Results - Sat, Mar 01, 2014

Washington @ Boston 4-2 - Once you've played against him, it's impossible to forget how dynamic Washington Capitals forward Alex Ovechkin is. The Boston Bruins were reminded about Ovechkin's lethality in their first meeting of the season with the Capitals. The NHL leader in goals added to his League-leading power-play goal total with two scores on the man-advantage, including his 800th NHL point, and Joel Ward scored the game-winning goal on a breakaway in the Capitals' 4-2 victory at TD Garden on Saturday. Washington let the Bruins creep back within 3-2 before holding on for the win. The Bruins and Capitals will meet twice more in March, including a rematch at TD Garden on Thursday. Ovechkin now has 43 goals overall and 17 power-play goals. The Capitals have matched a season high with four wins in a row and are 5-1-1 in their past seven dating back to before the Olympic break. Eric Fehr also scored for Washington and Holtby stopped 36 shots. The Capitals (29-23-9) have won five of their past six against the Bruins. The Bruins (37-18-5) lost in regulation for the first time in six games (3-1-2). They're 0-1-1 since the Olympic break and have allowed nine goals in those two games. Ovechkin cashed in on the Capitals' second power-play opportunity of the game with his first career goal against Boston goaltender Tuukka Rask. With Boston forward Chris Kelly off for interference, Ovechkin set up in his favorite spot near the top of the left circle and beat Rask with a one-timer at 18:39 of the first period for a 1-0 lead. The Bruins earlier had squandered a chance to score first. Jay Beagle was called for holding and during the delayed penalty Tom Wilson was whistled for high-sticking. But the Bruins failed to score during the two-minute 5-on-3 and had only one shot on Holtby. Another Washington power play early in the second period led to another Ovechkin goal and a 2-0 lead at 2:24. This time, he one-timed a shot from the top of the left circle on the rush for his 800th point in his 658th game. Ward put the Capitals ahead 3-0 at 10:14. He stole the puck from Boston defenseman Johnny Boychuk at the Bruins' blue line, split the defense and beat Rask with a backhander. Boston started its comeback on the power play. Dougie Hamilton drove the puck to the right dot and passed back to Patrice Bergeron for a one-timer from the right hash mark that beat Holtby high at 10:54. The Bruins' fourth line then trimmed the Capitals' lead to 3-2. Shawn Thornton's centering pass intended for Campbell deflected off Capitals defenseman Mike Green and went past Holtby for a goal at 17:32. The Bruins outshot the Capitals 15-8 in the second period and went to the intermission behind 3-2.

New Jersey @ NY Islanders 6-1 - The elder statesmen on the New Jersey Devils were the story Saturday afternoon against the New York Islanders. Jaromir Jagr scored his 700th NHL goal and moved into a tie with Marcel Dionne on the all-time assist list, Martin Brodeur made 18 saves in his return to the lineup, and the Devils defeated the Islanders 6-1 at Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum. Adam Henrique, Ryane Clowe, Marek Zidlicky and Eric Gelinas each had a power-play goal for the Devils, who scored multiple times with the man-advantage for the second straight game out of the Olympic break. Brodeur was the storyline coming into the game, with the NHL Trade Deadline set for 3 p.m. ET Wednesday and rumors swirling that his 1,249th career start could be his final one for the Devils. Cory Schneider had started seven straight games since relieving Brodeur for the third period of their 2014 Coors Light NHL Stadium Series game against the New York Rangers at Yankee Stadium on Jan. 26. Brodeur allowed six goals on 21 shots that afternoon, but rebounded with his 51st career win against the Islanders (his most against any NHL team) and the 683rd of his career. He faced 10 shots in the first period and nine after that. Brodeur has a no-trade clause and said the destination would play a big part in whether he accepted a trade. Jagr's milestone goal started a scoring burst in the second period. After controlling the puck along the right wall, he skated in from the circle and took a shot through traffic that deflected off the skate of Islanders defenseman Andrew MacDonald and went past goalie Evgeni Nabokov at 3:31, giving the Devils a 2-0 lead. Jagr, who has 19 goals this season, is eight behind Mike Gartner for sixth on the all-time list. Clowe extended the lead to 3-0 with his fifth of the season 