Gameday 74 (Tue, 02 Apr) - Results

Ottawa v Boston 2-3 - There's been much speculation that newly acquired Jaromir Jagr might push either Milan Lucic or Nathan Horton off David Krejci's wing in the Boston Bruins' lineup. When the Bruins needed it most Tuesday night, Krejci and his linemates came through and showed what they could do if they're kept together going forward this season. Horton scored on a rebound of a Lucic shot at 10:21 of the third period for the go-ahead goal in a 3-2 win against the Ottawa Senators at TD Garden. Krejci also assisted on the goal, which earned the Bruins a second straight win. Earlier in the day, they acquired Jagr from the Dallas Stars in a trade. But Krejci's line has now combined for six goals and eight assists in its last four games and the Bruins might want to consider keeping the trio that's been a staple for three seasons intact. Horton, who has goals in four straight games, also scored the game-winner on an assist by Krejci on Sunday night in Buffalo. The Bruins improved to 4-0-0 against Ottawa this season with each win coming by one goal. Boston leads the Senators, who were starting a seven-game road trip, by six points for fourth place in the Eastern Conference. Making a rare second straight start, Anton Khudobin made a career-high 45 saves for Boston. Robin Lehner made 47 saves for Ottawa in a game that saw five goals scored on 97 shots. Boston's continuing domination, the Bruins have won 13 of the last 14 meetings, and the Bruins' ability to win one-goal games is frustrating the Senators. Ottawa tied the game in an unusual way early in the third period. After a scramble in front, the puck found its way out to Andre Benoit at the left point. The Senators defenseman fired a slap shot that deflected to the left side of the net and play went on. At the 2:46 stoppage, video review showed the puck had hit the back of the net before it rebounded out. The game was tied at 2-2 with 1:55 elapsed. Horton broke the tie after some work by his linemates and a juicy rebound. Krejci won a battle down low and passed out to Lucic at the top of the left circle. Lucic got his shot through and Horton cleaned up the loose puck at 10:21. There were three goals scored in a span of 1:41 early in the first period. Ottawa kicked off the festivities after Bruins failed on a couple of clearing attempts and Colin Greening wound up with the puck in front of the Boston net. He beat Khudobin at 2:48 for a 1-0 lead. The Bruins responded at 3:28 on a tip by Krejci, who had just won a faceoff in the Ottawa zone. After Zdeno Chara rifled a shot toward the front, Krejci tied the game with the first Bruins' first-period goal in eight games. It took the Bruins just 59 seconds to take the lead. After an Ottawa giveaway along the side wall, Tyler Seguin and Brad Marchand went to the net on a 2-on-1. Seguin's one-time into a yawning net put Boston ahead, 2-1, with 4:29 elapsed in the period. The pace did not slow much in the second period but the goaltenders were up to the task, as Ottawa outshot Boston, 13-12, but the teams went to the room still separated by one goal. The Bruins endured a huge loss, however, about seven minutes into the middle period when Patrice Bergeron's head made contact with Greening's forearm or elbow while Greening was trying to shoot from the slot. Bergeron, who has had three concussions in his NHL career, left the game and did not return. The Senators have one more chance to defeat the Bruins before the regular season ends.

