Gameday 76 (Thu, 04 Apr) - Results

New Jersey v Boston 0-1 - The Boston Bruins thought their acquisition of Jaromir Jagr would bring them more goals. They just didn't know Jagr doesn't always have to use his stick to score them. Jagr's first goal for the Bruins, 1:20 into the second period, went in off his skate and was the only score in a 1-0 victory against the New Jersey Devils in his debut with his new team at TD Garden on Thursday. Jagr was acquired from the Dallas Stars in a trade Tuesday for two prospects and a draft pick. Jagr said he barely slept the past two nights. He was extremely hard on himself in the postgame scrum after he logged 19:12 of ice time and fired five shots on goal. Boston goalie Tuukka Rask, making his first start since backing up Anton Khudobin in the previous two games, made 40 saves for his third shutout of the season. Rask was tested early, as New Jersey outshot Boston 17-6 in the first period. He shook off any rust he might have had and turned away every New Jersey offering. The Bruins are 7-0-1 in their past eight home games and have won three in a row overall. However, they've allowed 87 shots on net in their last two games, both on home ice. That's something coach Claude Julien will be looking to rectify. The Devils are 0-4-1 in their past five games overall. They're now in ninth place in the Eastern Conference. Jagr took the ice 1:16 into the first period after a New Jersey icing. The rousing ovation from the TD Garden crowd ended only when Seguin, playing center in the absence of Patrice Bergeron, lost the faceoff. Jagr gave the Bruins fans more to cheer about as the night went on. Meanwhile, Rask was on top of his game, including one sequence in which the netminder had to flash the left pad to stop Alexei Ponikarovsky, then use the same pad to stop David Clarkson in the slot after the rebound. With the loss to the Bruins in the books, Devils coach Peter DeBoer was already looking forward to the next game; New Jersey hosts the Toronto Maple Leafs on Saturday night, then plays at the Buffalo Sabres on Sunday.

Philadelphia v Toronto 5-3 - Joffrey Lupul's roller-coaster season continues. The veteran left wing of the Toronto Maple Leafs has been one of the NHL's hottest players of late, but he has a hard time staying in the lineup. Lupul missed 25 games with a broken arm after he was hit with a slap shot by teammate Dion Phaneuf on Jan. 23. Then, after scoring three goals and four points in his first two games back, Lupul was hit with a two-game suspension for a high hit. In the four games since his suspension ended, Lupul added five goals and nine points, but he was injured again Thursday night when he was sandwiched on a hit by Adam Hall and Jay Rosehill of the Philadelphia Flyers. Lupul, who had an assist on Toronto's first goal, was hit first by Hall and knocked into Rosehill, who inadvertently hit his former teammate in the head. Lupul departed after taking three shifts, looking quite wobbly as he headed to the bench, and the Maple Leafs lost 5-3 to the visiting Philadelphia Flyers. The loss snapped a streak of eight straight games the Maple Leafs had secured at least one point. It was also a night when Maple Leafs goaltender James Reimer was hoping to make a statement having been anointed the team's No. 1 stopper by virtue of the fact Toronto failed to acquire a veteran at the NHL Trade Deadline. Though Carlyle didn't point the finger directly at Reimer, he wasn't thrilled with his performance. Reimer said losing Lupul was important, but added the Maple Leafs survived when he was out for 25 games, and if he is out for an extended period of time, they'll have to make due again. Reimer said he feels bad for the hard-luck forward. The Flyers did acquire a goalie at the trade deadline, bringing in Steve Mason from the Columbus Blue Jackets, but elected to start veteran Ilya Bryzgalov who, though not particularly sharp himself, did manage to secure his 17th win of the season. The Flyers, winners of four in a row, have 37 points, two behind the eighth-place New York Rangers in the Eastern Conference playoff race. Toronto dropped into sixth; the Maple Leafs and Ottawa Senators each have 44 points but Ottawa has a game in hand. Rosehill, Simon Gagne, Jakub Voracek, Brayden Schenn and Luke Schenn (into an empty net) scored for the Flyers. James van Riemsdyk, John-Michael Liles and Nikolai Kulemin replied for the Maple Leafs.

