St Louis @ Buffalo 4-1 - Ennis opened the scoring before the 17,710 spectators could get settled in, as he was able to one-time a centering feed from Ville Leino past Halak 10 seconds into the game. Leino got to a bouncing puck after Blues defenseman Jay Bouwmeester couldn't handle it. It was the Sabres' fourth goal in the first period in 23 games. The Blues applied heavy pressure and struck 59 seconds later when Morrow took Stewart's no-look backhand feed and snapped a shot past Miller to tie the game 1-1. The Blues took a 2-1 lead with 35.9 seconds left in the first period when T.J. Oshie's second-effort play following a Mike Weber blocked shot enabled Tarasenko to hammer a shot home from the low slot. It was the 14th time in 20 games the Blues have scored a power-play goal. Morrow got his second of the game when Stewart stripped Cody McCormick behind the Buffalo goal and fed Morrow, who made no mistake in beating Miller with 5:51 left in the second period. Halak preserved a 2-1 lead in the second period when the Sabres picked up their play. The Blues goalie made two key stops from close range on Leino. The Blues (14-3-3) also got a power-play goal from Vladimir Tarasenko, and Magnus Paajarvi scored his first goal with St. Louis. The Blues are off to their best start in franchise history after 20 games. Paajarvi's blast from the top of the left circle beat Miller high to the short side 6:10 into the third period to give the Blues a 4-1 lead.
NY Islanders @ Toronto 2-5 - Smith, a recent call-up from the Toronto Marlies of the American Hockey League, finished off a pass from Joffrey Lupul 22 seconds into the game to give the Maple Leafs a lead they never relinquished. Kessel his first of the night at 11:19 of the second period on the power play to give the Maple Leafs a 2-0 lead. Kessel had room to maneuver around the faceoff circle as both van Riemsdyk and Joffrey Lupul got position around the net. With the distractions in place and the defense committed to them, Kessel had time and space to beat Poulin. The Islanders cut the lead in half with 11.5 seconds to play in the second when Cizikas blocked Cody Franson's shot at the left point, raced in on a breakaway and beat Bernier through the five-hole. It was the third of the season for Cizikas, who has a goal in each of the Islanders' past three games. Raymond made it 3-1 with his eighth of the season by banging in the rebound of Jay McClement's shot at 3:39 of the third period. McClement broke in on Poulin trying to stuff the puck home. Poulin made the save but left the rebound for Raymond to finish off. Clarkson beat Poulin with a wrister at 12:52 for his first goal in 11 games with Toronto. Nielsen scored his 10th of the season with 4:46 to play to cut the margin to 4-2, but Kessel came down 2-on-1 with James van Riemsdyk and beat Poulin, who stopped 19 shots.
Ottawa @ Philadelphia 2-5 - Kyle Turris, whose goal tied the game 2-2 with 16:48 to play, had a great chance to give the Senators the lead with 10:30 left when he had the puck on his stick at the top of the crease and what appeared to be an open net in front of him. However, Flyers defenseman Nicklas Grossmann got in the way and used his skates to block Turris' shot. The puck deflected off of Grossmann's left skate then glanced off his right skate before going out clear of the left post. The referee standing behind the net immediately waved it off, ruling it no goal. A lengthy video review conducted at the next stoppage, 1:24 after the play happened, was inconclusive in determining whether the shot completely crossed the goal line, so the call on the ice stood. Timonen scored the winning goal on the first shift after the video review. He walked down the goal line on the left side and used his backhand to beat Lehner through the five-hole with 8:30 to play. It got worse 23 seconds later, when Simmonds made it 4-2 with a shot from the high slot that went in over Lehner's left pad. Turris had a chance to make it 4-3 with 5:06 left, when he was awarded a penalty shot after being hauled down by Timonen on a shorthanded breakaway. Mason made a right-pad save to preserve the Flyers' two-goal lead. 3:12 into the third period, Turris, swiping in a backhand from the slot to tie the game 2-2. His fifth goal of the season came 10 seconds after Zac Rinaldo went to the penalty box for hooking Zack Smith. MacArthur cut into the Flyers' 2-0 lead with his power-play goal at the 8:13 of the second period. The Flyers built the lead on goals by Giroux and Couturier. Giroux scored on the power play with 2:16 to go in the first period, and Couturier scored with an odd-angle shot from the corner in front of the Zamboni entrance 5:18 into the second.
