Results - Mon, Mar 31, 2014

Carolina @ Ottawa 1-2 SO - With nine points in their past 10 games, the Senators are making a late run to get back into the Stanley Cup Playoff picture. The run continued Monday night, when Ales Hemsky scored in the shootout to give Ottawa a 2-1 win against the Hurricanes at Canadian Tire Centre. Hemsky snapped a shot past Hurricanes goalie Cam Ward on the Senators' second attempt. Ottawa goaltender Craig Anderson stopped all three Carolina shooters after making 30 saves through regulation and overtime. Mika Zibanejad scored in the first for Ottawa, which has points in five straight games (4-0-1) since a 2-8-2 skid nearly dropped it out of the playoff race. The Senators, who have seven games remaining, are in 12th place in the Eastern Conference with 78 points, four out of a playoff spot. Jeff Skinner scored his 30th goal for Carolina, which is 13th in the Eastern Conference with 75 points. Ward made 28 saves in his first start in four games. There were two minutes of 3-on-3 in overtime after Senators defenseman Eric Gryba and Carolina's Nathan Gerbe were sent off for roughing at 2:49. Zibanejad got credit for his 14th goal at 1:41 of the first period. Hemsky created the scoring chance when he dragged the puck through his legs to fly past Hurricanes defenseman Justin Faulk, only to have his shot stopped by Ward. Hemsky recovered the puck in the left corner and passed back to the point to defenseman Patrick Wiercioch, whose shot went in off Zibanejad's skate. A video review upheld the goal. Ward stopped Clarke MacArthur moments later when he was sent in on a breakaway by Turris, who was named the NHL's First Star of the Week on Monday. Skinner drew Carolina even at 1-1 at 4:03. Skinner extended his goals streak to four games and his point streak to five when his passout front from behind the net went in off Senators defenseman Erik Karlsson. The Hurricanes came close to taking the lead a few minutes later when Alexander Semin drove a slap shot off the post from the right side. Senators captain Jason Spezza and defenseman Jared Cowen missed the game after both sustained lower-body injuries Sunday during a 6-3 win against the Calgary Flames. Zibanejad took Spezza's place at center between Hemsky and left wing Milan Michalek. Center Jean-Gabriel Pageau dressed for the Senators, who recalled him from Binghamton of the American Hockey League on an emergency basis Monday. Hurricanes forward Jiri Tlusty left the game late in the second after he was checked into the end boards by Gryba, who was penalized for boarding at 18:10. Tlusty did not return for the third period. Carolina was two men down for most of the third when center Andrei Loktionov went to the dressing room after he was tripped up in the right corner by Zack Smith at the end of a long shift. Loktionov, who did not return, was checked by Senators right wing Chris Neil earlier in the shift. Ottawa left wing Colin Greening missed his second game in a row because of a lower-body injury.
