Gameday 7 (Fri 25, Jan) - Results

NY Islanders v Boston 2-4 - The Boston Bruins continued to spread the wealth and prove they’re one of the most balanced teams in the NHL when they defeated the New York Islanders 4-2 Friday night. Zdeno Chara became the third of four Bruins to score his first goal when he buried the tiebreaker 7:07 into the third period, spoiling the first two-goal NHL game by New York Islanders forward Keith Aucoin. Boston's Shawn Thornton and Gregory Campbell scored their first goals prior to Chara's score, and Patrice Bergeron added his later in the third period. The Bruins have 11 goals from nine players this season. Fifteen players have at least one point for the Bruins, who are 3-0-1. Boston has started the season with points in its first four games for the first time since the Bruins went 3-0-1 to start the 2000-01 season. Rookie defenseman Dougie Hamilton recorded two assists for his first NHL multipoint game. Tuukka Rask made 24 saves for the Bruins, and Rick DiPietro finished with 23 saves for the Islanders in his first start since Dec. 2, 2011. Chara beat DiPietro through a screen with a wrist shot from the high slot. The Bruins' top line cycled the puck down low until Milan Lucic made it to the bottom of the right circle and found Chara open and waiting for a pass. Thornton opened the scoring at 4:52 with help from Hamilton, who rifled a shot from the right point toward the slot. The puck was knocked down and Thornton flipped it into the back of the goal with a backhand shot. The Bruins' lead lasted until a defensive breakdown led to Aucoin's first goal. With four Bruins focused on David Ullstrom, the Islanders forward moved the puck to linemate Colin McDonald, who fed it out front to Aucoin all alone in front for the goal that tied the game 1-1 at 11:13. Aucoin, a native of nearby Waltham, Mass., continued to impress the team he joined last week on waivers from the Toronto Maple Leafs with his second goal of the night (third in two nights) at 9:50 of the second period to give New York its first lead. Daniel Paille’s clearing attempt from the corner slid up the middle of Boston's zone and Aucoin hammered it over Rask's catching glove for a 2-1 edge. Like Thornton before him, Campbell scored his goal from in front of the net. After David Krejci spun and fired a shot from the left-wing half boards, Joe Finley blocked the shot right to Campbell, who fired it inside the right post to even the score at 2-2 with 6:18 remaining in the second period. Bergeron added his goal on a breakaway with 6:27 left in the regulation.

Carolina v Buffalo 3-1 - In the second game of a back-to-back, home-and-home series between the Buffalo Sabres and Carolina Hurricanes, the third period proved to be the decisive one. The Hurricanes defeated the Sabres for the second night in a row, this time on the road. Jay Harrison broke a tie with 4:50 remaining to send the Hurricanes to a 3-1 victory against the Sabres on Friday at First Niagara Center. Following an icing call, Hurricanes captain Eric Staal won a faceoff against Tyler Ennis. The puck went back to Harrison, who slapped a shot from the point over the shoulder of goaltender Ryan Miller. The teams took 41 shots each. The Sabres opened the scoring then gave up three unanswered goals in the final period. Less than two minutes into the third period, Sabres forward Thomas Vanek took the puck in the corner to goalie Dan Ellis' right and muscled his way through defenseman Joni Pitkanen. Vanek worked his way into the slot and wristed a shot past Ellis for his third goal of the season. Alexander Semin tied the game on a Carolina power play about 90 seconds later for his first goal with the Hurricanes. As Sabres defenseman Robyn Regehr reached out to tap the puck out of the zone, Semin stole it and went hard toward the middle of the ice. He pulled back and sniped a shot into the corner over Miller’s glove. Jeff Skinner added an empty-net goal with 25.2 seconds remaining. The teams met the night before in Carolina with the Hurricanes getting a 6-3 victory. Staal had a hat trick that included the game-winning goal, and Skinner added a pair of goals, but Friday’s rematch would not provide as much scoring. Miller stopped 39 shots and Ellis made 40 saves. Ellis' prior appearance against Buffalo came as a member of the Nashville Predators when he allowed three goals on 14 shots in relief on Feb. 27, 2008. The Sabres were without Ville Leino (hip) and Cody McCormick (finger) for the fourth consecutive game. Coach Lindy Ruff said earlier in the day that Leino’s injury would not require surgery. Tuomo Ruutu missed another game for Carolina with a hip injury.

