Florida @ Buffalo 2-1 SO - Brad Boyes' familiarity with Buffalo Sabres goaltender Jhonas Enroth helped the Florida Panthers get two points Thursday night. Boyes scored in regulation and again the shootout to give the Panthers a 2-1 victory at First Niagara Center, the arena he called home while playing 86 games for the Sabres in 2011 and '12. Boyes scored his 37th career shootout goal, the most since the NHL adopted the tiebreaker in 2005, in the third round of the tiebreaker when he ripped a shot that hit the right post, caromed off the back of Enroth's leg and went over the goal line. The Panthers thought they had scored in the second round when Jonathan Huberdeau stuffed the puck into the net. But the referees ruled that Huberdeau used his stick to push Enroth's pad and the puck into the net, and the goal was waved off. Tim Thomas stopped all three Buffalo shots in the shootout after making 23 saves through 65 minutes. Defenseman Jamie McBain gave the Sabres a 1-0 lead at 5:13 of the second period when he scored his third goal of the season. McBain put a wrist shot past Thomas after a quick pass from Sabres captain Steve Ott at 5:13. The Sabres nearly made it 2-0 a minute later when Brian Flynn had a breakaway against Thomas. Flynn tried to go five-hole, but Thomas closed his legs and made the save. Florida had an opportunity to even the score in the second period when the Sabres were called for too many men on the ice while killing a hooking penalty to defenseman Alexander Sulzer. The Panthers had 31 seconds of 5-on-3 power-play time and managed to put six shots on goal, but were unable to put a puck past Enroth. Boyes tied it at 9:16 of the third period by tipping Tom Gilbert's slap shot past Enroth for his 12th of the season. Boyes thought he had given the Panthers a 2-1 lead 13:07, but officials stopped play because defenseman Dmitry Kulikov sustained a cut to his face.
Toronto @ Carolina 1-6 - For most of the past month, the Carolina Hurricanes have played a quality brand of hockey, even if they were only treading water in the standings. There were four overtime losses in a seven-game span that seemed to hint better days were on the horizon. Now, after a decisive 6-1 win against the Toronto Maple Leafs on Thursday night, the team has won five straight. There were several uplifting story lines for the Hurricanes on Thursday, beginning with Zach Boychuk. The former first-round pick, who has spent most of his six professional seasons in the American Hockey League, put the Hurricanes on the scoreboard with a backhander in the first period and later set up a pretty 2-on-1 goal. The player on the receiving end of Boychuk's assist was defenseman John-Michael Liles, acquired eight days ago in a trade that sent veteran blueliner Tim Gleason to the Maple Leafs. Liles scored his first of the season just the way a recently traded player would hope, against his former team. The Hurricanes threatened to finish off Toronto in the first period. Jeff Skinner followed Boychuk with a power-play goal, his 17th goal in the past 17 games and 21st overall, to put Carolina ahead 2-0. Toronto forward Joffrey Lupul cut the lead in half, taking a centering pass from Mason Raymond and banging it in from the left post at 14:14. But the Hurricanes answered quickly. With Toronto scrambling in its own end, Patrick Dwyer grabbed a loose puck and sent it in through traffic and into the net at 17:33 for a 3-1 lead. Despite Carolina's three-goal outburst, Toronto goalie James Reimer was sharp in the first period, stopping a half-dozen quality chances to keep his team in the game. After Liles extended the lead to 4-1 in the second period, Staal started the third by blasting a hard shot over Reimer's glove at the 35-second mark. With three assists, Staal easily put together his best offensive game in two seasons with Carolina. Rookie Elias Lindholm, fresh off a silver medal for Sweden in the 2014 IIHF World Junior Championship, scored the final goal of the night and added a pair of first-period assists in his first NHL game since Dec. 12.