NY Islanders v Washington 1-2 - Alex Ovechkin shot the Washington Capitals into first place in the Southeast Division. Ovechkin scored the only goal of the shootout as the Capitals defeated the New York Islanders 2-1 at Verizon Center on Thursday night. Ovechkin, the Capitals' second shooter, used a deke before lifting a backhander over Evgeni Nabokov. Braden Holtby made 35 saves through 65 minutes, then stopped all three New York shooters, ending the game by denying John Tavares in the crease. The victory, Washington's sixth in eight games, gives the Capitals (18-17-2) 38 points, the same as the Winnipeg Jets, who lost at the Montreal Canadiens on Thursday and have played one more game. The single point gives the Islanders (18-16-4) 40 points and moves them into seventh place in the Eastern Conference, one point ahead of the New York Rangers and New Jersey Devils, each of whom have games in hand. The Capitals took the lead when Green scored in the final seconds of the opening period, and Holtby made it stand up until he was beaten by Kyle Okposo with 4:59 left in regulation. Okposo hammered a one-timer from the lower left circle off a slick touch pass by Frans Nielsen after Josh Bailey started the play with a takeaway at the Washington blue line. Holtby had no chance on Okposo's goal, but he preserved the tie when he got his right pad down to deny Matt Moulson on his doorstep. The Capitals also killed off a late penalty when Green was called for delay of game for shooting the puck into the crowd with 2:52 remaining. The Capitals came out and pressed the tempo after the opening faceoff, but had a hard time getting their shots through to the net, of their first 16 attempted shots, half were blocked. Each team managed five shots on goal in the opening period, but the Capitals made the most of their fifth to grab the lead just before intermission. With time running out, Green jumped off the bench on a line change, raced into the New York zone and took a feed from Marcus Johansson. He moved inside the right circle and took a wrist shot that went through the five-hole on Nabokov. It was the eighth of the season for Green and his fifth in a four-game goal-scoring run. Nabokov kept the Islanders within a goal midway through the second period with a trio of superb saves during Washington's first power play. He robbed wide-open Mathieu Perreault from the slot with 7:35 left and followed that with stops on Ovechkin and Jack Hillen. The Islanders got their first power play with 5:45 remaining in the period when Matt Hendricks was called for roughing, but New York forward Brad Boyes took a tripping penalty 65 seconds later to negate the advantage. The Islanders had their best chance of the period during the 4-on-4, but Holtby made the best of his 14 saves in the period when he scrambled to his feet to deny Andrew MacDonald's blast from the high slot. Nabokov continued to keep his team in the game, denying Ovechkin on a backhander before gloving Perreault's wide-open 15-footer on the same shift with just under eight minutes left in regulation, giving the Islanders the chance to get a point.

Tampa Bay v Carolina 5-0 - After Ben Bishop's first skate with the Tampa Bay Lightning Thursday morning, the goaltender seemed completely believable when he shrugged off the possibility of being nervous before his debut. One day after leaving the Ottawa Senators at the NHL Trade Deadline, Bishop stopped 45 shots to record his third career shutout as Tampa Bay cruised to a 5-0 win against the Carolina Hurricanes at PNC Arena. Tampa Bay pulled even with Carolina in points with 34, although the Hurricanes claim the 12th spot in the Eastern Conference. The teams trail the Washington Capitals and Winnipeg Jets, tied with 38 points, in the Southeast Division. The Lightning are hopeful Bishop can take the reins in goal, a position that has been unsettled in recent years. Though Thursday's game is a very small sample, Bishop's debut left his teammates impressed. Bishop's game was unmistakably strong, but it's difficult to overlook his frame. At 6-foot-7, he covered a lot of net and moved well. Carolina did deliver stretches of sustained play in the offensive zone. Bishop had to stop six shots by forward Jeff Skinner, three of them strong chances. Bishop also denied four shots each by Tuomo Ruutu and Alex Semin. Once the Lightning offense got under way, it stayed in gear, scoring in a variety of ways. In the second period, Teddy Purcell scored on a rebound, Tom Pyatt redirected a shot in the slot, and Keith Aulie scored on a wrister through traffic. The Lightning poured it on in the third with a highlight-reel blast between the circles from St. Louis, and Benoit Pouliot finished the scoring after taking a pass at the right doorstep from Steven Stamkos, who had two assists. Tampa Bay has dominated Carolina this season, winning all four games by a combined total of 18-3. There is no such confidence in Carolina, where the Hurricanes have slipped to 1-9-1 in their past 11 after starting the season 15-9-1. During the slide, the Hurricanes have been outscored 42-18. For Tampa Bay, all the talk centered on Bishop. The 26-year-old with the gentle smile said all the right things about his teammates, even though he stole the show in his debut. As he sat in his locker, the game puck sat alone on a shelf above him. Asked if that souvenir will provide a special memory, he allowed just a little indulgence.

