NY Rangers v Florida 2-1 SO - Brad Richards scored the only goal in the shootout, allowing Lundqvist to outduel veteran Tim Thomas. Lundqvist, who had a 3.68 goals-against-average in his previous eight starts, stopped rookie Aleksander Barkov and Jonathan Huberdeau in the shootout before Richards beat Thomas in the third round with a quick shot off the left post. Lundqvist clinched the victory with a save against Brad Boyes, who leads all NHL players with 36 career shootout goals and was 5-for-6 this season. Thomas was trying for his first shutout for the Panthers, but Girardi beat him with a wrist shot from the top of the left circle. His goal helped atone for a mistake that led to the Florida goal in the second period. Girardi's goal came after Florida forward Tomas Kopecky lost his stick in front of the Panthers net and skated to the bench to get a new one, even though the puck was in the defensive zone. New York had two of its defensemen back in the lineup: Marc Staal returned after missing 10 games because of a concussion, and Anton Stralman was back after missing the game against the Tampa Bay Lightning on Sunday with a wrist injury. Boyes broke a scoreless tie at 10:42 of the second period after Barkov intercepted Girardi's pass behind the Rangers net. Barkov fed Boyes in front and he deked to his backhand before sliding the puck between Lundqvist's legs. The Panthers had a chance to pad their one-goal lead with a four-minute power play midway through the third period after Nick Bjugstad was high-sticked by Richards but could manage one shot. Bjugstad left the ice with a trainer but later returned.
NY Islanders v Boston 5-3 - The Islanders grabbed their first lead of the night 32 seconds into the third period. Thomas Vanek gained the Boston zone and wristed a shot off Rask's blocker. John Tavares retrieved the puck along the goal line to the left of Rask and banked it off the goaltender and into the net to make it 4-3. Tavares added some insurance at 13:17 when his slapper from the left circle beat Rask for the Islanders' fourth power-play goal. A five-goal second-period scoring spree started with the Islanders tying the game at 1-1 on Frans Nielsen's first of two goals. His one-timer from the high slot at 5:56 beat Rask for the first of three power-play goals by the Islanders in the middle 20 minutes. Boston scored twice in a 25-second spanm midway through the second period, to grab a 3-1 lead. Patrice Bergeron's one-timer from the high slot on the power play put the Bruins ahead at 12:33. Daniel Paille's tip of a Zdeno Chara shot Nabokov was trying to pick up his stick from the blue paint at 12:58 then put the Bruins ahead by two. But the Bruins took three minor penalties in the final four minutes of the period, and the Islanders made them pay twice. Nielsen used a fortuitous bounce after Vanek's shot was blocked to score the Islanders' second power-play goal of the period at 16:30. Nielsen fired the loose puck into the net before Rask could get back into position. Okposo then got some help from Brad Marchand to tie the game up at 3-3. Andrew MacDonald gained the Boston zone and chased his own chip-in to the right corner. Okposo came up with the puck along the goal line and threw it to the front, where Marchand knocked it past Rask with 2.6 seconds left in the period. David Krejci went to the net as Jarome Iginla fired a shot on Nabokov. He stopped the initial shot and denied Krejci's attempt at stuffing in the rebound, but Krejci's second effort put the Bruins ahead 1-0 at 4:25. At one point the Islanders thought they had tied the game before the first intermission. With 6:11 remaining in the period, however, video review upheld the ruling on the ice that the whistle blew even as players and Rask were jamming at Travis Hamonic shot's that dropped in the crease. The Islanders saw it on video between periods and thought the call went against them. But coach Jack Capuano liked the way his players didn't get discouraged by the call. The Islanders improved to 7-0-1 in their past seven games played on Dec. 31. They haven't lost on New Year's Eve since 1998.