Winnipeg v NY Islanders 2-5 - The New York Islanders have been chasing a playoff spot all season. For one night, at least, they own one. The Islanders, who haven't made the Stanley Cup Playoffs since 2006-07, jumped into eighth place in the Eastern Conference race by beating the Winnipeg Jets 5-2 at Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum on Tuesday. The Islanders have 39 points, two more than the New York Rangers, though the Rangers have two games in hand. They are even in points with the seventh-place New Jersey Devils, who have one game in hand. Matt Moulson ended a 13-game goal drought and added some insurance at the 18-minute mark of the third period when he finished off John Tavares' pass on a 2-on-1 break. Tavares added an empty-netter to wrap up the win. Rookie Anders Lee and Colin McDonald also scored for New York, while rookie goaltender Kevin Poulin made 23 saves for his first NHL victory since Feb. 12, 2012. It was the first victory in six decisions this season by any goaltender other than Evgeni Nabokov, who got the night off after beating New Jersey, as well as the Islanders' first victory in six tries this season in the second game of a back-to-back. Pavelec stopped 34 shots for Winnipeg, which came to Long Island after a 4-2 loss to the Rangers in New York on Monday and has dropped a season-high four games in a row. Though the Jets (14-14-2) have fewer points than the Islanders, they own the third seed because they are first in the Southeast Division, two points ahead of Washington. Lee, the newest Islander, opened the scoring at 16:13 by beating Pavelec on his first NHL shot. Lee came down left wing, used defenseman Tobias Enstrom as a screen and wristed a shot that Pavelec barely moved on. Lee, a college star at Notre Dame, signed with the Islanders on Monday after his school's season ended. The lead didn't last long. Ladd drove down right wing, got to the net and fired a quick shot that Poulin stopped. But the rebound popped into the slot, where Paul Postma grabbed it and fired a quick shot over the goaltender's glove at 18:06. The Islanders dominated the early stages of the second period, but when the Jets finally got a shot, they went ahead 2-1. Postma, who entered the game with one goal in 29 NHL games, scored his second in less than 10 minutes of playing time when he went to the net and tapped home a perfect feed by Chris Thorburn. New York kept buzzing and got even at 9:56 when McDonald picked up the deflection of Mark Streit's slapper from the left point and put it through Pavelec's legs. Michael Grabner got a tip on Streit's shot and it came right to McDonald, who buried his seventh of the season. Evander Kane's hooking penalty with 1:59 remaining in the period gave the Islanders their only power play of the night, and they took advantage when Nielsen set up in the right circle and hammered home the rebound of Streit's shot for his fourth goal of the season.

Washington v Carolina 5-3 - For most of the first period, the Carolina Hurricanes appeared on their way to a convincing win over the Washington Capitals. Jiri Tlusty scored twice, first on a rebound, then on a power-play wrist shot. After 19 minutes, Carolina held a 2-0 lead and a 10-3 advantage in shots. Then Alex Ovechkin changed everything. With 39 seconds remaining in the opening period, Ovechkin stepped into a wrist shot from the top of the right circle, beating Carolina goaltender Dan Ellis high to the far post. Suddenly, the Capitals came to life. Washington struck for four more goals in the second period, riding four assists from center Nicklas Backstrom to finish off the Hurricanes 5-3. Ovechkin finished with two goals, as did defenseman Mike Green, with Backstrom assisting on all four. The Capitals pulled within two points of the Winnipeg Jets for first place in the Southeast Division. The Hurricanes continue their free fall, having gone 1-8-1 in their last 10. The Capitals picked up where they left off, tying the score quickly at the start of the second period. Washington went on the power play when Jeff Skinner covered the puck with his hand, and moments later Green blasted a slap shot from the middle point past Ellis to tie the game. Hurricanes forward Jiri Tlusty gave the PNC Arena fans reason to cheer when he redirected a pass from Eric Staal past Braden Holtby for a 3-2 lead, and his first career hat trick. But Washington quickly recaptured the momentum. After setting up each of his team's first two goals, Backstrom left a drop pass for Green, whose shot over the Ellis's glove tied the game at 3-3 and chased the Carolina netminder from the game in favor of Justin Peters. Backstrom wasn't finished, as he set up Ovechkin on a beautiful 2-on-1 though the slot. With the four-point night, Backstrom has 35 points in 36 games. His 29 assists rank third in the NHL. While Washington clearly had Carolina's number in the second period, they jumped to the lead with great efficiency, managing the 5-3 lead on just 11 shots through two periods. For the Hurricanes, the loss was another critical misstep in a season that is slipping away. Once the division leader with a 15-9-1 record, Carolina now trails both Winnipeg and Washington in the Southeast and sits 11th in the Eastern Conference. Carolina coach Kirk Muller has been critical of the team's play in recent games, but not Tuesday night. While the loss was another that the Hurricanes could ill afford, the Hurricanes had stretches of the game in which they peppered Washington goaltender Braden Holtby, particularly at the end of the second period when Holtby had to stop a half-dozen quality shots. Carolina was dealt a blow in the second period. Defenseman Joni Pitkanen left the ice on a stretcher with 1:57 remaining. He was racing to make a touch for icing alongside Washington forward Troy Brouwer. Pitkanen went hard into the boards without slowing much of his impact. Muller said Pitkanen was evaluated at the arena and did not go to the hospital. Muller did not speculate on the severity of the injury, noting only that it appeared the injury was to Pitkanen's heel or ankle. With a 4-1-1 mark in its last six games, Washington is back in the thick of the playoff race, but no one is jumping to any conclusions about the team's destiny.

