Carolina @ Buffalo 5-3 - Andrej Sekera's first season with the Carolina Hurricanes is turning into a career year. Sekera's goal at 9:50 of the third period broke a tie and the Hurricanes beat the Buffalo Sabres 5-3 at First Niagara Center on Thursday night. His slap shot from the blue line eluded Sabres goalie Jhonas Enroth for his career-high eighth goal of the season and first against his former team. Sekera spent parts of seven seasons with the Sabres before being traded to Carolina for defenseman Jamie McBain and a second-round pick at the 2013 NHL Draft. Jiri Tlusty hit the empty net with less than a second to play for Carolina (22-19-9), which overcame three one-goal deficits to win for the second time in as many nights. Cody Hodgson put the Sabres ahead at 10:15 of the first period. He stole the puck from Hurricanes defenseman Jay Harrison and fired a slap shot past goalie Anton Khudobin for his 11th goal of the season. Jeff Skinner tied it at 12:28 with his 22nd goal of the season. He intercepted Sabres defenseman Alexander Sulzer's pass, skated in and sent a backhanded shot past Enroth. Brian Flynn gave the Sabres a 2-1 lead at 3:20 of the second period when he batted the rebound of a Phil Varone shot from his knees at the side of net past Khudobin for his fourth goal of the season. Varone's assist was his first career NHL point. He was called up from Rochester in the American Hockey League on Wednesday. The Hurricanes tied it again at 13:11 when Alexander Semin fired a wrist shot over Enroth's shoulder. Semin gained the zone and sent his shot into the upper corner of the net to make it 2-2. Buffalo took its third lead 48 seconds into the third period when Tyler Ennis cleaned up the rebound of Drew Stafford's shot for his 11th of the season. But Semin tied it again at 7:26 by converting a feed from Eric Staal. He has 12 goals this season, half of them in his past four games. Khudobin stopped 26 shots for the Hurricanes, who have won eight of the past 11 games. Carolina is fifth in the Metropolitan Division but trails the fourth-place Philadelphia Flyers by three points with two games in hand. The Flyers hold the final wild-card playoff berth in the Eastern Conference.
St Louis @ NY Rangers 2-1 - Blues defenseman Kevin Shattenkirk grew up in the area idolizing the New York Rangers. But even he couldn't have scripted a more storybook ending to his first NHL game at Madison Square Garden. The 22-year-old scored 3:09 into the third period to give St. Louis a 2-1 victory Thursday, exciting a group of about 70 friends and family who attended the game. Alexander Steen scored for the Blues before leaving the game with a lower-body injury, and Jaroslav Halak made 34 saves. Rick Nash scored for the Rangers, and Henrik Lundqvist stopped 23 of 25 shots. Shattenkirk's goal came nine seconds after Nash was called for slashing. Taking a pass from Alex Pietrangelo, Shattenkirk fired a one-timer from the right point that made its way through a maze of players and past Lundqvist to give the defenseman his eighth goal of the season. Born in New Rochelle, N.Y., the 2014 U.S. Olympic team member grew up a Rangers fan in nearby Connecticut. The game-winner resembled many of the goals scored by Shattenkirk's idol, former Rangers defenseman Brian Leetch. With the lead, the Blues put their defensive clamps on the Rangers, holding New York to four shots over the next 12 minutes. The Rangers got a chance to tie the game when Blues defenseman Barrett Jackman was called for cross-checking at 12:31, but they failed to get a shot and finished 0-for-3 on the power play with one shot. New York enjoyed its best stretch of the game when Nash tied it with 1:43 remaining in the second period. Derek Stepan recovered the puck behind the St. Louis net and drifted toward the corner before finding Nash in stride at the left circle. His one-timer beat Halak low to the far side and gave him 17 goals on the season, six in a current four-game streak. The Rangers pushed hard for the go-ahead goal, eventually drawing an Ian Cole penalty for delay of game with three seconds left in the second after the Blues defenseman closed a hand on the puck. Steen scored 8:38 