Buffalo @ Toronto 2-4 - James Van Riemsdyk made the most of his return to playing the wing and defenseman Cody Franson assisted on both of his first-period goals. His first goal came 5:45 into the game, when he tipped Franson's shot from the blue line past Sabres goalie Jhonas Enroth (18 saves). The two hooked up again at 13:35 on the power play, when van Riemsdyk tipped in another Franson shot to make it 2-0. Van Riemsdyk's two goals were his eighth and ninth this season. Van Riemsdyk's big night broke a five-game point drought that coincided with his move to center. Newly-acquired center Peter Holland played 11:43 while playing between van Riemsdyk and Phil Kessel. Nikolai Kulemin extended the lead to 3-0 with his first goal of the season at 11:49 of the second period. Kulemin was all alone in the slot and Enroth had no chance to stop Kulemin's well-placed wrist shot. The Sabres didn't go quietly, however; Jamie McBain scored 2:15 into the third period to cut the lead to 3-1. The goal was McBain's second of the season. After being outshot in the first, the Sabres turned the game in their favor and outshot the Maple Leafs 29-12 in the final two periods. Sabres forward Tyler Ennis capitalized with his third goal of the season via the power play at 6:11 of the third period to cut the lead to 3-2, but the Sabres wouldn't get the equalizer. With 2:46 to play in the third, Buffalo forward Ville Leino took a tripping penalty that led to Mason Raymond's power-play goal at 18:56, his seventh goal of the season.
NY Rangers @ Montreal 1-0 - Cam Talbot, giving Henrik Lundqvist a night off, made 22 saves for his first NHL shutout, and Ryan Callahan scored on the power play 5:25 into the second period for the Rangers, who had lost eight straight games here. With Lundqvist's 4-5-2 career record at Bell Centre, a 3.87 goals-against average and .876 save percentage, Rangers coach Alain Vigneault gave rookie Talbot the start. The 26-year-old made key saves early in the second period on the Rangers' first power play when the Canadiens started buzzing and had two shorthanded chances. Carey Price withstood a Rangers onslaught in the first period and kept the Canadiens in it in the third by making 10 saves, including a glove save on Brad Richards with 2:02 left. Richards and Derek Stepan each got his 10th assist of the season; Richards has 16 points to lead the team, and Stepan is second with 14. Canadiens defenseman Alexei Emelin returned to play his first game since suffering a knee injury April 6. Forward Brandon Prust (shoulder) got back in the lineup Friday.
Detroit @ NY Islanders 4-5 SO - The Islanders opened the scoring 4:03 into the game when Josh Bailey picked off a clearing attempt at the left point and threw the puck toward the net, where an unchecked Tavares tipped it home for his ninth of the season. The assist was Bailey's first point in 11 games. The Red Wings needed all of nine seconds to tie the game. Helm led a 2-on-0 break into the New York zone and snapped a shot from the slot past Nabokov for his second of the season. It was the first shot faced by Nabokov, and the last. The Islanders’ League-worst penalty-kill failed them again late in the period. Detroit capitalized on its first power play to take the lead when Mikael Samuelsson's soft wrister from the right point got through traffic before being tipped into the net by Datsyuk for his 10th goal of the season. After neither team generated a lot of offense for most of the second period, there were three goals scored in a span of 80 seconds, sending the teams off the ice after 40 minutes tied 3-3. The Islanders tied it at 17:50 on a broken play. Travis Hamonic's clearing pass hit a Red Wing and deflected to Matt Martin, triggering a 2-on-1 break. Martin fed Colin McDonald, whose chip was stopped by Gustavsson. But Cizikas followed the play and put the puck into a wide-open net for his second of the season. He has goals in back-to-back games. Once again, the Red Wings answered quickly. Helm picked off a pass near his own blue line, raced into the New York zone and dished to Franzen. He waited for Helm to create traffic, moved to the high slot and ripped a wrister past Poulin for his fifth goal of the season and third in two nights. The Islanders had generated nothing but boos on their first two power plays, but their third opportunity produced the tying goal. With rookie Luke Glendening off for a needless trip of defenseman Andrew MacDonald, Tavares' shot from the right circle ping-ponged off traffic in front and came to Nelson, who stuffed the loose puck into the net with 49.5 seconds left in the period for his third of the season. The Islanders appeared to be on their way to a regulation victory when they grabbed a 4-3 lead 4:43 into the third period on Cal Clutterbuck's deflection of Aaron Ness' point shot. New York dominated the rest of the period until the Red Wings pulled goaltender Jonas Gustavsson with over a minute to play. Detroit kept the puck in the zone, and Datsyuk tied it when his backhander hit an Islander in front of the net and trickled past Poulin, with 42.5 seconds left in regulation, then failed to convert on a power play in overtime. That sent the Red Wings past regulation for the fifth game in a row, and for the fifth time, they had to settle for a single point. Frans Nielsen scored in the first round of the shootout and Kevin Poulin, who entered the game when Evgeni Nabokov was injured 4:12 into the first period, stopped all three Detroit shooters. He ended the game by getting a glove on Todd Bertuzzi's backhander after denying Henrik Zetterberg and Datsyuk. The Red Wings were again without forward Daniel Alfredsson, who was scratched with a groin injury sustained during warmups against the Washington Capitals on Friday. Glendening took his spot in the lineup.