1:09 later. The Devils needed 10 seconds to score after Colin McDonald was sent off for roughing, with Clowe snapping a shot past Nabokov for his second goal in as many games. Kyle Okposo got the Islanders on the board at 6:14 with his team-leading 25th of the season, deflecting a Thomas Vanek shot past Brodeur. The Devils quickly regained the three-goal advantage, striking again on the power play at 8:07. Jagr reached 1,040 career assists (ninth all-time) when he set up Zidlicky's ninth of the season, 14 seconds after an interference penalty on Mike Halmo. Defenseman Mark Fayne made it 5-1 when he took a feed from Andrei Loktionov and blasted a point shot past Nabokov with 5:06 left in the second. Anders Nilsson started the third period in place of Nabokov, who stopped 14 of 19 shots. Gelinas closed the scoring with 38.1 seconds left, on a two-man advantage. The Devils played the final 4:37 on the power play after Islanders defenseman Travis Hamonic was given two minutes for instigating, five minutes for fighting and a game misconduct for an altercation with forward Ryan Carter. Hamonic and the Devils' Steve Bernier had fighting majors earlier in the period. The Devils got the early jump Saturday thanks to Henrique's second power-play goal in as many games. Islanders forward Casey Cizikas went off for tripping Jacob Josefson at 3:32 and Henrique scored his 17th of the season at 5:00 off a scramble in front, chipping the puck past Nabokov from his knees. Brodeur made 10 stops in the first, including a pair of strong right-pad saves on Vanek with the Devils killing a holding penalty to Carter. With the teams playing 4-on-4 after Vanek went off for slashing, Nabokov denied Travis Zajac on a breakaway with 4:40 left, and Brodeur made a point-blank stop on Okposo in the slot at the other end.

NY Rangers @ Philadelphia 2-4 - The Philadelphia Flyers tightened the race for second place in the Metropolitan Division with a 4-2 win against the New York Rangers on Saturday afternoon at Wells Fargo Center. The Flyers (31-24-6) now trail the Rangers (33-25-3) by one point; each team has 21 games remaining. Wayne Simmonds gave the Flyers a 3-2 lead in the second period less than two minutes after the Rangers tied the score. On a power play, Simmonds' attempted pass deflected back to him and he turned around at the left faceoff dot to send a wrist shot far-side past Rangers goalie Henrik Lundqvist at 13:23. Lundqvist, playing his first NHL game since winning a silver medal with Sweden at the Olympics, made 27 saves. He had won five in a row and seven of eight, and was 12-2-0 in his past 14 games against the Flyers. Philadelphia scored twice in a 1:06 span in the first period after killing off two power plays in the first six minutes. A shot by Simmonds was deflected by Vincent Lecavalier and it trickled away from Lundqvist toward the goal. While Brayden Schenn was swiping at the puck, it went in off the stick of Rangers defenseman Anton Stralman at 7:04. Sean Couturier followed at 8:10 off a partial breakaway after two long passes. Flyers defenseman Kimmo Timonen sent the puck from behind his net through two Rangers forecheckers to Matt Read on the left-wing boards in the neutral zone. Read sent a cross-ice pass to Couturier entering the offensive zone. He skated around Chris Kreider across the goal mouth and put a forehand over Lundqvist, who was on his stomach after missing a poke check. The Rangers rallied to tie it 2-2 on second-period goals by Kreider and Derick Brassard. Kreider finished a fast-moving play at 4:59. Derek Stepan sent a cross-ice pass off the right-wing boards, where it bounded to Rick Nash, who in one motion pushed it toward the goal, where Kreider tapped it past Mason. It was Kreider's first goal since Jan. 21, a span of nine games. Brassard scored on a power play at 11:42. He took a pass from Brad Richards against a backpedaling Flyers defense and fired a slap shot from just above the left circle through Mason's legs. The goal extended Brassard's point streak to eight games (five goals, five assists). Luke Schenn made it 4-2 with 3:45 left in the game. Claude Giroux battled for the puck on a cycle and passed to Scott Hartnell, whose shot was kicked out by Lundqvist right to Schenn, who pushed it into an empty side. Rangers defenseman Dan Girardi, who agreed to a six-year contract extension Friday, was minus-1 in 24:40 of ice time. Callahan, the subject of speculation with the NHL Trade Deadline on Wednesday, had five shots in 20:58. The Pittsburgh Penguins lead the division.