Minnesota @ Montreal 2-6 - With three goals in their past three games, the Montreal Canadiens were searching for answers heading into Tuesday night's game with the Minnesota Wild. They found them with some new line combinations and a Max Pacioretty natural hat trick in the second period that led to a 6-2 win at Bell Centre. Michael Bournival, Daniel Briere and Alex Galchenyuk also scored for the Canadiens, and David Desharnais and P.K. Subban each had two assists. Pacioretty was reunited with his former linemate Desharnais, whom he had success with the past two seasons and also played with Gallagher. He credited his linemates for helping him snap out of the scoring slump. Nino Niederreiter and Dany Heatley scored for the Wild, who had a four-game winning streak snapped. Wild goalie Josh Harding was chased from the game after Pacioretty scored his third goal. Harding, named one of the NHL's Three Stars of the Week on Monday after going 3-0-0 with a 1.38 goals-against average and a .936 save percentage, was replaced by Darcy Kuemper. Harding finished with 16 saves on 19 shots; Kuemper allowed three goals on nine shots.
Nashville @ Detroit 2-0 - Marek Mazanec stopped all 27 shots he faced for his first NHL shutout to lead the Nashville Predators to a 2-0 win against the Red Wings, who have now lost their past eight home games (0-2-6). The Red Wings hadn't lost eight in a row in Detroit since Nov. 19, 1986, through Dec. 20, 1986. Shea Weber broke a scoreless tie via the power play with 4.8 seconds remaining in the second period. With Red Wings forward Drew Miller in the box for hooking, Weber took a pass from David Legwand and ripped a slap shot from the point past Jimmy Howard to give the Predators a 1-0 lead. It was Weber's sixth goal of the season. Gabriel Bourque's goal at 7:13 of the third gave Nashville a 2-0 lead. With the teams at even strength, Viktor Stalberg intercepted Niklas Kronwall's clearing attempt at center ice, skated into the Detroit zone and fired a wrister from the slot that went wide and off the end boards. The puck bounced back in front, and Bourque swatted it past Howard for his fifth goal of the season. Red Wings defenseman Danny DeKeyser left less than four minutes into the game after being hit into the boards by Predators forward Patric Hornqvist. The Red Wings announced during the first intermission that DeKeyser would not return. Coach Mike Babcock said afterwards that DeKeyser will be "out for a bit" and "definitely won't play this week." Detroit general manager Ken Holland told the team's website that DeKeyser will have tests on Wednesday to determine the severity of the injury.
Boston @ NY Rangers 2-1 - Tuukka Rask continues to have the New York Rangers' number. In his first game against the Rangers since holding them to 10 goals in five games in their Eastern Conference Semifinal series last spring, Rask made 43 saves Tuesday to help the Bruins to a 2-1 victory at Madison Square Garden. With Jari Kurri, the general manager of the Finnish national team, on hand, Rask made his case for a starting job at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi by stealing a win on a night his team was outshot 44-22. Shawn Thornton and Daniel Paille scored for Boston. Derick Brassard's second-period power-play goal was the only shot that beat Rask. The Rangers, buoyed by the return of forward Rick Nash, dominated puck possession against a Bruins team that came to New York after beating the Carolina Hurricanes 4-2 in Raleigh on Monday and lost defenseman Dennis Seidenberg after one shift. Seidenberg left 2:16 into the game with a lower-body injury and did not return. Coach Claude Julien said Seidenberg would be evaluated Wednesday. The Bruins got all of their offense from the defensive-oriented trio of Paille, Thornton and Gregory Campbell, known as "the Merlot Line." But the star of the night was Rask, whose 43 saves were a season-high. The Rangers entered the game hoping the return of Nash, who missed 17 games with a head injury, could spark a struggling offense that has scored two goals in three games. Nash, playing for the first time since Oct. 8, played 17:55 and had five shots on goal, including one on a partial breakaway in the first period. The Rangers outshot the Bruins 16-6 in the first period but couldn't get anything past Rask, not even a penalty shot. With Zdeno Chara off for high-sticking, Massachusetts native Chris Kreider was awarded the penalty shot after being hauled down on a breakaway by Johnny Boychuk 6:16 into the game. Kreider, who grew up 30 miles from Boston and attended Boston College, skated down right wing and fired a wrist shot to the far side, only to be denied by Rask's right pad. Shortly after New York killed off an interference penalty to John Moore, Thornton stole the puck at his own blue line and led a 2-on-1 break with Brad Marchand. Thornton, a healthy scratch in Carolina, wired a wrist shot from the faceoff circle that beat Lundqvist high to the glove side at 4:58 for his third of the season. Paille doubled the lead at 11:30 with a shorthanded goal. David Krejci was off for interference when Paille batted the puck off the neutral-zone boards, beat Ryan Callahan to the loose puck and backhanded a shot between Henrik Lundqvist's legs for his 10th career shorthanded goal. The Rangers got one back 51 seconds after Paille's goal. With Krejci still in the box, Brassard took a pass from Moore in the left circle and fired a shot that went between Boychuk's legs and beat Rask wide to the glove side at 12:31. It was the first power-play goal allowed by Boston in nine games; the Bruins had killed off 33 consecutive penalties before Brassard scored. New York kept the play in the Boston end for much of the third. And with his troops starting to tire, Julien went back to the Merlot Line. Campbell saw more ice time in the third period (5:46) than in the previous two periods combined (3:51). Thornton played 3:46 in the third, almost matching his total of 3:47 from the first two periods. Seidenberg's injury forced the Bruins to go with five defensemen for almost the entire game. Hamilton set a career high with 24:24 of ice time and Matt Bartkowski's 21:13 was the most he has ever played in a regular-season game. Chara led all players with 31:27, his highest regular-season total since Jan. 22, 2012.