Washington @ Tampa Bay 4-3 - The Washington Capitals made the most of their limited opportunities Thursday night. The Capitals managed a total of 20 shots, but the last one was a deflection by Eric Fehr with 51.5 seconds left in regulation that gave Washington a 4-3 victory against the Tampa Bay Lightning. Fehr got enough of a tip on Mike Green's shot from the point to beat Anders Lindback after Tampa Bay captain Martin St. Louis failed to clear the puck from his own zone, giving the Capitals the victory Tampa Bay had battled back from a two-goal deficit. Due to poor ice conditions in one of the goal creases, the teams changed sides at the first whistle after the 10-minute mark of each period. Washington led 3-1 after one period but managed 11 shots on net in the final 40 minutes, giving the Lightning a chance to get back into the game. B.J. Crombeen began the Lightning comeback when he wristed a shot over rookie goaltender Philipp Grubauer's shoulder at 6:45 of the second period to make it 3-2. It was Crombeen's first goal since March 5, 2013, a total of 56 games. Tom Pyatt's assist was his first point of the season. Ondrej Palat tied the game with 5:30 remaining in regulation when he deflected a shot from Matthew Carle past Grubauer. Tampa Bay grabbed the lead 4:08 into the game when Tyler Johnson took a pass from Palat, cruised in and beat Grubauer with a shot over his glove. Palat's assist extended his scoring streak to eight games, a rookie record for Tampa Bay. Alexander Ovechkin and Fehr caught Carle pinching into the attacking zone and came at Lindback 2-on-1, and Fehr zipped Ovechkin’s cross-ice pass into the net to tie at 7:04. Power-play goals by Mikhail Grabovski at 10:37 and Marcus Johansson with 12 seconds to go gave the Capitals the 3-1 lead after one period. The Lightning lost defenseman Radko Gudas to a lower-body injury in the first period.
Anaheim @ Nashville 4-3 - Ducks coach Bruce Boudreau said the leadership of captain Ryan Getzlaf has been something to behold this season. Anaheim trailed 2-0 on Thursday, but Getzlaf scored two goals early in the second period and had the primary assist on the Ducks' third goal by Corey Perry, helping the Ducks to a 4-3 victory against the Nashville Predators at Bridgestone Arena. 43-year-old Teemu Selanne had the game-winner on the power play with 68 seconds left to complete a four-goal second period by the Ducks. Anaheim capitalized on a penalty on Nashville's Gabriel Bourque, who was called for holding Ben Lovejoy with 2:53 to go. Mathieu Perreault spun down low and found Selanne on the opposite side, allowing him to deliver the puck into an open net for his fifth goal of the season. The NHL-leading Ducks (33-8-5) won for the 15th time in 16 games. They have lost once in regulation in the past six weeks. Selanne said what he likes best is that no one on the team makes a big deal of their record. The Predators are 3-2-2 in their past seven. Nashville coach Barry Trotz was upset with the way the line of Colin Wilson, Mike Fisher and Eric Nystrom managed the puck. Each finished minus-3. Nashville scored on two of its first three shots to take a 2-0 lead 2:22 into the game. Its first goal came from excellent work on the cycle by the line of Bourque, Paul Gaustad and Viktor Stalberg. Stalberg threw the puck behind the net to Bourque, who sent it into the slot where Gaustad smacked it in at 1:52. It was his seventh goal of the season. Bourque got back into the lineup because right wing Patric Hornqvist was out with an upper-body injury. Thirty seconds later, Craig Smith converted a 2-on-1 from Matt Cullen for his team-leading 13th goal. The game turned early in the second. Fifty-five seconds into the period, Getzlaf scored with a wrist shot from near the left faceoff dot that beat right-handed-catching Marek Mazanec to the short side over his glove. Getzlaf tied it at 4:36 when Nashville defenseman Shea Weber mishandled the puck and Anaheim turned it into a 3-on-2. Matt Beleskey dropped the puck for Getzlaf, who wristed home his second goal of the game. Rich Clune helped the Predators briefly retake the lead at 5:31. He got two swipes at a shot Smith threw at the goal from the side of the net and knocked the puck out of the air past goalie Frederik Andersen. Smith was on the ice because Matt Hendricks' skate blade fell out a few shifts earlier when he crashed into the boards and had to go for an equipment fix. Perry tied the score at 3-3 by scoring on a breakaway. He caught Nashville defenseman Mattias Ekholm flat-footed in the neutral zone and Getzlaf sprung his linemate with a long pass. Perry beat Mazanec with an 18-foot wrist shot at 6:27. Nashville, which has the League's No. 7 power play, could not capitalize on two in the third period.