Florida @ Columbus 3-6 - The Columbus Blue Jackets know all too well how a well-timed shorthanded goal can change the complexion of a game. In their first game out of the Olympic break, a loss Thursday at the New Jersey Devils, the Blue Jackets cut a three-goal deficit to one only to give up a shorthanded goal with 19 seconds left in the second period. Columbus never recovered and lost its third straight. Saturday afternoon, the Blue Jackets destroyed the momentum of an opponent and defeated the Florida Panthers 6-3 at Nationwide Arena. The Panthers had allowed three power-play goals and had been badly outshot, yet had a chance to take a 4-3 lead late in the second period when Columbus center Derek MacKenzie was called for high-sticking. Instead, Blue Jackets center Artem Anisimov's unassisted shorthanded goal with 10 seconds left in the period put Columbus ahead to stay. Foligno earned his 200th career point by hitting the empty net with 61 seconds left in regulation, and Matt Calvert added another empty-netter 36 seconds later, but Florida (22-31-7) lost a fourth straight game in large part because Columbus (30-25-5) scored on its first three power plays. RJ Umberger, Cam Atkinson and David Savard helped the Blue Jackets build leads of 2-0 and 3-1. The Panthers got goals from Shawn Matthias, Nick Bjugstad and Sean Bergenheim only to see Anisimov score the go-ahead goal. He pestered the Panthers while MacKenzie served a high-sticking penalty and stole the puck from Florida center Jonathan Huberdeau along the right wall. Anisimov, one of four Blue Jackets to play for Russia in the 2014 Sochi Olympics, carried the puck to the slot, deked Panthers defenseman Tom Gilbert, then roofed a backhander past Scott Clemmensen for his 15th goal, second shorthanded, this season. Clemmensen made 31 saves. Columbus goalie Sergei Bobrovsky stopped 17 shots and improved to 13-4-1 in his past 18 starts. He lost 5-2 to the Devils on Thursday. Florida has come off its long layoff with problems on the penalty kill. They allowed goals in five straight opportunities over two games before denying the Blue Jackets' final man-up attempt in the third period. The Columbus power play had been spotty. In the previous nine games it had scored five times but given up four shorthanded goals. That changed against the Panthers when the Blue Jackets got goals from Umberger at 7:42 and Atkinson at 11:04 before Matthias got one back at even strength at 13:50. Columbus dominated early in the second period but could not increase a 2-1 lead before Bjugstad took the puck off the stick of Columbus defenseman Ryan Murray and beat Bobrovsky with a backhand for his 14th goal at 6:54 to make the score 2-2. Savard put the Blue Jackets back in front four minutes later with his own backhand move for the defenseman's fourth goal as Erik Gudbranson sat in the box for cross-checking Foligno. Falling behind is nothing new for the Panthers, who trailed the Washington Capitals 4-2 Thursday but tied the score in the third period before losing 5-4. The Blue Jackets' lead lasted all of 40 seconds before Bergenheim got his stick on a drive by Gilbert and redirected into the goal for his 14th. The shots at that point favored Columbus 23-8.