Buffalo v Pittsburgh 4-1 - Following a perfect month, the Pittsburgh Penguins were anything but during their first game of April. Playing without their captain and the NHL leading scorer Sidney Crosby for the first time this season, the Penguins were listless in having a 15-game winning streak snapped, 4-1 by the Buffalo Sabres on Tuesday at Consol Energy Center. Kevin Porter had his first two goals of the season and Steve Ott and Cody Hodgson also scored for Buffalo, which won for the first time in five games. Amid speculation he could be traded before Wednesday afternoon's deadline, Sabres captain Jason Pominville had two assists and was a plus-3. Ryan Miller made 19 saves during his 492nd game for the Sabres, breaking the franchise record for appearances by a goalie. After the game, Miller fended off questions about the swirling trade rumors. The Sabres traded veteran defenseman Robyn Regehr for draft picks the previous night and general manager Darcy Regier has made no secret that several other players are available for trade. That includes Pominville, who upon request by Regier submitted a list of teams he'd accept a trade to on Monday. Buffalo was also without leading scorer Thomas Vanek, who tested an upper-body muscle strain at the morning skate, but missed his fourth straight game. The Penguins, who also had a team-record 12-game home winning streak snapped, fell two games short of breaking their own League record of 17 straight wins set 20 years ago. They'll have to settle with sharing the NHL's second-longest streak with the 1981-82 New York Islanders. All 15 of their wins came during March, the first undefeated and untied full month in NHL history. Jarome Iginla scored for the first time as a Penguins player in his second game for Pittsburgh, which was denied its second 5-0-0 homestand in franchise history. Crosby sustained a broken jaw when he was struck by a puck during his first shift of Pittsburgh's previous game Saturday. The Penguins were also again without top defensemen Kris Letang (lower-body injury) and Paul Martin (broken bone in the upper body). Still, the Penguins entered the game with a franchise-record opponent scoreless streak of 208:24, having shut out their three previous opponents. Tomas Vokoun, who was in the net for the final seven periods of that streak, extended it to 218:48 before Buffalo blew the game open with four goals in a span of 13:52, that's as many as Pittsburgh allowed in its previous 522:56. Porter, who hadn't scored in more than a year, picked up his first in a span of 20 NHL games when he took advantage of a broken stick and a poor pass by Pittsburgh. While playing the point on the power play, Iginla's stick snapped into two pieces, allowing Pominville to lead a rush the other way. Iginla stole the puck via a kick, however, and got it to teammate Matt Niskanen. Niskanen tried to blindly drop it back for Iginla, but Porter picked it off and quickly got off a shot that beat Vokoun. Iginla tied it at 13:27 of the first with his 10th of the season, a tap-in into an empty net off a feed from Chris Kunitz while on the power play. But Ott gave the Sabres the lead for good with 1:50 left in the first when Pominville teed it up for him to one-time from the top of the left circle. Buffalo made it 4-1 with a pair of goals 67 seconds apart among the first 3:28 of the second period. Hodgson's 13th of the season but first since March 17 was a wraparound that came off an assist from Pominville. The team's second-leading scorer, Hodgson had been demoted to the fourth line due to lack of sound defensive play during the Sabres' previous game, a 2-0 home loss to Boston on Sunday. Porter made it a three-goal cushion when he threw the puck to the net and it deflected off the skate of Penguins defenseman Deryk Engelland and past Vokoun, ending the veteran goaltender's night. Fleury entered for his first action since leaving after two periods of a March 26 game against the Montreal Canadiens due to an upper-body injury and stopped all 16 shots he faced. Despite the expected sell-off at the deadline, the Sabres remained on the periphery of the Eastern Conference playoff race; they are five points behind the eighth-place New York Islanders. Brooks Orpik appeared in his 622nd game, breaking the record for most by a defenseman for the Penguins, who still lead the East by five points and the Atlantic Division by 17. They lost for the first time since Feb. 28.

