Results - Sun, Dec 15, 2013

Philadelphia v Washington 4-5 SO - In the first period, the Capitals struck first at 11:17 on their second power play of the game. Nicklas Backstrom sent a cross-ice pass from near the right half-wall to Ovechkin at the left circle. Ovechkin settled the puck and flung it through Braydon Coburn's legs to Johansson, who batted the back-door feed past Flyers goaltender Steve Mason (29 saves) for his fourth goal of the season. With time running out in the period, Giroux tied the game at 1-1 when he snuck into the slot undetected and converted a backhanded pass from Raffl. Early in the second period, Capitals goaltender Philipp Grubauer (24 saves) kept the game tied by making two sensational saves in tight while the Flyers were on the power play. Grubauer first got just enough of Voracek's shot with his glove, then stretched out to thwart Couturier shortly after. But Grubauer could not stop Streit's wrist shot at 7:37 of the second, when Philadelphia took a 2-1 lead. Streit intercepted Karl Alzner's breakout pass intended for Backstrom in the neutral zone. The puck came to Raffl, who led Streit in stride for a wrist shot that beat Grubauer under his left arm. Couturier made it 3-1 a little more than two minutes into the third period, beating Green in the corner and banking a sharp-angle shot along the goal line off Grubauer's stick and into the net. Seventy-four seconds later, Voracek extended Philadelphia's lead to 4-1 by deflecting Raffl's one-timer. Green atoned for his earlier mistake with his second goal of the season at 11:20, and Orlov's first, a booming shot from the left point off a faceoff win, cut Philadelphia's lead to 4-3 with 3:31 remaining. As he did on Tuesday, Ovechkin tied the game with Gruabuer pulled in favor of an extra attacker within the final minute of regulation. This time, he wristed a shot from the high slot past Mason for his League-leading 27th goal of the season. The Capitals went to a shootout for the third straight game and NHL-high 11th time. Eric Fehr and Backstrom scored for Washington; Giroux was the lone Flyer to solve Grubauer.

Tampa Bay v Detroit 3-0 - Johnson opened the scoring 3:13 into the third period, tipping in a loose puck from the front of the net for his eighth goal. Brown scored at 9:16, beating Mrazek on a tip off Nate Thompson's pass from the corner. Killorn added an empty-net goal. Detroit forward Johan Franzen went to the dressing room after taking a glove to the face from Tampa Bay's Radko Gudas early in the second period and did not return. When Franzen got back to the bench, he yelled at Gudas as he skated by the Red Wings bench and Franzen received an unsportsmanlike penalty 4:35 into the middle period. Todd Bertuzzi served the penalty. Red Wings forward Pavel Datsyuk hit the goal post with 6:08 remaining in the opening period. Tampa Bay forward Teddy Purcell hit the goal post 7:12 into the game. An apparent goal by Detroit forward Gustav Nyquist 2:02 into the game was waved off because it was ruled the whistle had blown. The puck was beside Bishop in the crease.

Florida @ Montreal 2-1 - Jesse Winchester and Nick Bjugstad scored 2:27 apart in the second period and Scott Clemmensen took care of the rest, stopping 17 shots to lead the Panthers a 2-1 win against the Montreal Canadiens on Sunday. The Panthers have created their good run with strong defensive play, and it was fully in evidence Sunday. The 18 shots allowed against the Canadiens was a new season-low for the Panthers and it was the sixth time in nine games they allowed 26 or fewer in a game. Alex Galchenyuk scored a third-period power-play goal and Peter Budaj made 23 saves for the Canadiens (20-12-3), who lost their third in four games, scoring three times in that span. The Galchenyuk goal did snap an 0-for-16 drought over a seven-game stretch for a Canadiens power play that ranked sixth in the NHL entering the game. However, the power play couldn't convert when Mike Weaver and Upshall took consecutive penalties late in the third period, with the Panthers penalty-killing unit limiting them to one shot on goal over the two power plays, including 35 seconds with a two-man advantage. In fact, that one shot on goal was the only one the Panthers allowed over the final 7:22 of regulation time, blocking five Montreal attempts in that span. Already missing forward Jonathan Huberdeau due to a foot injury sustained in a 3-2 shootout win against the Washington Capitals on Friday, the Panthers lost defenseman Erik Gudbranson after the first period with a lower-body injury. Huberdeau was wearing a walking boot on his right foot after blocking a shot against Washington, but said he hoped to play in Florida's next game on the road against the Toronto Maple Leafs on Tuesday, and Horachek said after the game that he does not believe Gudbranson's injury is serious. After controlling the play in a scoreless first period by outshooting the Canadiens 14-8, the Panthers opened the scoring at 4:44 of the second. A Montreal defensive breakdown left Winchester all alone in the slot, and Tomas Kopecky found him for his fifth of the season. The Panthers had a 3-on-2 break into the Montreal zone a few shifts later, and Tomas Fleischmann found Bjugstad at the faceoff circle for a shot that fooled Budaj for his sixth of the season. Galchenyuk made it 2-1 at 2:28 of the third period, cashing in a rebound of a Gionta shot for his 10th goal of the season to make it 2-1. Montreal defenseman P.K. Subban picked up the second assist on the goal, snapping a six-game pointless streak. But the Panthers held off a Canadiens charge at the end for another win, and it has some of them thinking what was totally unthinkable a few weeks ago.