Winnipeg @ Nashville 3-1 - Coming off the 2014 Sochi Olympics, it might have been hard to know what to expect from Winnipeg Jets goalie Ondrej Pavelec when the NHL season resumed. Playing for the Czech Republic, he allowed four goals and was pulled in a quarterfinal loss to the United States. Pavelec did not dress for the Czechs' first game against Sweden. If those events bothered him, it's not apparent. Despite his team being significantly outshot, Pavelec stopped 39 shots Saturday in a 3-1 win against the Nashville Predators at Bridgestone Arena. The surging Jets (29-26-6) are 11-3-1 since Maurice replaced Claude Noel as coach on Jan. 12. The Jets, who began the day two points out of the final wild-card spot in the Western Conference, pushed their lead over the Predators to four points in the Central Division. Predators coach Barry Trotz said a bad read by the right-side defenseman, he didn't name him, but it was rookie Seth Jones, cost Nashville the first goal. Jets center Olli Jokinen broke in alone and his wrist shot beat goalie Carter Hutton high to the glove side at 5:02 of the second period. The goal was Jokinen's 14th of the season. Nashville (26-25-10) is 1-2-2 in its past five games. The Predators had won three of four against the Jets in the season series entering Saturday. One game after going 3-for-4 on the power play in a 3-2 win against the Tampa Bay Lightning on Thursday, the Predators failed to score on all six power-play chances. Nashville entered the game with the NHL's fifth-ranked power play, but Winnipeg owns the League's top-ranked penalty-killing unit on the road. The Jets entered killing 87.5 percent of opponent's chances away from home. Pavelec was Winnipeg's best penalty-killer Saturday. In the first period, he came across the crease to rob David Legwand's try on a rebound when the game was still scoreless. Legwand fell to the ice, clutching his helmet in disbelief. Trotz cited that as an important save early. Pavelec stopped Viktor Stalberg on a breakaway with 5:08 left in the second period, flashing his left pad to turn aside a wrist shot along the ice. Jets captain Andrew Ladd deflected Zach Bogosian's slap shot from the right side past Hutton to give the Jets a 2-0 lead with 1:41 left in the second. Predators forward Simon Moser scored his first NHL goal in his fifth career game with 10:49 left in regulation to pull Nashville within 2-1. Moser deflected a shot by defenseman Michael Del Zotto past Pavelec. But Pavelec preserved the lead with about five minutes left in regulation, stopping Mike Fisher on a 2-on-1. Jets forward Devin Setoguchi then pushed the margin to 3-1 with 3:52 left in regulation. Blake Wheeler used his speed to outflank Predators defenseman Shea Weber and put a shot on goal that Hutton stopped, but Setoguchi converted the rebound from close range. The Jets, Dallas Stars and Vancouver Canucks each have 66 points, though the Stars own the final wild-card berth in the Western Conference because they have two games in hand on the other two. Ladd said the Jets won't begin scoreboard-watching so early and he wants his team to find ways to continue to improve.