Florida v Tampa Bay 3-2 - Jacob Markstrom showed Tuesday night why he's the goaltender of the future for the Florida Panthers. Markstrom stopped 39 shots through 65 minutes, then denied all three attempts in the shootout as the Panthers beat the Tampa Bay Lightning 3-2 for their season-high third win in a row, all of which have come after regulation. Peter Mueller beat Mathieu Garon for the only goal in the tiebreaker as the Panthers snapped a seven-game losing streak to their in-state rival. Markstrom stopped Teddy Purcell, Victor Hedman and Steven Stamkos in the shootout to nail down the win. He also made several acrobatic stops among his 39 saves before the tiebreaker. The Panthers (12-19-6) had to withstand Tampa Bay's third-period comeback, which saw the Lightning score twice in a span of 4:56 to tie the game. Entering the final 20 minutes trailing 2-0, Tampa Bay swarmed the Florida net, firing 13 shots and another four in overtime on Markstrom, who came up with a big save time after time. Florida opened a lead by converting both of its power-play opportunities in the game. Both goals came with Tampa Bay's Tom Pyatt in the penalty box. Tomas Kopecky began the scoring for Florida when he deflected a shot by TJ Brennan and sent the puck past Garon at 8:36 of the opening period, just 13 seconds after Pyatt was sent to the box for hooking. Kopecky's goal, his 13th of the season, came after Tomas Fleischmann cleanly won the faceoff. Greg Rallo made it 2-0 at 16:41 of the second period with his first NHL goal in his fifth career game when he deflected a shot that Brennan fired into heavy traffic from the left point past Garon. This time Pyatt was off for interference. Pyatt made some amends when he crashed the net and redirected Purcell's centering feed past Markstrom at 5:38 of the third period for his seventh goal of the season. He now has four points [two goals, two assists] in four games against Florida this season. Alex Killorn tied it at 10:32 when he got his stick on a blast by Hedman that went wide of the net and bounced out in front. Markstrom had moved out of the crease to cut down the angle and was caught as Killorn slipped the puck between the netminder and the right post for his sixth goal of the season. Purcell also assisted on Killorn's goal for his second point of the game. The Panthers enter a three-day break, their only one of the season, before they host the Washington Capitals on Saturday night. Tampa Bay (15-18-2) had its home win streak snapped at four games. The Lightning head out on the road for three games before returning home on April 9 against the Ottawa Senators. The 41 shots that the Lightning registered on net in the game was their highest total in a game since they fired 45 against Montreal on March 5, 2011. Despite the loss, new Lightning coach Jon Cooper found some positives in his second game behind the bench.