into the game off a feed from Jaden Schwartz. After taking a short pass from David Backes in the left corner, Schwartz fired a pass toward Steen at the Rangers crease. Steen was unable to get the pass with his stick, but the puck ricocheted off his right skate before bouncing off Lundqvist's blocker into the net for Steen's 26th of the season. Video review determined Steen made no distinct kicking motion and he was credited with his second goal in four games since returning from a concussion that forced him to miss almost a month. Steen did not come out for the third period after falling awkwardly into the boards following a second-period hit from Rangers defenseman Dan Girardi. Steen is day-to-day with a lower-body injury. The Rangers got eight of the next 10 shots after Steen's goal. Playing 4-on-4, New York had one of its better chances to tie the game with 8:57 remaining in the first period after Cole's weak clearing attempt from behind his net slid directly to Girardi at the point. Girardi fired a hard shot Halak stopped with his right pad. Chris Kreider had another quality look 3:14 later when he sped down the left wing, but a hard wrist shot was stopped by Halak before caroming off the outside of the left post. After getting 28 shots through two periods, the Rangers were held to seven in the third.
Philadelphia @ Columbus 2-5 - Matt Calvert scored the go-ahead goal late in the second period, breaking a 2-2 tie, then set up Dubinsky for a key goal early in the third after the Blue Jackets had killed a 45-second, two-man advantage for the Flyers that had carried over from the middle period. Calvert outworked three Flyers along the left wall and fed Dubinsky at 3:29 to make it 4-2. Nathan Horton scored at 6:54 of the third with a wicked shot off the left corner post for a 5-2 lead. Horton's goal, his fourth in 10 games, came one second after Scott Hartnell exited the penalty box after his third penalty of the game, this one for boarding against Mark Letestu. Hartnell moved from the left side for his first game at right wing since his rookie season with the Nashville Predators in 2000-01. After spotting the Flyers a 2-1 lead, Columbus (26-20-4) roared back with four unanswered goals to move into third place in the Metropolitan Division. Calvert and Dubinsky each had a goal and an assist. Jack Johnson and Derek MacKenzie also scored for Columbus, which got 26 saves from Bobrovsky in the franchise's 1,000th regular-season game. Bobrovsky, playing against his former team for the first time, has won nine straight games to improve to 17-11-2. Brayden Schenn and Vincent Lecavalier scored in the second period for Philadelphia (25-21-6). The goals put the Flyers ahead after Johnson's third of the season at 8:20 of the first gave Columbus a 1-0 lead. The Flyers were looking to rebound from a 3-2 home loss Wednesday to the Carolina Hurricanes in a game rescheduled from Tuesday because of a snowstorm. Former Columbus goalie Steve Mason started that game, so Flyers coach Craig Berube went with backup Ray Emery, who was spectacular at times while making 34 saves despite receiving with little defensive support. Emery made three of his 13 saves in the first period during consecutive Columbus power plays after Hartnell was called for slashing and tripping Ryan Johansen at 9:58. The Blue Jackets entered the game clicking at 31 percent (9 for 19) this month with the man advantage, but finished 1-for-7 against the Flyers. Johnson gave Columbus a 1-0 lead at 8:20 of the first when his shot from the point went in off Flyers defenseman Luke Schenn. The Flyers tied the score at 1-1 in the second period due to Brayden Schenn's persistence. The young forward scored at 1:56 when he poked home his third try at Bobrovsky off an odd-man rush. Schenn has 14 goals, two more than his previous best. Lecavalier scored his 11th at 7:21 for the 2-1 lead with a wicked one-timer from the right circle off a pass from Mark Streit, but the Blue Jackets tied it at 2-2 four minutes later. Columbus was on a line change but kept possession deep long enough for Artem Anisimov to find MacKenzie driving down the slot for a quick shot. The tap-in was MacKenzie's third goal.
