Carolina @ Toronto 3-2 - Jonathan Bernier misplayed a 170-foot clearing attempt by the Carolina Hurricanes into a goal that gave the visitors a 3-2 victory at Air Canada Centre on Thursday. Bernier, pressed into action when James Reimer was injured 32 seconds into the game, allowed the puck to bounce off the end boards, then off him and into the net with 6:54 remaining. Hurricanes defenseman Ron Hainsey shot the puck from the left circle in his zone off the boards. It traveled into the Toronto end, hit the end boards and caromed back toward Bernier, who missed it with his goal stick and had it bounce off his right skate and into the net. It was the second strange moment involving a Maple Leafs goalie. Toronto forward Josh Leivo knocked Reimer from the game with a collision at the net early in the first period. Reimer was attempting to cover a rebound when a backchecking Leivo made contact and knocked off the goalie's mask. Reimer, making consecutive starts for the first time this season, left the ice with assistance. With the Maple Leafs' American Hockey League affiliate, the Toronto Marlies, traveling to Rochester, N.Y., Brett Willows of the University of Toronto wound up as the emergency backup. Willows reportedly arrived just before the start of the third period. Toronto's Joffrey Lupul started the scoring 2:30 into the second period, when on a 2-on-1 with Nazem Kadri his shot from the right wing deflected of Hurricanes defenders back to Lupul, who put it past Cam Ward. Paul Ranger had the assist for his first NHL point since Oct. 10, 2009. Leivo scored his first NHL goal on a similar play, but more cleanly, snapping a forehand past Ward during a 2-on-1 with Jay McClement to make it 2-0 at 6:47. Each of the odd-man breaks was made possible by a pinching Hurricanes defenseman who was up ice in the offensive zone when the puck went off the glass and past him. Carolina rallied with third-period goals from Ryan Murphy and Eric Staal before Hainsey's strange game-winner. Murphy, an Aurora, Ontario, native, scored his first NHL goal with a left-point blast during a power play at 2:54. Staal took advantage of a blocked shot he gathered in the slot then fired past Bernier at 6:48.
Edmonton @ NY Islanders 2-3 - John Tavares scored the go-ahead goal with 1:07 remaining in the second and the Islanders beat the Edmonton Oilers 3-2 at Nassau Coliseum on Tuesday night, ending a three-game losing streak. Tavares rifled a pass from Kyle Okposo behind Devan Dubnyk from the slot to break a 2-2 tie. New York, which had blown third-period leads at home and lost in shootouts to the Columbus Blue Jackets and Buffalo Sabres, didn't back off in the final 20 minutes this time, outshooting Edmonton 15-8 in the third period and 40-29 for the game. Taylor Hall scored twice in eight seconds for the Oilers late in the first period, surpassing the franchise record for fastest two goals by a player. Wayne Gretzky had two in nine seconds on Feb. 18, 1981. But that was the only offense the Oilers could manage against Evgeni Nabokov, who made 27 saves. Edmonton is 0-4-1 in its past five games and 0-3-1 on a six-game road trip that continues with a visit to the Ottawa Senators on Saturday. The Oilers are 0-6-1 in their past seven visits to Long Island since a 4-2 win on Dec. 14, 1999. All three New York goals came on wide-open shots from the slot or below the circle, with the Oilers scrambling to find their checks. Edmonton had two excellent chances in the early going, but Ales Hemsky had the puck roll off his stick on a wraparound with Nabokov out of position and Hall suffered the same fate on a breakaway. The Islanders began to push the tempo and were rewarded at 9:59 when defenseman Travis Hamonic carried the puck below the goal line to the right of Dubnyk and found Bailey cutting through the lower right circle. Bailey, left alone, snapped a one-timer past Dubnyk for his third of the season. But Hall personally wiped out the deficit and put the Oilers ahead 2-1 with his pair of goals. At 15:52, he scored his second of the season with a wrister from the lower left circle after a superb cross-slot feed by defenseman Justin Schultz. Edmonton won the faceoff, raced into the New York zone and scored again when Hall hammered home the rebound of Mark Arcobello's shot. Edmonton entered the game with the NHL's poorest penalty-killing percentage (66.7), and the Islanders made it worse after Luke Gazdic was called for tripping at 3:51 of the second period. The Oilers missed a couple of chances to clear before a four-step passing play ended with Okposo ripping a one-timer from the slot that beat Dubnyk cleanly at 4:54 for his second goal of the season. The Islanders exited the period with the lead thanks to a nice give-and-go between Tavares and Okposo. Tavares outmuscled his check along the wall, got the puck to Okposo in the right corner and raced for the slot, where he took a return pass and ripped a high shot past Dubnyk's glove at 18:53 for his fourth goal of the season. The Islanders' captain has points in six consecutive games.