Montreal v Carolina 4-5 OT - After a three-goal outburst tied the game early in the third period, Alexander Semin snapped a shot past Montreal Canadiens goalie Carey Price with 1:33 left in overtime to give the Carolina Hurricanes an improbable come-from-behind 5-4 win Tuesday night. Jeff Skinner scored to get the Hurricanes on the board at 1:38 of the third period with a nice move in the left circle to beat Price to the far post. He scored his team-leading 16th goal from the right circle at 2:15 to cut the Canadiens' lead to 3-2. Captain Eric Staal finished off a loose puck in front at 4:07 to complete a three-goal comeback in a span of 2:29. The rally stood in stark contrast from the first two periods, when Carolina couldn't capitalize on 10:14 of power-play time. Malhotra scored at 8:16 to give the Hurricanes a 4-3 lead, but Montreal defenseman P.K. Subban answered two minutes later on the power play to even the score at 4-4. The Hurricanes killed off a double minor for boarding and unsportsmanlike conduct against Staal at the end of the third period and early in overtime before Semin's game-winner. Lars Eller's ninth goal of the season put the Canadiens on top 1:20 into the game. Alex Galchenyuk forced a turnover behind the net then pushed a pass to Eller, who slipped the puck past Hurricanes goaltender Cam Ward on the backhand. Max Pacioretty made it 2-0 at 7:46 when he redirected a pass from David Desharnais from the right circle. The goal came on an abbreviated power play after the teams had skated 4-on-4 for 1:20. Montreal didn't show much discipline in the first 20 minutes, taking four minor penalties. Price was sharp though, especially during a 37-second sequence of 5-on-3 when he stopped scoring bids by Semin and Jordan Staal. The penalty-box traffic continued in the second period for Montreal. A bench minor for too many men on the ice quickly followed a slashing penalty by Galchenyuk, leaving Carolina with 1:45 of a two-man advantage. But Montreal was equal to the task, blocking shots and keeping the Hurricanes away from the crease. The Canadiens finished with 34 blocks. Pacioretty's second goal of the night at 14:24 pushed the Montreal lead to 3-0.
Buffalo v Winnipeg 0-3 - The Jets survived Blake Wheeler's double minor early in the first period and several in-close offensive chances for the Sabres before taking a 1-0 lead at 10:42 on Keaton Ellerby's second goal of the season, a bouncing left-point shot that skipped past Enroth. The Sabres nearly tied the game late in the first period when Marcus Foligno jammed a loose puck past Montoya as Stafford crashed into the net. The officials disallowed the goal, and video review was inconclusive in determining whether the net was dislodged before the puck crossed the goal line. Buffalo limited the Jets to 14 shots past the game's midpoint, but the Jets held a 2-0 lead by the end of the second period after Jacob Trouba scored his third goal of the season on a low shot from above the right circle blocker-side past Enroth at 13:06. Anthony Peluso finished off the Sabres by hitting the empty net with 1:28 left. Goaltender Al Montoya won his sixth in a row and made 27 saves for his second shutout of the season.
Columbus v Colorado 3-5 - The Avalanche overcame 1-0 and 2-1 deficits and finally secured the win when Nathan MacKinnon redirected Andre Benoit's pass into the net with 1:03 remaining in regulation for Colorado's third extra-man goal. The Avalanche also needed a strong game from goalie Semyon Varlamov on a night when the Blue Jackets outshot them 38-23. Colorado's newly-constructed line of Jamie McGinn, Matt Duchene and Ryan O'Reilly combined for two goals and three assists in a 2:38 span of the second period to give the Avalanche a 3-2 lead. McGinn tied the game at 12:04 with his second goal in the past 11 games. Duchene took a shot from between the circles and McGinn backhanded the rebound past goalie Curtis McElhinney. The Avalanche went on a power play shortly after and O'Reilly converted at 14:42 by moving to the front of the net and banking the puck off McElhinney and into the net after taking a pass from Duchene. Gabriel Landeskog finished a tic-tac-toe passing play with Paul Stastny and MacKinnon for a power-play goal at 8:10 of the third period to give the Avalanche a 4-2 lead, but the Blue Jackets closed within a goal 37 seconds later. Varlamov made a save against RJ Umberger and thought he had the puck covered, but Nick Foligno dug it out, circled behind the net and poked it inside the opposite post at 8:47.