Columbus @ Edmonton 0-7 - The Edmonton Oilers broke out of a scoring slump in a big way Tuesday night, beating the Columbus Blue Jackets 7-0 at Rexall Place. Eberle opened the scoring 2:37 into game, depositing a rebound past Blue Jackets goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky. Perron added to the lead on the power play at 12:01, getting to his own rebound in front. Smyth scored another power-play goal at 16:06, batting in a Sam Gagner centering feed. The Oilers dominated the opening period, outshooting the Blue Jackets 15-3. They finished with 32 shots in the contest. Perron increased the Oilers lead at 8:30 of the second period, beating Bobrovsky from a tight angle along the goal line. Bobrovsky, the reigning Vezina Trophy winner, was pulled after the goal, finishing with 14 saves. Curtis McElhinney replaced Bobrovsky, but he wasn't able to stop the onslaught. Yakupov scored his fourth of the season and third in his past five games at 10:36, getting to a long rebound at the side of the net and firing it into an empty net. Yakupov, the first pick at the 2012 NHL Draft, was going up against Ryan Murray, the second pick that summer, for the first time. The billing between No. 1 and No. 2 wasn't much of a contest since Murray, along with the rest of the Blue Jackets, had a rough night. Schultz, making his return to the lineup after missing eight games with a groin injury, scored the Oilers' sixth goal at 15:25 of the second period. Hall closed out the scoring at 16:43 of the third, beating McElhinney on a breakaway.
Tampa Bay @ Los Angeles 2-5 - Ben Scrivens was practically glued to the bench and Matt Frattin was a non-factor for the Los Angeles Kings as recently as a week ago. The two players that came over from the Toronto Maple Leafs in the Jonathan Bernier trade this past summer didn't have much impact or necessity on a team with Jonathan Quick and Jeff Carter. But that trade is looking terrific for L.A. Now. Frattin scored his second goal of the season in the first period before the Kings blew it open with goals by Justin Williams, Dwight King and Dustin Brown in the second to improve to 4-0-0 without Quick and Carter, who's out with a broken foot. Tampa Bay, which was 7-0-0 against Western Conference opponents before it began this trip, has been outscored 11-5 by the Kings and Phoenix Coyotes. The loss dampened the 1,000th NHL game of Martin St. Louis, who took a nasty high stick from Jake Muzzin late in the second period. Scrivens came within 12 minutes of breaking Quick's franchise shutout streak of 202:11. He had no chance on a power-play goal by Valtteri Filppula at 16:17 of the second period, and Victor Hedman's goal 1:22 into the third period deflected off L.A. defenseman Alec Martinez. Frattin was thought to be the possible solution at left wing for the Kings but the experiment didn't last long before he was put back on the right side and moved down to the third and fourth lines. His first goal since Oct. 24, a tip of Slava Voynov's power-play shot at 16:49 that Lightning goalie Ben Bishop had little chance on, made it 2-0. It was just the fourth time this season the Lightning trailed after the opening period. Tampa Bay trailed 3-0 after Williams' fluke goal off Alex Killorn's leg early in the second period but got a chance to get back into the game when Muzzin was sent to the box for four minutes for his hit on St. Louis. The Lightning got a goal from Filppula during the second half of the double minor, but that came after King's shorthanded goal at 15:08 made it 4-0. Bishop was pressured and rimmed the puck around but L.A. intercepted it and Linden Vey fed King, who slipped it between Bishop's legs for his second shorthanded goal of the season. Brown broke out of his slump 58 seconds later with his with his second goal in 18 games for a 5-1 lead. Linemate Anze Kopitar continued his uptick when he beat Bishop cleanly from the right circle to finish a great breakout to open the scoring at 14:58 of the first period. He has 10 points in the last nine games.
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