Florida @ New Jersey 3-6 - New Jersey Devils center Travis Zajac scored his first career hat trick and Jaromir Jagr had one goal and three assists on the way to a 6-3 victory against the Panthers at Prudential Center on Monday night. Zajac, who tied a career-high with four points, scored twice in the first period and added another goal in the third to record the first hat trick by a Devils player this season. New Jersey also received goals by Ryane Clowe and Jacob Josefson, and Cory Schneider made 13 saves in relief of Martin Brodeur. Brodeur, who was still credited with his 18th win of the season, was pulled after allowing three goals on nine shots midway through the second. The victory moved the Devils within three points of the Blue Jackets for the second of two wild-card spots in Eastern Conference race to the Stanley Cup Playoffs with seven regular-season games remaining. The Blue Jackets have one game in hand on the Devils. Clowe, who recorded his first three-point game as a member of the Devils, was forced to exit the game with 1:45 left in the second after taking a big hit along the boards from Quinton Howden. In Clowe's absence, DeBoer reinserted left wing Tuomo Ruutu on the top line with Zajac and Jagr. DeBoer had no update on Clowe's condition at the end of the game. The Devils opened a 5-3 lead 4:02 into the third when Josefson scored his first of the season with his team shorthanded. Ryan Carter made the play happen when he created a turnover in the neutral zone, skated down his left wing before feeding Josefson across the blue line. Josefson lined a rope inside the right post past goalie Dan Ellis. Zajac completed his hat trick and scored his 16th of the season at 9:37 when he converted a wrist shot off assists from Ruutu and Jagr for a 6-3 lead. The three-goal game was the first for the Devils since Ilya Kovalchuk's hat trick on March 8, 2012 against the Islanders. The Panthers, who lost their sixth in the past seven games, received goals by Dmitry Kulikov, Brad Boyes and Brandon Pirri. Nick Bjugstad had two assists and Ellis made 26 saves. Florida, outshot 32-22, didn't make things easy for the Devils. Trailing 3-0 late in the second, Kulikov scored his eighth of the season while shorthanded when he took a feed from Bjugstad in the right circle and fired a shot that beat Brodeur to the long side at 17:22. The Panthers would pull within one goal 50 seconds into the second when Boyes scored his 20th off a rising backhand in the right circle that beat Brodeur to the short side. Clowe gave his team a 4-2 lead at 3:05 when he broke in 2-on-1 with Zajac and scored his seventh of the season at 3:05 from below the left circle. The Panthers trimmed the deficit to 4-3 when Pirri tipped home a point shot from Dylan Olsen at 6:35. The Pirri goal prompted DeBoer to replace Brodeur with Schneider. It marked the second time this season that Brodeur was pulled; it also happened Jan. 26 at Yankee Stadium in the 2014 Coors Light NHL Stadium Series when Brodeur allowed six goals on 21 shots and was replaced at the start of the third period in a 7-3 loss against the New York Rangers. Schneider made eight saves the remainder of the period. He had six stops during a Panthers power-play that included two quick attempts in the crease at 11:58 and a breakaway by Scottie Upshall at 12:11. The Devils came out flying in the first, outshooting (18-4) and outscoring (3-1) the Panthers. It was the type of start DeBoer was hoping for after watching his team generate 18 first-period shots over the past four games (1-1-2). Zajac scored his first of the game 12 seconds, the fastest goal to open a game scored by the Devils this season and the third fastest on home ice all-time. Jagr made it 2-0 when he retrieved a pass from Clowe low in the right circle and whisked a marvelous shot that beat Ellis high to the short side at 9:24. Zajac made it 3-0 when he connected for a power-play goal off a slap shot from the left circle at 11:33. The Devils had an opportunity to extend the lead late in the period when Florida captain Ed Jovanovski was whistled for a double roughing minor on Carter at 15:46. Instead, Kulikov pulled his team within 3-1 with his first shorthanded goal of the season.