Washington v New Jersey 2-3 - Martin Brodeur is unwavering in his belief that the New Jersey Devils hot start to this season traces back to last June, when they left Los Angeles two wins shy of the Stanley Cup. Even without former captain Zach Parise, who left for Minnesota as a free agent, the Devils are playing like the team that slid past the Florida Panthers in seven games, blew away the Philadelphia Flyers in five, and confidently took down the New York Rangers in six to reach the Final last spring. That much was evident on Friday, when New Jersey let a 2-0 lead slip away only to finish off the Capitals with 20.5 seconds left in overtime thanks to Ilya Kovalchuk's laser-quick one-timer from below the left circle off a diagonal feed from defenseman Marek Zidlicky. Kovalchuk's angle was poor and he didn't have much of the net to shoot at, but he went high as Capitals goalie Michal Neuvirth guessed low. New Jersey is 3-0-0 heading into a Sunday night game at Montreal. Washington fell to 0-3-1 and is winless through four games for the first time since 1993-94, when it started the season 0-6. The Devils are perfect through three games because they've allowed only three goals, including just one even-strength goal, in more than 184 minutes so far this season. Brodeur, who is 40 years old, has a 0.98 goals-against average and .958 save percentage to go along with one shutout. Kovalchuk has a pair of goals and four points. Elias and Stephen Gionta got on the board Friday with regulation-time goals. Travis Zajac and David Clarkson already had two goals apiece coming into the game. New Jersey's power play, a work-in-progress according to DeBoer, connected for a 5-on-3 goal against the Capitals. The Devils' overused penalty kill was also solid as Washington needed a tic-tac-toe passing sequence from Mike Green to Joel Ward to Mike Ribeiro to score a 5-on-3 goal with 7:15 left in regulation. The Capitals were just 1-for-8 on the power play. Green scored the first even-strength goal the Devils have allowed this season just over four minutes later to send the game into overtime. However, the Devils drew a power-play chance 1:05 into overtime, when Green was called for interference on Elias. They didn't score during the two-minute 4-on-3 advantage, but they peppered Capitals goalie Michal Neuvirth with five shots on goal and carried the momentum they gained through the rest of the OT up until Kovalchuk scored. Washington got a superb effort from Neuvirth (32 saves) to stay in the game when it appeared the Devils were going to cruise to a win. He stoned Jacob Josefson and Zubrus on shorthanded breakaways. He was spectacular during the Devils' power play in overtime. And, that's only a sampling of what Neuvirth was able to do despite playing for the second straight night. Even though the Capitals are winless through four games, their late comeback did earn them their first point of the season and provided their first bit of optimism as well. It came roughly 24 hours after they finished off a lifeless 4-1 loss to Montreal with less than half of a sellout crowd still left inside Verizon Center. Oates got the late push out of his team after shaking up his lineup following Thursday's loss. Alex Ovechkin, who is still searching for his first goal of the season, started on a line with Jay Beagle and Joey Crabb; he was eventually moved to a line with Nicklas Backstrom and Troy Brouwer. John Erskine and Jeff Schultz stepped in on defense for Tom Poti and Roman Hamrlik. Eric Fehr played in place of Mathieu Perreault. The Devils still jumped out to a 2-0 lead thanks to Gionta's goal off the rush in the first period and Elias' 5-on-3 goal in the second. However, the Devils' gave Washington an opportunity to come back in the third period thanks to penalties. Ribeiro scored on a 5-on-3 after the Devils were called for a pair of bench minors (too many men on the ice, abuse of officials) at 11:52. Andy Greene was already in the box for tripping. New Jersey was able to kill off the remaining power-play time, including an extended 5-on-3, after Ribeiro's goal, but Green's low shot from inside the right point with 2:56 left in regulation got under Brodeur to tie the game. They didn't get two because the Devils also stuck with it, showing a familiar resiliency after blowing a third-period lead.