Winnipeg v Montreal 1-4 - One day after the NHL Trade Deadline passed, Michael Ryder did his best to show that Montreal Canadiens general manager Marc Bergevin did indeed make a move to improve his team this season, he just did it six weeks earlier. Ryder scored twice and added an assist as the Canadiens handed the Winnipeg Jets their fifth straight regulation loss, 4-1 at Bell Centre on Thursday. Ryder, acquired with a third-round draft pick on Feb. 26 from the Dallas Stars in a trade for Erik Cole, has nine goals and eight assists in his 17 games for Montreal. The nine goals have come in his past 11 games. Ryder has done exactly that, with remarkable precision. The Canadiens were 12-4-3 when Ryder was acquired, and they are 12-4-2 since. Backup goalie Peter Budaj made 33 saves to run his season record to 6-1-1 for the Canadiens (24-8-5), who won for the fourth time in five games to maintain their one-point lead atop the Northeast Division over the Boston Bruins, 1-0 winners against the New Jersey Devils at TD Garden earlier in the evening. Montreal also got goals from Brian Gionta and rookie Alex Galchenyuk, and Lars Eller and P.K. Subban each had two assists. Alexander Burmistrov scored his first in 18 games to provide all the offense for the Jets (18-19-2), who have six goals over the course of their five-game slide; three of those six have come from their forwards. Burmistrov was not the least bit relieved his scoring drought came to an end. The Jets' loss, coupled with a 2-1 shootout win by the Washington Capitals against the New York Islanders, dropped Winnipeg from the No. 3 seed in the Eastern Conference and the Southeast Division lead all the way down to 10th in the conference standings. The Capitals and the Jets each have 38 points, but Washington has a game in hand and therefore owns the division lead. Jets coach Claude Noel used defenseman Dustin Byfuglien at right wing with Andrew Ladd and Bryan Little to start the game in an attempt to provide some sort of spark. It didn't work, and Byfuglien found himself back on defense only to be benched after Galchenyuk's goal made it 4-1 at 7:43 of the third. Subban continued his torrid production offensively for the Canadiens with his two assists, giving him seven goals and 17 assists in his past 21 games. With 30 points in 31 games, Subban took over the NHL lead in scoring by a defenseman, pending what Ryan Suter did for the Minnesota Wild at the Los Angeles Kings later Thursday night. The Jets opened the scoring on Burmistrov's goal off a nice feed from Grant Clitsome, but they relinquished that lead 2:31 later when Ryder beat Ondrej Pavelec on a power play for his first of the night off a Gionta rebound at 10:47. Ryder gave the Canadiens the lead 2-1 at 2:03 of the second period on another rebound, this time of a Subban shot, and Gionta made it 3-1 when he stood in front and had an Eller shot go in off him on a power play at 5:51. The Jets thought they had cut the deficit to 3-2 in the first minute of the third, but a Tobias Enstrom goal was immediately waved off because Wheeler was in Budaj's crease. Galchenyuk snapped an 18-game goal drought at 7:43 of the third period, his fourth of the season, to give the Canadiens a three-goal margin.