Calgary @ NY Rangers 3-4 SO - Pouliot scored in the seventh round of the shootout to lead the Rangers to a 4-3 win against the Calgary Flames at Madison Square Garden Sunday night. After deking to his left in the shootout, Pouliot fully extended his right arm and tucked the puck into the far end of the net with Flames goalie Karri Ramo out of the play. In an exciting shootout, Calgary scored twice with the game hanging in the balance. Lee Stempniak beat Lundqvist glove side after Brad Richards gave New York the lead in the fourth round. Then in Round 6, Paul Byron deked to his backhand and beat Lundqvist between the legs after Dominic Moore scored for the Rangers. The Rangers made it to the shootout after overcoming deficits of 3-2 and 2-0, with Kreider earning the equalizer at an opportune time. Down 3-2 in the third, New York struggled to generate offense after Monahan scored the go-ahead score. After mustering one shot in 7:23, Stepan's backhand coming down the wing was stopped by Ramo. Kreider then tied the game when he found the rebound on the doorstep for his eighth of the season with 7:53 remaining in regulation. Kreider's team-leading sixth goal at home appeared to set up overtime, but each team had an opportunity to end the game on a late power play. Ramo took a delay-of-game penalty with 3:16 remaining in the third and Mike Cammalleri already off for roughing, giving New York a 5-on-3 advantage. But Kreider took a four-minute high-sticking penalty as Cammalleri's minor expired, negating the advantage and setting up a 4-on-3 power play in overtime that Calgary couldn't capitalize on. New York (16-17-1) bottled up the Flames (13-15-5) early in the third. After failing to register a shot in the first 4:44 of the period, Calgary took a 3-2 lead when Glencross found Monahan alone in front. Lundqvist got a piece of his shot, but not enough as the puck skipped by him into the net for the 19-year-old's 10th of the season. The goal came after the Rangers had already rallied from a 2-0 first-period deficit. After taking a drop pass on the right wing from Rick Nash, Stepan's shot deflected off Kris Russell's leg and past Ramo low to the far post. Stepan's sixth of the season cut Calgary's lead to 2-1. New York erased the deficit at 7:29 of the second. Pouliot's shot from the left wing was stopped by Ramo, but Hagelin found the puck behind the net and scored on a wraparound for his sixth of the season to make it 2-2. There was little Lundqvist could do on Calgary's second goal. Anton Stralman's clearing attempt was intercepted by Jiri Hudler, who centered the puck to Glencross. The Flames wing was able to backhand the puck over a sprawling Lundvist for his sixth of the season with 5:00 remaining in the first. Stepan would respond for the Ranger 25 seconds later to start the comeback. Calgary got an unlikely first-period boost from its power play, which entered the game having gone 0-for-9 in the previous four games. Despite the recent struggles, it would only take one shot for the Flames' power play to open the scoring. Five seconds after Kreider was whistled for interference, Backlund deflected Russell's point shot past Lundqvist for his fourth of the season 7:28 into the game. But when the opportunity came for him to keep Calgary alive in the seventh round of the shootout, Backlund couldn't recapture that first-period magic and beat Lundqvist one more time.

Edmonton @ Anaheim 2-3 - Even at 43 years old, Teemu Selanne will sometimes take a little advice from an old friend on how to get out of a slump. This time it happened to be former teammate Paul Kariya offering the advice.

"'Go to the net,'" Selanne recalled of the text he got from his former teammate. "'Good things happen.' He knows. But you need luck sometimes too. There's no secret. Sometimes you just can't buy the goal."

Selanne made Kariya look smart Sunday night when he ended his 19-game goal-scoring slump, which matched a career high, and Dustin Penner scored the game-winning goal with 3:17 left in the third period to lift the Anaheim Ducks to a 3-2 win against the Edmonton Oilers at Honda Center. Penner took a pass from Ryan Getzlaf and snapped a shot that deflected past goalie Ilya Bryzgalov to help the Ducks remain the only team in the NHL without a regulation loss at home (13-0-2). It is the second-longest streak since the 2005-06 season; the San Jose Sharks started 20-0-2 at home in 2008-09. The streak might have ended if not for offensive-zone work by the top line of Penner, Getzlaf and Corey Perry, who hadn't recorded a point until Penner's game-winner. Getzlaf extended his personal point streak to 16 games with the assist. Perry's NHL-leading seven-game goal-scoring streak ended. Selanne's 679th career goal, his first since Oct. 20, also ended a streak of 16 games without a point, the second longest such streak of his career; he went 19 games without a point in 2003-04. The goal, which came on a tap-in off Mathieu Perreault's nifty pass from the goal line, put the Ducks ahead at 15:24 of the second period. Boudreau has scratched Selanne five times this season in order to keep him fresh, and it appeared to pay off against the Oilers; Selanne was active around the net with Perreault, who had missed four games with a lower-body injury, back as his center. Sam Gagner pulled the Oilers even at 2-2 at 10:26 of the third when he got to a loose puck and backhanded it through Ducks goalie Jonas Hiller's five-hole. Gagner had been demoted to Edmonton's fourth line, but he was skating with Nail Yakupov and David Perron when he scored. Edmonton got a solid game from Bryzgalov, who made 31 saves in his first appearance since he sustained a head and neck injury Dec.1. The former Ducks goalie kept Edmonton in it with a left-side save on Perreault during a second-period power play. A scary play in the second period seemed to tilt the game in Anaheim's favor. Edmonton defenseman Corey Potter sent Nick Bonino head first into the half wall, resulting in a brief visit to the dressing room for the Anaheim forward. Potter was given a five-minute major and 10-minute game misconduct. Anaheim put only three shots on goal and failed to score on the five-minute power play. Edmonton took advantage of another slow Anaheim start and got a goal from Ryan Nugent-Hopkins on a no-look deflection of Taylor Hall's shot at 6:18 of the first. Ducks defenseman Francois Beauchemin returned from a hand injury that cost him 10 games. Edmonton right wing Ales Hemsky missed the game with a reported hip injury.