Columbus @ Montreal 3-5 - Tomas Plekanec scored the winning goal with 1:07 to play in the third period on a quick shot from the high slot as the Montreal Canadiens blew a 3-0 lead Thursday night but bounced back to beat the Columbus Blue Jackets 5-3 to run their winning streak to four games. Plekanec added an empty-net goal with 15.6 seconds left while the Canadiens were shorthanded to ice the victory for Montreal. Andrei Markov had a goal and an assist and his defense partner, P.K. Subban, had two assists to run his point streak to six games for the Canadiens. Subban has 10 points over those six games, putting him in a six-way tie for second on the NHL scoring list with an impressive group of All-Star forwards: Pavel Datsyuk, Henrik Zetterberg, Steven Stamkos, Martin St. Louis and Henrik Sedin. It was a night of firsts for rookies from each team. Canadiens rookie Michael Bournival scored his first career NHL goal and Blue Jackets rookie Boone Jenner one-upped him by scoring the first two goals of his career, including the game-tying goal early in the third period to make it 3-3. While both of Jenner's goals were on the power play, Ryan Johansen scored one at even strength for Columbus (2-4-0) to snap a two-game streak without a 5-on-5 goal for the Blue Jackets, who have lost three straight games in regulation. Both teams were missing a key forward, with the Canadiens' Max Pacioretty and the Blue Jackets' Marian Gaborik not dressed for the game. Pacioretty has a strained left hamstring he sustained Tuesday in Winnipeg that will keep him out for three weeks, and Gaborik was a last-minute scratch with an illness. Price had allowed one goal in his previous two starts and finished with 30 saves on the night. He has stopped 105 of the last 109 shots he has faced. The Canadiens jumped out to a quick 2-0 lead in a wide-open first period in which the two teams combined for 25 shots on goal, with 14 coming from Montreal. With Johansen in the box, Blue Jackets defensemen Nikita Nikitin and David Savard completely forgot about Rene Bourque, who was standing by himself on their blue line. Subban found him with a pass from the Canadiens' zone to send Bourque in alone for a breakaway power-play goal on Bobrovsky at 4:38. Bournival made it 2-0 on another superb play by Subban, who deked around a Blue Jackets forward at the offensive blue line before feeding it to Markov, who found Bournival with a pass through the slot for a one-timer that beat Bobrovsky between the legs at 12:01 to make it 2-0. Markov increased Montreal's lead to 3-0 on a shorthanded goal off a Jack Johnson turnover in the Columbus end, his shot from the blue line bouncing once before fooling Bobrovsky at 6:52 of the second. The Columbus comeback began less than a minute later. Jenner scored his first of the game at 7:41 of the second on the same power play, pouncing on a rebound of a Johansen shot to slide it past Price and make it 3-1. Johansen cut the lead to 3-2 at 17:11 of the second when he chipped the puck past Lars Eller at the Columbus blue line to create a 2-on-1 opportunity. Johansen opted to keep it, then beat Price with a perfect shot to the far corner for his first goal of the season. Jenner tied it up 3-3 at 4:35 of the third with another power-play goal on another rebound, this time putting a backhander upstairs over Price's glove with captain Brian Gionta in the box for a retaliatory high-sticking penalty. But that set the stage for Plekanec's game-winner, a no-look shot from just inside the blue line that went against the grain and caught Bobrovsky moving the wrong way as the puck tucked just inside the far post.
New Jersey @ Ottawa 2-5 - New Jersey's Travis Zajac scored 54 seconds into the third period to ruin Anderson's shutout bid late in a lengthy 5-on-3 advantage that carried over from the second. Anderson made a sprawling save to rob Jaromir Jagr moments after Zajac's goal. Steve Bernier scored his first at 10:59 to draw the Devils within 3-2. Brodeur allowed four goals in his fourth start of the season. Brodeur allowed goals by Karlsson and Ryan 2:19 apart on Ottawa's first two shots. Karlsson stepped up to drive a slap shot from the right side past Brodeur at 4:32. Ryan, who made his home debut for Ottawa, set up Karlsson after keeping the puck in the Devils zone. Ryan later took Kyle Turris' backhand pass behind the net and came out to beat Brodeur with a sharp-angled shot from the left side for his fourth goal in five games. New Jersey outshot Ottawa 12-7 in the first period and 11-4 in the second, but Smith scored his second of the season at 18:41 of the middle period to increase the lead to 3-0 on the Senators' 11th shot. Michalek restored Ottawa's two-goal lead at 4-2 with a drive past Brodeur 15:12 into the third. Spezza scored into an empty net at 18:14.