The Blue Jackets controlled play in the Avalanche end for a long stretch and went ahead 2-1 at 8:34 of the second period on a goal from Boone Jenner, who put in a rebound off a shot from Jack Johnson. Columbus' Ryan Johansen scored his team-leading 16th goal 4:13 into the game after Foligno skated untouched from the right corner to the front of the net for a shot. Varlamov made the save, but Johansen followed and knocked in the rebound. The Avalanche tied the game on a goal by defenseman Jan Hejda after a Blue Jackets turnover. Hejda took a shot from the left point with McGinn in front and the puck slid by a screened McElhinney at 6:33
San Jose v Anaheim 3-6 - The Anaheim Ducks have talked about continuing to push, whether it's through the successes or struggles, in what has become a season of high expectations. That message didn't change after the Ducks pushed right through the rival San Jose Sharks into the new year. Coming off a loss in the opener to their home-and-home series with the Sharks, the Ducks blitzed San Jose with three goals in the second period of a 6-3 win at Honda Center on New Year's Eve. The Ducks used three second-period goals and two early in the third to take control of the game. Anaheim is the only team in the NHL without a regulation loss at home (15-0-2). It went 11-1-1 overall in December and opened a seven-point lead in the Pacific Division over the second-place Sharks, who have two games in hand. The Ducks' 25 shots were a team record for a second period, and it scored five goals in a span of 11:25 from midway through the second to 2:25 of the third. Captain Ryan Getzlaf reached 20 goals for the first time since the 2008-09 season with a signature wrist shot that beat Sharks goalie Antti Niemi from the right circle at 1:14 of the third. Andrew Cogliano, playing in his 500th consecutive game, scored shorthanded at 2:25 to finish a 2-on-0 rush after two Sharks fell down. San Jose, which ended Anaheim's franchise-record 10-game winning streak Sunday, had its four-game winning streak end. The Sharks outshot the Ducks 17-8 in the first, but their early dominance was washed away when Ducks forward Kyle Palmieri opened the scoring by deflecting Matt Beleskey's point shot past Niemi with 3:36 left in the period. The Sharks got goals from Dan Boyle and Logan Couture to tie it at 1-1 and 2-2 in the second, but spent most of the period trapped in their zone. Anaheim got a great game from its fourth line of Nick Bonino, Palmieri and Beleskey; the trio combined for three goals, four assists and a plus-six rating. Beleskey finished off a second period played at breakneck pace with a shot that possibly went in off a Sharks player at 18:30 for a 4-2 lead. Moments earlier, defenseman Ben Lovejoy made a goal-saving stick deflection on Thornton's shot at an open net with Hiller out of position. Lovejoy's wife, Avery, delivered their first child, a girl, Lila, earlier Tuesday.
"He was at the hospital all day having a
baby, and then he puts in that kind of effort," Anaheim
coach Bruce Boudreau said. "That's pretty good."
Bonino highlighted the period when he swiped in
the puck while falling down at 14:59 to make it 3-1. The power-play
goal ended an 0-for-22 slump over the past eight games for Anaheim.
The six goals were the most San Jose has allowed this season. Like
Thornton, San Jose coach Todd McLellan was at a loss to explain the
second-period struggles.
"We were on our toes," McLellan
said. "We were winning the races. We were doing some of those
things in the first. Where did it go in the second? I guess that's
the big question we have to ask our group."
Anaheim left wing Dustin
Penner was a healthy scratch; Boudreau said he wasn't pleased
with his game Sunday. San Jose center Tommy
Wingels missed the game with an upper-body injury sustained in a
collision Sunday with Anaheim's Mark
Fistric. This is Anaheim's best-ever record through 42 games. The
63 points top the 62 by the 2006-07 Stanley Cup championship team.
Anaheim goon it up yet again.
Philadelphia v Calgary 4-1 - Emery stopped 23 shots and Brayden Schenn had a goal and two assists as the Flyers closed 2013 by completing a three-game sweep through Western Canada for the first time since 1996 on the first half of a six-game trip. Schenn broke a 1-1 tie with just 1:29 remaining in the second period. After Andrej Meszaros whiffed on his point shot, Schenn corralled the loose puck and blasted a shot past the blocker of Reto Berra for the eventual game-winner, his ninth of the season and second in as many games after going scoreless in 16 straight. Schenn's goal came after Sean Monahan tied the game 1-1 at 14:30. It was Calgary's first goal in 159:35 after being shut out in back-to-back games on home ice after the Christmas break. Paul Byron knocked down Vincent Lecavalier's neutral zone pass and sprung Monahan in 2-on-1 with Lee Stempniak. Monahan ripped a shot over Emery's glove for his 11th of the season and first in seven games to pull Calgary even. Scott Hartnell gave the Flyers some breathing room at the midway mark of the third, deflecting Luke Schenn's point shot behind Berra to make it 3-1. Braydon Coburn slung the puck the length of the ice into an empty net with 1:56 remaining for a shorthanded goal after Sean Couturier won a faceoff in his own zone to finish the Flames. The Flyers, riding the momentum of back-to-back shootout wins in Edmonton and Vancouver to start their six-game road trip, struck early. Mark Streit opened the scoring for a second straight game, firing a seeing-eye wrist shot through a screen in front that beat an unsuspecting Berra at 3:15 to put Philadelphia up 1-0. He thought he had another near the midway mark of the period. On a seemingly identical play, Streit fired through traffic in front and beat Berra but struck the post. Schenn did sneak another over the goal line, but it was waived off after Hartnell impeded Berra in the crease. Monahan knocked a blocked shot out of midair and launched it on the Flyers goaltender six minutes in, but Emery managed to get his body in front of it. He did the same on Mike Cammalleri's deflection with 5:19 remaining. At 19:52, he trapped David Jones' snap shot off the rush to temporarily extend Calgary's scoring woes. The first wasn't all good news for the Flyers, though; they lost Matt Read after just seven shifts with an upper-body injury. The team didn't have an update on Read's status after the game.
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