Ottawa @ Tampa Bay 3-4 SO - There are lots of ways to end a losing streak, but the Tampa Bay Lightning picked one of the most difficult, giving up the lead three times before finally winning in a shootout Thursday. Nikita Kucherov lifted the puck past Ottawa Senators goalie Craig Anderson, and Ben Bishop stopped three shootout attempts to give the Lightning a 4-3 win at Tampa Bay Times Forum that ended a five-game home skid. Bishop stopped Mika Zibanejad, Jason Spezza and Kyle Turris in the tiebreaker for his 25th win of the season and fifth shootout win against three losses. Tampa Bay kept grabbing a lead, but each time Ottawa battled back to tie. The Senators evened the game for a third time with 2:18 remaining in the third period when a shot by Chris Neil hit the stick of Lightning defenseman Eric Brewer and drifted past Bishop. The Lightning grabbed a lead for the third time at 5:31 of the third period when Martin St. Louis hustled after a loose puck in the Ottawa zone and fed a pass to Ondrej Palat, standing alone to Anderson's right. Palat hit an empty net for his 11th goal of the season. The assist by St. Louis extended his point streak to nine games (eight goals, five assists). Defenseman Victor Hedman assisted on each of the Lightning goals, tying a career high. Ottawa outshot Tampa Bay 16-5 in the third period after the teams traded goals in the second. B.J. Crombeen put the Lightning in front 2-1 at 3:30. Hedman began the rush into the Ottawa end, fed the puck and regained it before shooting from the blue line to the left of Anderson. Crombeen snuck behind Ottawa defenseman Chris Phillips and deflected the puck past Anderson for his second goal of the season. With Tampa Bay's Teddy Purcell off the ice for his second tripping penalty of the game, the Ottawa power play scored for the second time when Spezza found Clarke MacArthur alone to Bishop's left. MacArthur had plenty of time to tee up the puck and beat Bishop to the right side. MacArthur's goal, his 18th of the season, came at 16:57. The first goal came at 14:32 while Purcell was in the penalty box for hooking. Lightning forward Tyler Johnson scooped up the puck after it skipped over Ryan's blade and he took off alone, lifting a shot over Anderson's shoulder from the right side. It was Tampa Bay's fourth shorthanded goal of the season. That lead held up for 40 seconds before Karlsson tied the game with Purcell still in the penalty box. The power-play score, Karlsson's 12th goal of the season, came off a rebound of Spezza's shot from the left circle. Ottawa capitalized on its top-ranked road power play, scoring twice on three attempts. The Senators entered with a road success rate of 26.8 percent.
Nashville @ Vancouver 2-1 - The Predators went into the third period against the Vancouver Canucks on Thursday trailing by a goal and without a win all season when trailing after 40 minutes. The low-scoring Predators did, however, have some confidence after scoring four goals in each of their past four games. That confidence showed against the Canucks. Nick Spaling set up Craig Smith's tying goal early in the third period, then scored the go-ahead goal on a nifty power-play deflection with 7:22 left to lead Nashville to a 2-1 come-from-behind win against the Canucks at Rogers Arena. Spaling, who fed Smith from behind the net to tie the game 3:28 into the third, climbed the last rung for his teammates by parking in the slot to deflect rookie defenseman Seth Jones' point shot past Roberto Luongo with three seconds left on a Nashville power play. Nashville goalie Carter Hutton, who made 33 saves, got credit for that from his captain and his coach. Nashville came into the game with the NHL's 25th-ranked offense, but after scoring four goals in four straight games, they needed only two to beat a Canucks team that is also struggling to score. Chris Higgins had the Canucks' lone goal and Luongo made 24 saves in the loss, which snapped Vancouver's modest two-game win streak. The Canucks have lost four of their past six games, scoring six goals in that span and going 2-for-26 on the power play. Vancouver had a great chance to open the scoring with six minutes in power-play time late in the first period, including a double minor to Matt Cullen for high sticking, but the Canucks only produced four shots, and defenseman Dan Hamhuis failed to convert on a half-dozen backdoor passes through the crease. It didn't help the Canucks were playing a second game without captain and leading scorer Henrik Sedin, whose ironman streak ended at 679 games against the Edmonton Oilers on Tuesday due to a rib injury. Defenseman Michael Del Zotto made his Predators debut one day after being acquired from the New York Rangers. That also meant it was Nashville’s first game without top penalty-killing defenseman Kevin Klein, who was traded to the Rangers for Del Zotto. Klein's absence didn’t seem to hurt their penalty killing. Higgins opened the scoring midway through the second period, neatly tipping a shot that was headed with up and over Hutton's glove on the short side for his first goal in seven games. Smith tied it 3:28 into the third period after a nice pass from Spaling behind the net into the slot, quickly one-timed it over Luongo's glove-side shoulder for his team-leading 16th goal. After Spaling's goal put Nashville ahead, Hutton preserved his third straight win with a left-pad save off Higgins on a partial breakaway with 2:10 left.