Carolina @ St Louis 2-4 - Alexander Steen's NHL-leading 17th goal of the season snapped a 2-2 tie and helped the Blues finish a 4-0-1 homestand with a 4-2 victory against the Carolina Hurricanes at Scottrade Center. Steen also had an assist, enabling him to pass Pittsburgh Penguins center Sidney Crosby for the NHL points lead with 26, and extended his NHL-best point streak to 13 games. Steen has 13 goals and five assists in that stretch. The Blues were cruising late in the second period, leading 2-0 on goals by Roman Polak and David Backes, and were going on their third power play when the momentum and mood in the building changed. After scoring the shorthanded goals, the Hurricanes were back in the game. The Blues didn't panic. Polak had his first two-point game since March 30, 2011; T.J. Oshie added an empty-netter; and Jay Bouwmeester had two assists for the Blues (13-2-3), who are 8-1-1 in their past 10 games and 5-0-1 in the past six. Brian Elliott stopped 18 shots for his third straight win. The Blues matched their 1990-91 team with their 13th win in the first 18 games of a season. Coach Ken Hitchcock won his 618th game, passing Jacques Lemaire into sole possession of ninth place all-time. The Hurricanes got the shorthanded goals from Eric Staal and Nathan Gerbe. Justin Peters stopped 28 shots and lost in regulation for the first time in six games. Steen took a stretch pass from Polak as the Hurricanes (8-8-4) were in the middle of a line change and went in alone on Peters. Steen snapped a shot from the right circle stick side 6:20 into the third period to break the 2-2 tie. The Hurricanes scored twice shorthanded in 57 seconds of the second period to get life. Staal's breakaway goal after the Blues lost the puck at the blue line with 4:23 remaining in the second period made it 2-1, then Elliott came out to play a puck off the boards and lost it to Riley Nash, who fed Gerbe for the equalizer with 3:27 left in the period. Polak's third goal of the season (one off his career-high set in 2009-10) was the 10th straight game the Blues scored first and 15th time in 18 games. Polak took Chris Stewart's pass and fired a wrist shot from the high slot past Peters on the short side 9:25 into the second. Steen's assist marked the first time since Pierre Turgeon did so in 1999-2000 that a Blues player had such a streak; Turgeon's reached 15 games. Backes scored his second goal in as many games and fifth point in three games when he took Brenden Morrow's feed from behind the net. Morrow caught Backes coming in off the bench and gave the Blues captain a sharp-angle pass that Backes was able to one-time off a short hop into the near side with 8:24 left to give the Blues a 2-0 lead. Oshie scored a power-play, empty-net goal with 43.3 seconds remaining.