Columbus v Nashville 3-1 - Columbus Blue Jackets coach Todd Richards might have had an idea as to what Marian Gaborik would add to his squad. On Thursday, those ideas became reality. Wary of Gaborik's playmaking ability and speed, Richards noticed the Nashville Predators' defensemen allowing a bigger gap for his forwards, which provided for more space in the neutral zone. He also noticed the intangibles, like confidence spreading among Gaborik's teammates. The Gaborik Show, now an off-Broadway production, made a smashing debut on Thursday, as the three-time 40-goal scorer delivered the game-winning goal and an assist in a 3-1 win at Bridgestone Arena in his first game for Columbus. The Blue Jackets acquired Gaborik on Wednesday from the New York Rangers in exchange for Derick Brassard, Derek Dorsett and John Moore. The goal, as president of hockey operations John Davidson said, in the present and the future. It was one of a flurry of moves, as Columbus also acquired forward Blake Comeau and backup goalie Michael Leighton. Gaborik skated mostly with former Rangers' teammates Artem Anisimov and Vinny Prospal, but he scored the game-winner while paired with another New York teammate, Brandon Dubinsky. Dubinsky fed a backhand pass into the goalmouth and Gaborik outbattled big checking center Paul Gaustad to touch the puck first and nudge it past Pekka Rinne at 4:16 of the third period to break a 1-1 tie. Gaborik's inability to flourish this season under Rangers coach John Tortorella was the subtext behind the deadline deal on Wednesday. Gaborik's new (and old) teammate Prospal played under Tortorella for the Tampa Bay Lightning (twice) and also in New York. Prospal is a big believer in Tortorella but had understood why the situation didn't work for Gaborik. The win was Columbus' first in regulation against its Central Division rival in this building since April 3, 2006, and moved the Blue Jackets one point ahead of Nashville in the Western Conference playoff scramble. The game was Nashville's first since trading long-time right wing Martin Erat, who ranks second in numerous offensive career categories, and the Predators struggled to score. The only Nashville player to beat goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky on Thursday was a defenseman, Kevin Klein. Matt Calvert added an insurance goal with 9:10 remaining in regulation when his wrist shot fluttered off Rinne's blocker and into the net. Columbus took advantage of a 4-on-3 situation to score the game's first goal. Chris Mueller and Mark Letestu were off for coincidental minors when Nashville's Shea Weber hooked Columbus' R.J. Umberger at 8:21 of the second period. Just 15 seconds later, James Wisniewski scored on a slap shot from the high slot. With a pass from the right circle, Dubinsky earned the primary assist; the secondary one went to Gaborik. Nashville tied it with 7:46 left in the period. Bobrovsky, who finished with 38 saves was so dominant that the only way the Predators could get one past him was when he had no stick. During a goalmouth scramble, Nashville's Kevin Klein slid the puck past a stickless Bobrovsky for his third goal. Patric Hornqvist and David Legwand earned the assists. Bobrovsky, entering the game with the League's second-best save percentage, was a major factor. Trotz thought if Nashville had capitalized on one of its 13 first-period shots, it didn't, that could have made a difference. But ultimately the night belonged to one of the newest Blue Jackets. The auspicious start made Gaborik optimistic.