Carolina @ Los Angeles 1-3 - Jonathan Quick doesn't need much of a lead to close the door on the opponent. It's just that giving him that lead doesn't always come easy for the Los Angeles Kings. L.A. looked downright ugly on its first five power plays Saturday, but finally broke through on the sixth when Alec Martinez scored the tie-breaking goal 8:15 into the third period and went on to beat the Carolina Hurricanes 3-1. Dustin Brown's rebound came out to Martinez, who shot it past two Hurricanes screening goalie Anton Khudobin. Justin Williams scored an empty-net goal with 61 seconds left and Quick made 24 saves as the Kings, who lost eight of 10 before the 2014 Sochi Olympics, improved to 3-0-0 coming out of the break. The past two wins have been their type of game; Martinez said the tight Western Conference race facilitates their style of play late in the season, just as it did during the run to the Stanley Cup in 2012. It was the third win in four nights for the Kings. Coach Darryl Sutter is constantly preoccupied with getting his team rest, particularly Quick, and he said it helped that Quick was able to get through the Olympics and come back rested. Quick did not play in their first game back Wednesday. Carolina (26-25-9) is 0-3-0 since the Olympics and has fallen seven points behind the Detroit Red Wings, who own the final wild-card playoff berth in the Eastern Conference. The Hurricanes have scored four goals in the three losses and visit the Anaheim Ducks and San Jose Sharks before returning home to play the New York Rangers on Friday night. The Hurricanes killed seven penalties in their previous game, a 4-1 loss to the Dallas Stars, and coach Kirk Muller said his team can't keep filling the penalty box and expect to win. Carolina got a fortunate bounce to get a 1-1 tie after the first period. Andrej Sekera's put-it-on-net shot from the left point glanced off the stick of Kings defenseman Robyn Regehr and went past Quick at 19:45. It came 41 seconds after Mike Richards scored his second goal since before Thanksgiving, on a sharp angle wrist shot from the right circle that hit a Carolina player's stick and went in off the shoulder of Khudobin at 19:04. The Kings won a scrum down low to keep the puck in and it came out to Regehr to feed Richards, who last goal came Jan. 18. L.A. had opportunity for more goals early but its 27th-ranked power-play unit struggled with 8:21 minutes worth of power-play time in the first 40 minutes. Carolina defenseman Mike Komisarek was guilty of three minor penalties, but L.A. failed to put a shot on net during a 69-second 4-on-3 power play and had a total of two shots on three other advantages. The Hurricanes couldn't generate much, either. They got a 3-on-1 in the second but Quick kicked out Staal's shot. Quick also made a point-blank stop on Jeff Skinner in the third. The Hurricanes haven't scored a power-play goal in eight straight road games. Carolina forward Alexander Semin sat out with a lower-body injury sustained in Dallas. Muller said the medical staff will assess it Sunday and "see if we can get him in the lineup."

Toronto @ Montreal 3-4 OT - The one player most people figure the Montreal Canadiens cannot afford to lose to injury is goaltender Carey Price. Peter Budaj is proving that perhaps a Price injury is not as disastrous as most people believe. Budaj started his third straight game with Price out with a lower-body injury and has allowed the Canadiens to pick up five out of a possible six points after a 4-3 overtime win Saturday against the Toronto Maple Leafs. Max Pacioretty's second goal of the game, at 3:28 of overtime, gave Montreal the victory. Price has not played since winning the gold medal for Canada at the 2014 Sochi Olympics. Budaj lost 2-1 in overtime to the Detroit Red Wings and won 6-5 in a shootout at the Pittsburgh Penguins on Wednesday and Thursday. Starting three games in four nights would be difficult on any goaltender, but considering how seldom Budaj plays as the backup to one of the best goalies in the NHL, his performance under those circumstances becomes that much more impressive. Last season, Price was injured at the end of regulation in Game 4 of the Canadiens' first-round Stanley Cup Playoffs loss to the Ottawa Senators. Budaj started overtime of that game and allowed the winning goal 2:32 later before giving up six goals on 29 shots in Game 5. That was Budaj's 11th start of last season, and he said he feels this week may prevent a repeat performance should the situation present itself again. The win was as much about Pacioretty as it was about Budaj. After Toronto goaltender Jonathan Bernier was called for delay of game in overtime for freezing the puck to negate a potential Daniel Briere breakaway, Pacioretty took a no-look pass from Andrei Markov in the slot and beat Bernier high to score his 29th goal of the season. It was Markov's third assist of the game and Pacioretty's eighth shot on goal. And it was a rocket. But what Budaj finds so impressive about his teammate's ability to shoot is how quickly it leaves his stick, not the velocity. James van Riemsdyk scored twice, and Phil Kessel had one for the Maple Leafs, with their goals 2:15 apart early in the third period turning a 2-1 deficit into a 3-2 lead. Prior to the game, Toronto coach Randy Carlyle spoke about how important it would be for his team to remain disciplined, but it was something the Maple Leafs were unable to do with the Canadiens scoring the game-tying and game-winning goals on the power play. A penalty for interference by Toronto's Tim Gleason at 10:36 of the third period allowed Montreal to tie it on P.K. Subban's ninth goal of the season. The defenseman ended a 13-game drought with a one-timer from the point that beat Bernier to the blocker side 16 seconds later. The Maple Leafs were down 2-0 in the first period before they registered their first shot on goal. A turnover by Markov on a Canadiens power play opened the door for van Riemsdyk to tie the game on a breakaway at 5:28 of the third, then Kessel was allowed to get to the Montreal net unchecked to give Toronto a 3-2 lead at 7:43.