Colorado v Nashville 1-3 - With every point precious as they battle for a playoff berth, the Nashville Predators knew a game against the last-place Colorado Avalanche was one they couldn't afford to lose. Thanks to a late rally, they didn't. David Legwand broke a 1-1 tie with 1:14 remaining in regulation by stuffing his own rebound behind Jean-Sebastien Giguere as the Predators beat Colorado 3-1 on Tuesday night, avenging a 1-0 overtime loss in Denver three days earlier. The victory gives the Predators 38 points, the same as the eighth-place St. Louis Blues in the Western Conference. However, Nashville (15-14-8) has played three more games. After two scoreless periods, the Avalanche grabbed the lead 61 seconds into the third when Matt Duchene burst through four Predators near the Nashville blue line, raced in alone and beat Pekka Rinne for his 15th of the season. It was only the 11th time in 37 games that the Avalanche scored first. That "young player" was rookie Brad Malone, who was called for high-sticking at 8:01. The Predators got even 22 seconds later when Patric Hornqvist nudged home a loose puck for a power-play goal. Shea Weber's shot from the left point was stopped in front, but with players from both teams jamming away at the puck, Hornqvist was able to slide it over the goal line for his fourth goal of the season. The goal stood after a video review. Legwand, the leading scorer in franchise history, put his team in front for the first him when he outmuscled Duchene for the puck behind the Colorado net, came out to Giguere's left and put his own rebound past Giguere after the goaltender had stopped his original shot. Giguere kept the Avalanche in the game with 35 saves. Pekka Rinne stopped 25 shots to improve to 11-3-1 in his last 15 games against Colorado. The Avalanche (12-20-4) are last in the overall standings with 28 points.

Los Angeles v Phoenix 1-3 - With their playoff hopes dwindling and the trade deadline hours away, the Phoenix Coyotes wanted to show there was still some life and fire in a dressing room lobbying for a chance to prove they can still salvage the season. Backup goalie Jason LaBarbera was brilliant with 39 saves and defenseman Keith Yandle matched a career high with two goals as the Coyotes kept their flickering playoff hopes alive with a 3-1 win against the Los Angeles Kings on Tuesday night at Jobing.com Arena. The Coyotes are 2-0-2 in the four games since a seven-game losing streak that dropped them out of the playoff pack, and they failed to hold late third-period leads in Minnesota and San Jose last week before settling for a point. But this time, Yandle's second goal with 2:53 left wrapped up two points Phoenix had to have. The 36 points still leave the Coyotes 12th in the West and two points behind the eighth-place St. Louis Blues, who have two games in hand. Kyle Chipchura had the first assist on both of Yandle's goal and Matthew Lombardi snapped a 1-1 tie with the eventual game-winner in the second period. But the real start was LaBarbera, who was very good early when the Coyotes had a listless start and continues to hold the fort while starter Mike Smith continues to rehab the injury suffered in a Mar. 21 collision with Vancouver Alexander Edler. Jonathan Quick made 27 saves for the Kings, who had been 6-2-1 in their past nine games, including a pair of home wins against Phoenix. Los Angeles got an odd first-period deflection goal from Justin Williams, but that was it. LaBarbera stopped everything else. LaBarbera made big saves on Dustin Brown and Mike Richards on an early Kings' power play, and later on Brad Richardson and Anze Kopitar, before his teammates woke up and took a brief lead. Chipchura chased his own dump-in behind the Los Angeles net, won a battle with Keaton Elllerby and found a charging Yandle storming toward the crease unmarked. Yandle punched the feed past Quick at 11:05, giving Phoenix the first goal for the fourth straight game. The lead didn't last long. The Kings caught a huge break just 1:08 later, when Williams ran down a puck at the right boards and flipped it high toward the slot. The puck hit Phoenix defenseman Michael Stone in the chest and bounced past LaBarbera at 12:12. Williams was credited with his eighth goal and his fourth in the past four games. It stayed that way until midway through the second period, when recent call-up Rob Klinkhammer, who has been an unexpected and much-needed injection of production to a wilting Phoenix offense over the last 10 games, made another big play. At the end of a long shift, Klinkhammer pushed into the Los Angeles zone and, with Kings center Tyler Toffoli draped all over him along the boards, chipped a pass that found Lombardi in stride. Lombardi went to the backhand as well and banked a shot off the far post and in at 11:05 to put Phoenix back in front. Lombardi's fourth goal extended Klinkhammer's scoring streak to five games and gives him four goals and four assists in 10 contests, more than any other Coyote during that span. It stayed that way until Yandle fired a puck from a hard angle off the side boards to give him his first two-goal game in more than three years (Jan. 26, 2010 at Detroit.).