St Louis v Chicago 4-3 - It was another wild night at the "Madhouse on Madison Street," but this time, the St. Louis Blues finally came out on the right end. St. Louis was 0-4-4 in its last eight trips to the Windy City and couldn't buy a victory against the host Chicago Blackhawks at United Center. That changed on Thursday night with a 4-3 shootout victory for the Blues (19-14-2), but it didn't come easy. It took five minutes of overtime followed by six entertaining rounds of breakaways to decide which team got the second point. Blues goalie Brian Elliott (33 saves) stopped a wrist shot by newly-acquired forward Michal Handzus in that sixth round before Kevin Shattenkirk ended the night with a swift wrist shot to the far side that beat Blackhawks goalie Corey Crawford. The win bumped St. Louis into eighth place in the Western Conference standings with 40 points. The Blues lead the Columbus Blue Jackets and Edmonton Oilers by one point and the Phoenix Coyotes and Nashville Predators by two in the race for the final Stanley Cup Playoff berth in the Western Conference. Jonathan Toews, Patrick Kane and Marian Hossa, playing his first game since sitting out six straight with an upper-body injury, scored in the shootout for the Blackhawks, giving Chicago the lead each time. Chris Stewart, Andy McDonald and Alexander Steen beat Crawford before Shattenkirk's deciding goal. The Blues, who led 1-0 after one period and trailed 2-1 after two, got goals by Adam Cracknell and David Backes early in the third period to grab the lead, only to see Chicago's Viktor Stalberg force overtime by scoring with 4:31 left in regulation. Stalberg's seventh goal of the season set up a wild finish. He beat Elliott after pouncing on a loose puck in the slot. Crawford, who made 19 saves, came up with arguably his biggest just 13 seconds before the horn in overtime sounded, stopping McDonald cold on a breakaway. Cracknell, meanwhile, had a night he won't soon forget. Playing just his ninth game of the season, the 6-foot-2, 210-pound grinder scored two goals after going 463 days since his last one in the National Hockey League, that one came on Dec. 26, 2011, against the Dallas Stars. Cracknell's sudden scoring prowess capped a nice night for the Blues' fourth line. Cracknell opened the scoring with 3:57 left in the first by firing a shot that appeared to deflect off defenseman Brent Seabrook's stick and sail into the net over Crawford's shoulder. Elliott had already made several big saves against Toews and Kane, and St. Louis took momentum plus a 1-0 lead into the first intermission. Chicago owned the second period, outshooting the Blues 15-5 and getting goals by Toews and Brandon Saad less than 2 1/2 minutes apart to take a quick 2-1 lead. Toews put home a rebound of Kane's shot from the left circle; then after stealing a puck from Steen along the half wall in the right circle, he zipped a tape-to-tape pass to Saad in front of the net for a quick shot that the rookie redirected past Elliott. It was Saad's eighth goal of the season, he has four of them during his current three-game scoring streak. The Blackhawks had momentum and seemed to gain even more when Blues defenseman Barret Jackman fell hard into the boards after slight contact with Stalberg late in the second. Stalberg was then jumped by Roman Polak to start a fracas, and Polak picked up the extra minor for instigating. The flare-up concluded with Blackhawks backup goalie Ray Emery exchanging words with Jackman at the benches. Chicago failed to score on the power play, which extended to the start of the third, and Cracknell beat Crawford on a breakaway to knot it 2-2 just 3:30 into the period. Chicago went 0-for-2 on the power play, which means Blues penalty-killers have now wiped out the last 11 straight advantages they've faced. The win also extended a trend that's developed in this Central Division rivalry. Cracknell's first goal gave the Blues the game's first tally, so now the team that's scored first has won the last six games.

Detroit v Phoenix 2-4 - The flu bug hit goalie Jason LaBarbera around mid-morning. David Schlemko got it around 2 p.m. By late afternoon, Phoenix Coyotes coach Dave Tippett, without a single extra player on his roster, wasn't sure if he would be able to field a full team for Thursday's must-win game against Detroit. But the Coyotes showed up for the game, in more ways than one. Michael Stone, minor league call-up Chris Conner and captain Shane Doan scored during a 14-minute span of a dominant second period and emergency goalie Chad Johnson made 34 saves as the shorthanded Coyotes ran their points streak to five games with an emotional 4-2 win against the Detroit Red Wings on Thursday night. Keith Yandle and Mikkel Boedker