Ottawa v Tampa Bay 4-6 - The Tampa Bay Lightning continue to struggle in the second period. The third period is another story. The Lightning left the ice at the Tampa Bay Times Forum after 40 minutes trailing Ottawa 4-3 after allowing the Senators to score four times in the second period, the continuation of a trend that has seen Tampa Bay outscored 10-3 in the middle period. But Tampa Bay got a pair of goals by Ryan Malone and an empty-netter from Thomas Pyatt in the third period to rally for a 6-4 victory on Friday night, handing the Senators their first loss of the season. The Lightning lead the NHL with 11 third-period goals. Coach Guy Boucher is trying to figure out why his team plays so poorly in the second period and so well in the third. Malone tied the game 3:39 into the third period when he deflected a shot by Sami Salo past Ben Bishop. The game-winner came with 7:02 remaining when Victor Hedman's point shot deflected off Vincent Lecavalier's stick and came to Malone at the right of the crease. Malone quickly buried it, delighting the sellout crowd of 19,204. The Lightning jumped on top on Matt Carle's power-play goal just 69 seconds into the contest. Tampa Bay had four extra-man opportunities in the opening period but were able to convert just once. Then came the second period, when the Senators outshot the Lightning 16-5 and beat Anders Lindback four times. Eric Condra tied the game with a breakaway goal at 4:11, and the game remained even at 1-1 until the teams combined for five goals in a 3:40 span late in the period. Jason Spezza scored on a power-play wrister at 14:30 and Eric Karlsson's point shot found the back of the net 15 seconds later. Steven Stamkos got one goal back for the Lightning, but Kyle Turris completed a beautiful tic-tac-toe passing play at 17:30, putting a pass from Daniel Alfredsson into a wide-open net. However, the Lightning made it a one-goal game just 40 seconds later when Hedman moved into the high slot, took a pass from Stamkos and beat Bishop through a screen from 35 feet. Malone got the tying and go-ahead goals before Tom Pyatt added an empty-netter with 41.7 seconds remaining to give Tampa Bay its third win in four games and second in as many home games Anders Lindback, starting his third game in goal for the Lightning, stopped 32 shots on the way to his second win. Six Tampa Bay players had multi-point games, including rookie Cory Conacher, who had two assists. Conacher has found the scoresheet for Tampa Bay in every game this season. The Senators, who won 3-1 at Florida on Thursday for their third victory in as many games, couldn't survive the Lightning's barrage. Lecavalier was honored before the opening faceoff for playing in his 1,000th NHL game Monday on Long Island. Lecavalier, who received several gifts including an engraved silver stick, is the 280th player in League history to reach the milestone. The Lightning continue their five-game homestand when Philadelphia comes to town on Sunday. The Senators host Pittsburgh on Sunday night.

Minnesota v Detroit 3-5 - The Detroit Red Wings finally got a power-play goal, two, in fact, and defeated the Minnesota Wild 5-3 at Joe Louis Arena on Friday night. The Red Wings entered the game 0-for-15 on the power play this season and added two more failed attempts, but opened the scoring 13 seconds into the second period when Damien Brunner got a 5-on-4 goal off a feed from Henrik Zetterberg. Zetterberg and Brunner combined on 41 goals playing in Switzerland’s National League during the lockout. Todd Bertuzzi gave the Red Wings a 2-0 lead 42 seconds later, but the Wild responded to tie with goals from Zach Parise and Tom Gilbert within a six-minute span. The Red Wings scored the final two goals of the second period, by Zetterberg and Pavel Datsyuk, on a power play, before Bertuzzi's second of the game gave Detroit a 5-2 lead 4:18 into the third period. The goals were the first of the season for Bertuzzi, who missed the Wings' first three games with the flu, and Zetterberg. The five goals were more than the Red Wings had managed while starting their season 1-2-0. Valtteri Filppula had three assists, Niklas Kronwall and Datsyuk each had two, and Jimmy Howard made 23 saves for the Red Wings. Harding, who shut out the Dallas Stars 1-0 on Jan. 20 in his first start since his offseason diagnosis of multiple sclerosis, allowed four goals on the first 17 shots he faced and finished with 22 saves. Parise's second goal of the game closed the scoring at 10:18 of the third period. The crowd of 20,066 booed him and defenseman Ryan Suter throughout the game; the pair signed with Minnesota rather than Detroit as free agents during the offseason. Suter, who played 32:02, and rookie Jonas Brodin, making his NHL debut, each had an assist for their first point with the Wild.