Florida @ Colorado 4-1 - It looks like new coach Peter Horachek has breathed new life into the Florida Panthers, and the Colorado Avalanche have suddenly fallen on hard times. The Panthers played a strong all-round game Saturday at Pepsi Center to defeat the slumping Avalanche 4-1 for their second win in the past three games and first road victory since a season-opening win Oct. 3 against the Dallas Stars. Goalie Tim Thomas made 32 saves for his 200th NHL win, Brian Campbell had a goal and an assist, and Tom Gilbert chipped in with three assists for the Panthers, who have gone 2-3-0 since Horachek replaced Kevin Dineen as coach Nov. 8. The Avalanche have allowed the first goal in three consecutive games, lost all three and fallen into third place in the Central Division, behind the Chicago Blackhawks and St. Louis Blues. Chicago visits Pepsi Center on Tuesday. Making matters worse, the Avalanche lost leading scorer Matt Duchene early in the third period to an oblique muscle ailment. He will be reevaluated Sunday. The Panthers used second-period goals by Campbell and Tomas Kopecky to take a 3-1 lead into the third period, making it the second time this season they led after two periods. Jonathan Huberdeau closed out the scoring at 12:16 of the third during a scramble in front of Avalanche goalie Semyon Varlamov. Kopecky skated in alone on Varlamov and slid a backhand shot between his pads at 13:53 of the second to make it 3-1. Kopecky scored two seconds after the Panthers' fifth consecutive power play of the game expired. Campbell gave the Panthers a 2-0 lead at 1:15 on the second half of a power play that started at 17:39 of the first period when the Avalanche's Nate Guenin was assessed a double minor for high sticking Huberdeau, who was cut near his mouth. Campbell ripped a shot from the left point for his third goal of the season, all of them coming in the past four games. The Panthers came into the game in a 1-for-20 slump on the power play in the past six games. Roy changed his top three line combinations at 7:00 of the second period, and the move paid off when Ryan O'Reilly scored at 7:23, cutting the Panthers' lead to 2-1. O'Reilly, skating with John Mitchell and PA Parenteau, moved into the right circle and scored as Mitchell drove to the net. The Avalanche had a couple of good chances after that, but Gabriel Landeskog shot wide from the slot and Thomas made a save against Nathan MacKinnon. The Panthers took a 1-0 lead at 12:40 of the first period on goal by Brad Boyes, who was in tight on the right side when he accepted a pass from Scottie Upshall and shot the puck by Varlamov's glove. The goal came eight seconds after the Avalanche finished killing off Parenteau's hooking penalty.
Edmonton @ Calgary 4-2 - Sean Monahan and Dennis Wideman put Calgary up after two periods. But after being outplayed, outshot and out-chanced for 40 minutes, Edmonton quickly went to work to erase the 2-0 deficit in the third. After taking a feed from Taylor Hall in the slot, Eberle caught Flames goaltender Reto Berra sliding the wrong way and buried his fifth of the season to start the comeback at 3:41. The Oilers struck again at 8:18. Sam Gagner's pass hit Wideman, ricocheted high into the air and Hemsky batted the puck in before Berra could get a read on it to tie the game 2-2. Perron capped the comeback with his fifth goal of the season. After beating Wideman off the boards, he fired a shot from below the goal line that bounced off Berra's back and in the net at 10:23 to give Edmonton a 3-2 lead. Boyd Gordon added an empty net goal with 47.5 seconds left to give Edmonton some added insurance. The Flames managed shots on back-to-back shifts to start the game with Lee Stempniak hitting Dubnyk in the pad before striking the far post 23 seconds in. On the next shift, Mike Cammalleri split Edmonton's defense, but was bested by Dubnyk too. Monahan, with his eighth of the season, opened the scoring at 12:23. After Ryan Nugent-Hopkins turned the puck over at the offensive blue line, Monahan hauled the puck into the Oilers' zone and worked a give-and-go with Jiri Hudler before beating Dubnyk to give the Flames a 1-0 lead. The Flames goaltender flashed a quick pad on Hemsky's one-timer from the slot 90 seconds into the period. Four minutes after that, Berra denied Nugent-Hopkins' attempt coming off the half-wall. He then made back-to-back saves off Hemsky's point shot and Gagner's rebound attempt with the Oilers on the power play with over five minutes remaining, two of 10 saves in the period. Wideman walked in off the blue line and into a Matt Stajan centering pass, blasting the puck over the glove of Dubnyk with 2:52 remaining in the second to put the Flames up 2-0 after 40 minutes.
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