Minnesota @ Tampa Bay 1-3 - Steven Stamkos scored the tiebreaking goal on a breakaway with 4:04 remaining in regulation Thursday night as the Lightning beat the Minnesota Wild 3-1 for their fifth victory in seven games. Matthew Carle's cross-ice pass sprung Stamkos for a breakaway, and he raced in alone before beating Josh Harding to snap a 1-1 tie. It was also a big-time outlet pass from Carle that sent Stamkos steaming into the Minnesota zone ahead of the defense. Sami Salo added an empty-netter with 18 seconds remaining and Ben Bishop stopped 25 shots to win his fifth consecutive decision. The Lightning led 1-0 through 40 minutes on Tyler Johnson's power-play goal at 14:02 of the first period. But the Wild got even at 11:05 of the third when Mikko Koivu snuck through the slot, took a pass fromNino Niederreiter and beat Bishop. Ryan Suter, who started the play as he led the way into the Lightning zone, got the second assist. The second period featured outstanding goaltending at both ends. Bishop stopped several rebounds from just outside the crease and Harding made a highlight-reel save by diving across the crease to deny Stamkos as he tried to finish a 2-on-0 with Alex Killorn. Tampa Bay had seven power plays but connected only once, on its first opportunity. WithJason Pominville in the penalty box for tripping, Johnson finished Valtteri Filppula's cross-crease feed for his second goal of the season.
Boston @ Florida 3-2 - Reilly Smith's short backhander with 58.7 seconds remaining in regulation slipped through Thomas' pads for the game-winner to lead the Boston Bruins to a 3-2 win against the Florida Panthers at BB&T Center. The game appeared headed to overtime before Smith, who was acquired in the offseason trade that sent Tyler Seguin to the Dallas Stars, scored his first goal in a Boston uniform on a seemingly harmless backhander from the left circle. Dougie Hamilton also had a first-period goal to stake Boston to a 2-0 lead, and Rask finished with 27 saves. Kris Versteeg and Jesse Winchester scored for Florida (2-6-0), which began a season-long six-game homestand. Thomas, who won 196 games and the Vezina Trophy twice during eight seasons with the Bruins before sitting out last year, was beaten on Boston's third shot. Paille was streaking down the left side when he took a pass from Dennis Seidenberg. Paille got past defenseman Erik Gudbranson and fired a shot high on the short side to beat Thomas, who had begun to go down. Hamilton increased the lead to 2-0 at 12:47 with a power-play goal that snapped the Bruins' 0-for-12 drought with the man advantage. With Zdeno Chara screening Thomas in front of the net, Hamilton scored with a slap shot to the glove side. Hamilton had been a healthy scratch in Boston's previous two games. The Panthers broke through at 7:28 of the second period thanks to two nice passes by Jonathan Huberdeau. Huberdeau skated the puck up ice on a delayed penalty before dropping it to Tom Gilbert at the blue line. After Gilbert got the puck back to Huberdeau in the corner, he slid a quick pass to Versteeg, who skated in and beat Rask with a high wrist shot from the bottom of the right circle. Florida tied the score with exactly six minutes left in the third period off a faceoff when Rask couldn't handle a puck that slid to him. After the puck became loose in front of Rask, Winchester scored on his second whack at it. After Florida tied the game, Boston had seven of the next nine shots on goal. Thomas steered them all away until Smith's backhander put a damper on his night.
Los Angeles @ Nashville 2-1 SO - Anze Kopitar scored the only goal of the shootout and Quick stopped all three shooters he faced to give the Kings a 2-1 victory against the Nashville Predators on Thursday night. Kopitar came in, deked and lifted a high backhander over Pekka Rinne into the net for the win. Quick stopped 33 shots through 65 minutes. Rinne finished with 28 saves. Each side had two shots in overtime, and the Kings killed off a Nashville power play after Alec Martinez was called for high-sticking 1:29 into the extra period. Matt Cullen, one of Nashville's free-agent signings this summer, scored his first goal with the Predators to open the scoring at 10:33 of the opening period. He pulled the puck out of a tangle of skates just outside the crease and lifted it over Quick. Kings defenseman Slava Voynov tied the game when he took a cross-ice pass by Mike Richards and beat Rinne from the right circle at 19:18. Voynov's goal capped a wild first period that saw each team finish with 15 shots on goal. Rinne got the Predators to overtime by stopping Richards on a 2-on-0 shorthanded break with just over six minutes remaining in the third period. Quick made two saves on Patric Hornqvist during Nashville's overtime power play.
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