had two assists each as the Coyotes improved to 3-0-2 after a seven-game winless skid that has them fighting to stay alive in the Western Conference playoff race. To complicate matters the Coyotes moved three veteran forwards at trade deadline Wednesday, Matthew Lombardi, Steve Sullivan and Raffi Torres, forcing minor-leaguers Conner and Chris Brown to make the cross-country trip from Portland early Thursday morning. Johnson didn't even get into the net at Thursday's morning skate. The Coyotes worked out Mike Smith, who missed his sixth straight game with injury, and LaBarbera, who had the flu hit him just after he got off the ice. But Johnson, who hadn't played anywhere in two weeks, showed the same steady hand he's shown in his three NHL starts this season, helping the Coyotes collect five of six points (2-0-1). Valtteri Filppula and Daniel Cleary scored for Detroit. Cleary's goal came on a 6-on-4 power play with 1:13 left in regulation and goaltender Jimmy Howard on the bench in favor of an extra attacker. Both Detroit goals came on the power play; the Coyotes took seven penalties but survived. Phoenix's Martin Hanzal scored an empty-net goal with less than a second left on the clock for the final margin. The Red Wings lost for the seventh time when scoring first, the most of any NHL team this season. Howard, who came into the game 15-3-2 in 20 starts against Phoenix (including playoffs) stopped 34 shots. The Coyote climbed to 11th place in the jam-packed playoff race, two points behind eighth-place St. Louis and three behind seventh-place Detroit. The Coyotes and Red Wings play again April 22 at Joe Louis Arena. Phoenix had a rough first five minutes, losing Schlemko, taking a bad early penalty, and giving up an easy power-play goal. Rob Klinkhammer was called for holding Cleary 54 seconds into the game, and the Red Wings cashed in 1:02 later. Johnson stopped Gustav Nyquist's shot from the left circle but couldn't control the rebound. It landed at the feet of Filppula near the right post, and he scored his first goal in eight games with an easy backhand flip. But Johnson stopped Detroit's other 14 first-period shots, and his teammates blocked 11 more to keep Phoenix close. The second period was all Coyotes. Phoenix outshot the Red Wings 20-5 and picked up its play from the first shift, tying the game at 1:47. Yandle set up Stone for a slap shot from the right circle that beat Howard cleanly for his fourth goal. After the Phoenix penalty killers shut down the Detroit power play twice, a former Red Wing put his new team ahead for good. Conner, who had 13 goals and 40 points in 60 games with Portland of the American Hockey League, took a pass from Mikkel Boedker on the rush in the right circle and beat Howard high with a wrist shot to the far post at 8:08. It was Conner's first NHL goal in more than two years, the last one came on Dec. 10, 2011, when he scored for Detroit against Winnipeg. Almost eight minutes later, Phoenix doubled its lead on a pretty play. Yandle caught the Red Wings on a bad line change and whipped the puck 130 feet to Hanzal at the Detroit blue line. Hanzal pushed the puck forward to Doan, who found plenty of room between Howard's pads at 16:01 for his team-leading 12th goal and a 3-1 lead.

Edmonton v Vancouver 0-4 - The Vancouver Canucks learned their lesson and got some revenge against the young, high-octane Edmonton Oilers. Blitzed early in a 4-0 loss to the Oilers five days earlier, the Canucks tightened up defensively in the rematch on Thursday night, with Cory Schneider needing to make just 12 saves through 40 minutes and 23 overall while backstopping a 4-0 Vancouver victory that ended Edmonton's winning streak at five games. It was a reversal of their last meeting, and newcomer Derek Roy played a big role in it. Acquired from the Dallas Stars before the trade deadline to fill a big hole at center, Roy not only set up Chris Higgins on a 2-on-1 to give the Canucks a 3-0 lead 6:47 into the third period, but he helped them escape their own end cleanly and get back on offense, generating several great chances in his debut. It was a big difference from the last meeting, when the Canucks fell behind 4-0 on the first five shots and generated little offensively the rest of the way. Roy helped kill penalties and draw them, Vancouver's struggling power play got five chances against the Oilers, more than in their last three games combined. Kevin Bieksa converted a 5-on-3 advantage late in the first period, ending a 2-for-53 slump with just the third goal in 21 games for the 29th-ranked power play. Henrik Sedin finished off a pretty passing play with twin brother Daniel to make it 2-0 late in the second period. And after Roy set up Higgins, Zack Kassian, called back