loose puck near the Sharks bench and started a 3-on-1. Beauchemin walked in on Niemi, faked a pass and slapped it over Niemi's right shoulder at 14:06. San Jose forward Ryane Clowe sat out with a shoulder injury.

Phoenix v Los Angeles 0-4 - Los Angeles rookie Tyler Toffoli celebrated his first NHL goal on Monday night. The Phoenix Coyotes would gladly take a goal of any kind. Jonathan Quick stopped 27 shots as the Kings beat the Coyotes 4-0, handing Phoenix its fourth consecutive shutout loss away from Arizona. The only other team since expansion to be shut out in four straight road games was the 1967-68 Oakland Seals. Toffoli converted a pass from Jeff Carter for a second-period power-play goal that made it 2-0, then received a standing ovation from the packed house of 18,118 at Staples Center. The Kings improved to 11-2-1 at home and moved into fourth place in the Western Conference with 34 points. Phoenix fell to 13-12-4, including 0-2-1 on its current road trip. The Coyotes haven't scored a goal away from Glendale since winning 4-2 in Vancouver on Feb. 26, and they haven't scored anywhere in 185 minutes and 10 seconds since Rob Klinkhammer's third-period goal in a 5-2 home win against Los Angeles on March 12. Jake Muzzin, Anze Kopitar and Jeff Carter also scored for the Kings, who host the Coyotes again on Tuesday night. Quick earned his first shutout of the season after recording 10 in 2011-12. It's been an up-and-down season for Quick, who won the Conn Smythe Trophy as playoff MVP last spring but has struggled at times. The Kings opened the scoring by capitalizing on their first power play. With Martin Hanzal off for high-sticking, Muzzin fired a slap shot from the top of the right circle that clicked off a defender and beat Mike Smith at 6:01 of the first period for his sixth of the season. Los Angeles gave the Coyotes a power play 2:00 into the second period when Trevor Lewis was called for high-sticking. But the Kings had the best scoring chance when Kopitar's pass sent Dustin Brown in on a breakaway. Brown fired from between the hash marks, but Smith stopped him and directed the shot to the corner. The Kings made it a two-goal game at 8:39 with their second power-play goal. Toffoli scored his first NHL goal by beating Smith from just off the left corner of the crease. Jarret Stoll's straightaway 55-footer was blocked and caromed to Carter, who slipped a pass to a wide-open Toffoli for the put-away. The Kings put the game away with two goals in a 71-second span of the third period. Kopitar scored his ninth of the season at 6:22. Justin Williams' pass sent Kopitar racing through center ice into the Coyotes' zone, and his shot from above the top of the left circle appeared to tick off the stick of defenseman David Schlemko and beat Smith. Carter ended Smith's night at 7:33, ripping a rocket from well inside the right circle over Smith's glove for his team-high 18th of the season.