St Louis @ Calgary 5-0 - Thanks in part to goals from five different players and a 33-save shutout from Jaroslav Halak, the St. Louis Blues beat the Calgary Flames 5-0 at Scotiabank Saddledome on Thursday, running their winning streak to seven. The Blues' last loss came on Dec. 23 at the hands of the Flames by way of a 4-3 shootout decision, and the two teams have gone in completely opposite directions since. St. Louis' seven straight victories is the longest active stretch in the NHL and the team's longest winning streak since putting together a nine-game run from Oct. 15 to Nov. 5, 2002. The Flames, meanwhile, have won once and been shut out in five of seven games since the win against St. Louis. The Flames have scored five goals in that span and have been outscored 15-1 in their past five home games. The Blues acted quickly Thursday night to make sure their winning ways and the Flames’ losing streak continued. Eighteen seconds after Dennis Wideman's penalty for cross checking expired, Derek Roy spun and fired a no-look pass between Flames defenseman TJ Brodie's legs to Chris Stewart, who buried his 15th of the season behind goaltender Karri Ramo to put St. Louis up 1-0 at 9:32 of the first period. Ramo used his blocker to deny Stewart's attempt 42 seconds later, but Vladimir Sobotka made it 2-0 at 11:37. Streaking down his off wing, Sobotka snapped a shot that beat the Flames goaltender to the far side. The pair of goals prompted a timeout from Flames coach Bob Hartley, but despite a double minor to St. Louis' Maxim Lapierre shortly thereafter, Calgary managed just two shots on Halak over the four-minute man advantage en route to being outshot 12-6 in the period. Halak was busier in the second, when the Flames directed six shots on net in the first five minutes, not including Jiri Hudler's drive off the post, and 15 shots overall. He didn’t waver in his return after an illness forced him to miss five games. Halak ensured Calgary couldn’t shake its slump despite plenty of scoring chances, and it was the Blues who struck again. Spending an entire shift in the Calgary zone, Vladimir Tarasenko curled out of the corner with the puck and found Ian Cole inching in from the point. Cole corralled the pass before firing a shot that beat Ramo at 6:47 for his second of the season and a 3-0 lead. Alex Pietrangelo wasted little time making it 4-0 on the power play early in the third, blasting a shot that hit Lance Bouma before skipping past Ramo and into the net at 1:16. On the power play with Kevin Westgarth in the penalty box for roughing, Tarasenko, who had already extended his consecutive point streak to five games with his earlier assist, one-timed a pass from Jordan Leopold past Ramo 1:16 after Pietrangelo's goal; it was the second-year right wing’s 15th. Hudler tried again to snap Halak's shutout bid, stickhandling around Blues defenseman Barret Jackman on a 1-on-1 before letting go a backhander from the slot that Halak gloved. Halak saved his best for last. With Stewart in the penalty box for holding the stick, he gloved down Mike Cammalleri's redirect from near point-blank range before stoning Hudler again from the slot with less than four minutes remaining.
Boston @ Los Angeles 2-4 - Kings coach Darryl Sutter isn't one for pregame ceremonies, but he appeared to crack a smile before the opening faceoff Thursday night when he was honored for coaching his 1,000th NHL game, a mark he reached on Jan. 4. Los Angeles snapped out of a 1-5-1 slide with one of its best all-around games this season in a 4-2 win against the Boston Bruins. The Kings scored four goals for the first time in nine games, and they did it against one of the NHL's stingiest teams. Jonathan Quick shone in the third period with saves on Carl Soderberg, Ryan Spooner and Brad Marchand, and recent Canadian Olympic selection Jeff Carter put 10 shots on goal and scored his team-leading 16th of the season. Quick has stopped 63 of 67 shots in three games since returning from a groin injury. His stop on Marchand on a partial shorthanded breakaway prompted the Bruins agitator to bang his stick on the glass in frustration. That about summed up the night for Boston, which was outscored 9-4 in Southern California against the Anaheim Ducks and Kings and heads north to play the San Jose Sharks on Saturday to complete its California swing. L.A. took a 3-0 lead with goals in the opening 1:45 of the second period. Justin Williams slipped through the defense and beat Bruins goalie Tuukka Rask to the far side 44 seconds after the opening faceoff. Alec Martinez then scored on a rising 60-foot slap shot, leading Boston coach Claude Julien to pull Rask in favor of Chad Johnson. Rask allowed three goals on 18 shots; Johnson made 16 saves. Williams' goal came with Dougie Hamilton serving an interference minor for playing the puck while coming out of the penalty box. Boston is 0-2-0 to start its difficult three-game stretch against the California teams, and the common denominator is penalties. The Bruins have been shorthanded nine times and allowed four power-play goals to the Ducks and Kings. Boston, which allows the second-fewest goals per game in the League (2.18), has surrendered 24 goals in its past six road games. Matt Fraser scored on a 2-on-1 at 9:55 of the second period and Justin Florek scored his first NHL goal with 2:13 left in regulation for Boston. Julien cited the poor start and an offense that couldn't climb back into the game in time. Boston got Milan Lucic back in the lineup after he sat out the game in Anaheim due to illness, but he had one shot on goal and was a minus-2. The Kings controlled the first period and came out with a 1-0 lead on Carter's goal. Johnny Boychuk whiffed on a pass and Anze Kopitar grabbed it to set up Carter, who put in his own rebound at 10:32. Carter also stole the puck from Chara and caused Hamilton to take a tripping penalty on the same shift to set up a power play later in the period. Carter has 16 points in his past 14 games. He was two shy of his career best for shots in a game.
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