up from the American Hockey League after a one-game demotion, rounded out the scoring on a rebound with 3.9 seconds left as the Canucks moved two points ahead of the Minnesota Wild atop the Northwest Division. For all the scoring, it was just the fourth time in 17 games the Canucks put more than two pucks behind a goaltender, the defense was more impressive against an Oilers team that had outscored opponents 25-7 during its winning streak. After surging into the tight Western Conference playoff race with the win streak, the loss dropped back to ninth place, one point below the playoff bar. Nikolai Khabibulin started in goal for Edmonton, the only change after an 8-2 romp over the Calgary Flames the night before, and kept it close with several great saves while the Oilers were being outshot 13-5 in the first period. After failing to record a shot on the first chance, the Canucks' struggling power play converted shortly after giving up a 2-on-1 shorthanded rush on their second. Daniel Sedin hustled back to break that up and threw it up the boards, catching the Oilers with too many men on the ice. That gave Vancouver a two-man advantage for 1:07, and Bieksa ended a couple droughts with a one-timer from the top of the left circle that beat Khabibulin on the blocker side. Henrik Sedin doubled lead with 5:34 left in the second period, passing out from behind the net to his brother atop the right circle then sneaking unnoticed to other side of the net for a nice return feed past two defenders. Schneider made his best saves on Edmonton power plays in the third period, stuffing Magnus Paajarvi early and making a gloved robbery of Taylor Hall, who came in with 15 points on a six-game streak, with five minutes left. Shortly after that first penalty kill, Roy, who was acquired from Dallas for a second-round draft pick and prospect defenseman Kevin Connauton on Tuesday, set up Higgins, who signed a four-year, $10-million extension hours later.

Minnesota v Los Angeles 0-3 - The addition of Jason Pominville is a much sexier move than that of blue-collar defenseman like Robyn Regehr, at least on paper. But plain old solid defense, backed up by a great start, equated to a more successful debut for Regehr and the Los Angeles Kings in a 3-0 victory against the Minnesota Wild on Thursday night. Regehr recorded an assist and was a plus-2 with six hits and two blocked shots in his Kings debut and Justin Williams scored two goals to trump anything Pominville did in his Wild debut. Los Angeles scored on its first two shots to chase Niklas Backstrom and Jonathan Bernier made 22 saves as the Kings leapfrogged the Wild for fourth in the Western Conference race. Pominville, acquired from Buffalo on Wednesday, played on a line with Zach Parise and Mikko Koivu. The trio generated time in L.A.'s zone but Minnesota couldn't get any pucks past Bernier, who is 9-0-0 with a 1.50 goals-against average in 10 starts. Minnesota has dropped four of five after it won seven straight, and has lost three in a row for the first time since Feb. 1-7. The score was deceptive because Los Angeles only put nine shots on goal through 40 minutes yet took a three-goal lead into the third period. The Kings took advantage of poor line changes by Minnesota for two of their goals. Pominville, like former Sabres teammate Regehr, comes from the Eastern Conference but knows how difficult it is to come back against a hard-closing team like the Kings. Williams beat Backstrom's replacement, Darcy Kuemper, at 3:52 of the second period with a slap shot that banked in off the crossbar from the right side as the Wild got caught on a line change. Regehr started the play when he broke up a pass to start the rush. Williams only needed 89 seconds after the opening faceoff to extend his goal-scoring streak to a career-high five games. He broke down the right side and wristed the puck far side on Backstrom for his eighth goal this season. Williams has more goals (six) in five games that he did in his previous 32. The streak started with an empty-net goal on March 28. The dynamic between Williams and Regehr was ironic because Regehr separated Williams' shoulder two seasons ago. Williams has a renewed appreciation for Regehr. Jeff Carter exposed Minnesota's right side again 1:38 later when he took a great feed from Mike Richards and slipped it through in close for his team-leading 21st goal, and ended Backstrom's night almost before it began. Kings coach Darryl Sutter changed up all his lines except for the top unit. He said in the morning that he wouldn't change his defenseman pairs but he had Regehr start with Keaton Ellerby and also see time with Slava Voynov. Minnesota was missing Dany Heatley, who is expected to remain out with a reported wrist injury.