Los Angeles @ Anaheim 1-2 - Nothing will quite top the first outdoor game between the Anaheim Ducks and Los Angeles Kings, but the Southern California rivals put on one heck of a preview indoors Thursday night. Hard hits. Great saves. A disallowed goal. The requisite controversial hit. There wasn't much lacking, and after a slow start Anaheim beat Los Angeles 2-1 on goals by Dustin Penner and Patrick Maroon in front of a boisterous packed house of 17,503 at Honda Center. Goalie Frederik Andersen made 30 saves to improve to 13-2-0. It was the precursor to their game Saturday at Dodger Stadium in the opener of the 2014 Coors Light NHL Stadium Series (9:30 p.m. ET; NBCSN, CBC, RDS2), and Anaheim will take the momentum from the hard-earned win while sending their biggest rivals into a deeper rut. Anaheim proved again it can win a low-scoring, grinding game, and Ducks defenseman Ben Lovejoy took some satisfaction in being able to do it against the masters of grind. The Kings are winless in their past four and, despite a solid effort against Anaheim, have been out of sorts since before Christmas, they are 4-9-2 in their past 15 games. L.A. went 0 for 4 on the power play, notably two in the third period, and continues to lack scoring. Anaheim seemed to grab some momentum after it had a goal disallowed because of goalie contact midway through the second period. Stoll took an interference penalty and Penner picked the puck out of traffic in the crease for his 12th goal, at 13:51. Penner, an ex-King, scored 11 goals in 117 games with Los Angeles. Anaheim's fourth line produced the go-ahead goal on an outstanding wraparound by Maroon. The possession started when Willie Mitchell tried to clear the puck but Anaheim kept it in and Maroon beat Jonathan Quick to the goaltender's left side. It was the career-high fourth goal and first game-winning goal for Maroon, whose versatility has moved him into a role over other, more established players. Quick was otherwise superb, with highlight-reel left pad saves on Teemu Selanne and Nick Bonino in the second period. Quick lost to Anaheim for the first time in six starts. His teammates took the blame for the two goals. The Kings came out with purpose and energy and took a 1-0 lead after some lackadaisical defense by the Ducks. Kopitar was left unchecked to streak down to the right side and easily bury Dwight King's feed at 3:13 of the first period, ending a 10-game scoring drought. Ducks defenseman Francois Beauchemin didn't attempt to break up King's pass, and L.A.'s Trevor Lewis lifted a defender's stick to facilitate the pass through the slot. The Ducks were outshot 13-4 in the first period and managed one late shot on two power plays. Things came to a boil in the third when Lewis drilled Ducks defenseman Bryan Allen near the bench; Allen's partner, Mark Fistric was given a roughing penalty for retaliation. Allen was dazed, and Boudreau did not have an update on Allen.
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