Pittsburgh v Winnipeg 2-4 - The hockey citizenry here had to wait more than a season for a live sampling of Sidney Crosby's game, but it was their hometown Winnipeg Jets who stole the show at sold-out MTS Centre on Friday night. Crosby played his first NHL game in Winnipeg and provided the locals with one of his patented offensive efforts in the first period, he scored twice to give the Pittsburgh Penguins an early lead. But the Jets took center stage after that. Three second-period goals erased the Crosby-built lead and powered the Jets to a 4-2 win. But the first period marked the extent of Crosby's fun for the evening. Evander Kane, Dustin Byfuglien and Andrew Ladd scored for the Jets to support a 33-save performance by Ondrej Pavelec. Blake Wheeler finished off the Penguins by hitting the empty net with 65 seconds left. The Jets won just for the third time in their past 18 games against the Penguins; Pittsburgh scored eight goals against Winnipeg in the previous two meetings. The Penguins arrived in this snowy city Thursday afternoon still smarting from a 5-2 loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs in their home opener Wednesday night after two season-opening wins last weekend. Pittsburgh plays five of its first seven games on the road, with this weekend's two-game sojourn moving on to Ottawa for a game Sunday. Penguins coach Dan Bylsma cited long shifts in the three second-period breakdowns leading to Winnipeg goals, but he found more to be pleased with than he did in the 5-2 loss Wednesday. Tomas Vokoun, acquired last summer to upgrade the Penguins' goaltending with incumbent Marc-Andre Fleury, made his second start of the season and stalled several Winnipeg attempts to sustain offensive pressure in the first period. Vokoun finished with 28 saves. Crosby scored for the second time in as many games with a goal 4:26 into the first period. Chris Kunitz outmuscled Byfuglien and Wheeler for a loose puck along the left boards and poked it to Crosby in the left circle. He took the feed and snuck it inside Pavelec's right post for a 1-0 lead, marking the fourth time in as many games this season that the Penguins opened the scoring. Winnipeg fans, and a good portion of the Jets' defense, then watched Crosby expand Pittsburgh's lead to 2-0 later in the first period. Crosby drifted into the Winnipeg zone, cruised into the low slot past defenseman Mark Stuart and backhanded a shot that trickled through Pavelec's legs with 5:02 remaining. Crosby's two goals moved him past Ron Francis for fourth place on the franchise's all-time points list. The two-goal game was the 50th of his career; the multi-point game, Crosby's second this week, is his 15th in 23 games against the Winnipeg franchise. Winnipeg responded in the first 70 seconds of the middle period. Wheeler distributed a pass through heavy slot traffic that reached Kane, who lifted a shot over Vokoun. Vokoun's Czech counterpart, Pavelec, rebounded from the first period and held Winnipeg in the game under heavy Pittsburgh pressure in the second period's first eight minutes. Pavelec made three point-blank stops on Evgeni Malkin, who tortured the Jets last season with three goals and eight assists in three games. Pavelec's work help set up Winnipeg's comeback. The Jets made the Penguins pay for Malkin's offensive-zone hooking minor during a power play halfway through the second period when Byfuglien ripped a shot over Vokoun's right shoulder from just inside the blue line at 13:35. Late in the period, Bryan Little wrangled a loose puck off a Pittsburgh defensive-zone giveaway to help set up Winnipeg's go-ahead goal. Little charged through the bottom of the left circle before backhanding a cross-slot pass to Ladd, who pounded the puck past Vokoun with 2:06 to go. From that point on, the Jets showed little of the panic that marked so many of their performances last season. Other than James Neal hitting a post late in the game, Pittsburgh struggled to generate much third-period momentum. During the offseason, the Jets made building offensive depth a major priority after spending much of last season as a one-line outfit. Byfuglien, Kane, Ladd, and Wheeler each also contributed an assist to goal with their goals.

Vancouver v Anaheim 5-0 - Six days after the Anaheim Ducks handed them a disconcerting loss at Rogers Arena, the Vancouver Canucks returned the favor Friday night with a 5-0 win in the Ducks' first game of the season at Honda Center. Daniel Sedin, Mason Raymond and Zack Kassian each scored power-play goals as Vancouver exposed Anaheim's glaring deficiency in front of a sellout crowd. Kassian capped the power-play bonanza with a wrist shot past Jonas Hiller early in the third period after Corey Perry was given a double minor for charging and roughing at the end of the second. Vancouver went 3-for-9 on the night and has six power-play goals in four games. Raymond added his second of the night on a shot from the left circle with 4:59 to play. Schneider, who was pulled after allowing five goals in that 7-3 season-opening home loss to Anaheim, stopped all 30 shots he faced to fully settle Canucks' fans goaltending worries. Anaheim was going for the second 3-0-0 start in franchise history and the first since their 2006-07 Stanley Cup-winning season but reality set in with a penalty-killing unit that has surrendered seven goals on 16 chances. Former Hart Trophy-winner Perry took himself off the ice for nine minutes after a fight against Keith Ballard in the third. The Ducks were the last NHL team to play their home opener and, after a rare three days off, their own ice seemed foreign to them during a poor second period in which passes didn't connect. An Anaheim turnover led to a 3-0 Vancouver lead when Devante Smith-Pelly couldn't collect the puck near the net and Aaron Volpatti wristed a shot that trickled through Hiller for his third career goal. Masked in Anaheim's 2-0-0 start was that faulty penalty-killing unit, and Vancouver exploited it with two power-play goals in the first period. Raymond batted in his own rebound from the right side after Alexandre Burrows muscled past Luca Sbisa to deliver a cross-ice pass at 18:40. That came after Daniel Sedin scored a 5-on-3 goal at 9:13 with a one-timer off Henrik Sedin's feed through the crease with Daniel Winnik and Ryan Getzlaf in the penalty box. Getzlaf and Bobby Ryan both owned up to the penalties, especially the early infractions, and also said there is plenty of blame to go around. Anaheim captain Getzlaf struck a sincere note before the puck dropped when he took the microphone and called the Ducks and Canucks players out to center ice to collectively thank the fans.