Winnipeg @ Anaheim 4-5 OT - Stephane Robidas scored 16 seconds into overtime and the Anaheim Sucks staged the biggest comeback in team history by rallying from four goals down to beat the Winnipeg Jets 5-4 at Honda Center on Monday night. Andrew Cogliano and Luca Sbisa assisted on Robidas' fifth goal of the season. Anaheim outshot the Jets 25-6 in the third period and outscored them 3-0 to force overtime. Corey Perry tied it 4-4 with 22.7 seconds remaining in regulation, scoring his 39th goal after Anaheim pulled rookie goalie Frederik Andersen for an extra skater. Nick Bonino cut the Ducks' deficit to 4-1 in the second period, and Ryan Getzlaf and Hampus Lindholm scored in the third to set up Perry's game-tying goal. Andersen made 32 saves. The Sucks established a franchise record for most wins (48) in a season. Anaheim remained atop of the Pacific Division, three points ahead of the idle San Jose Sharks with a game in hand. The Ducks trail the Western Conference-leading St. Louis Blues by one point. Jacob Trouba, Matt Halischuk, Blake Wheeler and Eric Tangradi scored for Winnipeg. The Jets took a 1-0 lead on Trouba's ninth goal of the season 8:48 in. Trouba beat Andersen with a wrist shot on the glove side from in close. Bryan Little earned an assist to extend his point streak to six games. Later in the period, Winnipeg took advantage of a Ducks mistake in their zone and made it 2-0. Halischuk scored his fifth of the season at 13:39. Winnipeg dominated play in the first period and outshot the Ducks 19-4 and had a 31-11 edge in shots after two periods. The Jets increased their lead to 3-0 just 33 seconds into the second period on a power-play goal by Wheeler, who leads Winnipeg with 27 goals. The Jets have scored five power-play goals the past five games. Tangradi added Winnipeg's fourth goal of the game, from Zach Redmond and Anthony Peluso, midway through the second period. Bonino's 20th goal of the season brought the Ducks within 4-1 with 2:16 left in the second. Getzlaf scored via the power play, his 31st goal of the season, at 3:06 of the third and Lindholm made it 4-3 1:13 later. Patrick Maroon had two assists for the Ducks. Teemu Selanne, who began his NHL career and scored 147 goals with the original Winnipeg Jets, played his final game against the new Jets franchise that relocated to Winnipeg from Atlanta in 2011. Selanne has scored 684 career goals.
Minnesota @ Los Angeles 3-2 - No one can say the Wild aren't playing desperate. For the second straight game, they erased a third-period deficit against a lockdown, Pacific Division team. Matt Moulson and Mikko Koivu scored 62 seconds apart in the third and Zach Parise had a goal and an assist in a 3-2 win against the Kings at Staples Center on Monday night. The Wild increased their lead to five points on the idle Phoenix Coyotes for the first wild-card spot in the Western Conference race to the Stanley Cup Playoffs. Wild goalie Ilya Bryzgalov made 18 saves and remained undefeated in regulation (4-0-2) since he joined Minnesota. The comeback came two days after the Wild rallied from a 1-0 deficit to beat Phoenix. The late rally came without center Mikael Granlund and right wing Nino Niederreiter, who did not play in the third period. Minnesota coach Mike Yeo said each has an upper-body injury and couldn't provide more information. The Wild trailed 2-1 going into the third and appeared to be another late-game loser to the Kings, who saw their six-game winning snapped and were 25-1-0 this season when leading after two periods. The third period push never came: Los Angeles had five shots on goal in the third. The Kings also blew a third-period lead March 17 against Phoenix. Moulson, a former King, tied it 2-2 when he broke free from the corner and went to the net to put in Jason Pominville's pass by Kings goalie and brother-in-law Jonathan Quick at 4:56 of the third. Koivu hammered Charlie Coyle's pass from the top of the left circle at 3:54 for a 3-2 lead. The Kings' top line continued its upward trend on a goal by Williams at 11:49 of the second. Los Angeles set up quickly in Minnesota's end and Williams was open to one time a patient, soft pass by Marian Gaborik for his 19th goal. Gaborik extended his point streak to four games. Defenseman Alec Martinez took advantage of a Minnesota lapse in the first period to score his 11th goal. Gaborik held in a clear attempt before Wild defenseman Jared Spurgeon lost the puck to Anze Kopitar, who circled behind the net and set up a pinching Martinez at 6:30. Martinez finished with seven goals in March and has 12 points in his past 15 games. But the individual statistics were all that the Kings took away from the game. Minnesota generated a lot of zone time early in the second but Quick held ground, especially with a breakaway stop on Justin Fontaine and Kyle Brodziak on the ensuing rebound. Bryzgalov made a right leg save on Tanner Pearson on a 2-on-1. Minnesota left wing Dany Heatley was a healthy scratch for the second straight game and second of his career. Local emergency goalie Rob Laurie served as backup for the Wild after Darcy Kuemper was reportedly injured at the morning skate. The Kings scratched left wing Dwight King for an undisclosed minor injury.