The tying goal was van Riemsdyk's second of the game, 26th of the season, giving him four goals and three assists in his past four games. Kessel's goal and assist gave him 13 goals and 18 assists in his past 17 games. The win allowed the Canadiens (34-21-7) to widen their gap on the Maple Leafs (32-22-8) to three points in the Atlantic Division. The Maple Leafs' first shot came at 14:38, when Jay McClement took an inoffensive attempt from the top of the faceoff circle, drawing mock cheers from the considerable number of Toronto fans in the Bell Centre crowd. By that point the Canadiens had nine shots on goal, and two of them had gone in. Alex Galchenyuk scored at 12:38 when he stopped a Markov shot in the high slot, spun and fired it toward Bernier. The shot hit the stick of Toronto defenseman Morgan Rielly and went in for Galchenyuk's 11th goal of the season. Montreal made it 2-0 1:24 later on a very similar play when Pacioretty got the puck in the high slot, spun, and took a backhand that got past a Brendan Gallagher screen and behind Bernier. Van Riemsdyk made it 2-1 at 17:34 when he tipped Kessel's shot from the side boards through his legs and past Budaj. The second period was mired in sloppy play with little action and fewer scoring chances, but the third period changed that almost immediately after it began. About 35 seconds in, Kessel was given a one-timer at the side of the net, but Budaj got across with a pad save to rob him of a sure goal. It was another example of how Budaj has helped the Canadiens get through a difficult stretch without their franchise goalie, and why they might feel a bit more confident in case it happens again.

Calgary @ Edmonton 2-1 OT - Sean Monahan continues to show that the Calgary Flames made the right choice. Monahan, the sixth player taken in the NHL Draft last June, scored his second goal of the game 1:50 into overtime to lift the Flames to a 2-1 win against the Edmonton Oilers at Rexall Place on Saturday night. Calgary's prized 19-year-old took a pass from Paul Byron in front of the net and slipped a shot through Oilers goaltender Ilya Bryzgalov to snap the Flames' two-game losing skid with his team-high 18th goal. Westgarth was injured in a fight with Edmonton's Luke Gazdic immediately after Monahan's goal at 10:15 of the first period. David Perron scored the lone goal for the Oilers, whose losing streak reached three games. Each team has been shut out eight times this season. The Oilers were less than 11 minutes away from a ninth shutout loss before Perron tied the game at 9:43 of the third by firing a shot over Berra's shoulder. The goal ended Edmonton's shutout streak at 160:47, the Oilers had not scored since Taylor Hall's goal at 11:30 of the first period of a 2-1 overtime loss to the New Jersey Devils on Feb. 7, prior to the Olympic break. One reason for Edmonton's offensive struggles is a power play that's 0-for-19 in its past six games. The Oilers were 0-for-2 Saturday. Eberle has been held scoreless in his past six games. Hall, the team's leading scorer, has a goal and an assist in that span. The loss dropped the Oilers five points behind the Flames at the bottom of the Western Conference standings. They continue a five-game homestand Tuesday against the Ottawa Senators. The Flames visit the Minnesota Wild on Monday.