Pittsburgh Penguins @ Washington Crapitals 4-3 - 02/25

The Pittsburgh Penguins lost their first three games against the Washington Capitals this season by a combined 10-1. Another regulation loss would have left the Penguins without a point in a season series with the Capitals for the first time ever. Pittsburgh finally found its offense against Washington, avoiding the sweep with a 4-3 victory at Verizon Center on Wednesday. Patric Hornqvist, Brandon Sutter, Sidney Crosby and Chris Kunitz scored for the Penguins (35-17-9). Evgeni Malkin had three assists, and goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury made 21 saves. Pittsburgh and Washington each finished 1-for-6 on the power play.
John Carlson, Troy Brouwer and Alex Ovechkin scored for Washington (33-19-10), which is three points behind Pittsburgh in the Metropolitan Division. Goaltender Braden Holtby made 22 saves. The Penguins controlled play early, capitalizing on the Capitals' sloppy play. A Washington turnover led to a Kunitz breakaway, but Holtby snagged the Pittsburgh forward's backhand shot with his glove 42 seconds into the game. Before the Capitals' first shot on goal, the Penguins took a 1-0 lead at 7:04 on Hornqvist's 19th goal. As Malkin entered the zone, he left a drop pass for Hornqvist, who beat Holtby with a wrist shot from the right circle. The Capitals had three power-play opportunities in the first period, but failed to score despite several near-misses. As the third power play was about to expire, Sutter scored a shorthanded goal at 18:33, racing after Washington defenseman Matt Niskanen's errant pass and beating Holtby with a backhand. With 8.6 seconds remaining in the period, Carlson cut Washington's deficit to 2-1, firing a slap shot past Fleury. The Capitals took three penalties in the first 3:25 of the second period. Crosby scored on the power play at 3:16 with Washington forward Brooks Laich off for tripping. The Pittsburgh captain's 20th goal made it 3-1. In all, the Capitals gave the Penguins six power-play chances during the period, the most they've allowed in one period since Oct. 6, 2009, according to Elias Sports Bureau. After Fleury stopped Brouwer's tip-in chance on a pass from Jason Chimera, Brouwer batted his own rebound at 4:09 of the third period to make it 3-2. Kunitz responded at 7:12, boxing out Evgeny Kuznetsov, whose neutral-zone turnover started the play, and scoring on Blake Comeau's rebound to restore the Penguins' two-goal lead. Ovechkin beat Fleury on the power play at 16:26 for his NHL-leading 39th goal. Washington's attempt to tie the game with Holtby pulled in favor of an extra attacker was unsuccessful. Washington visits the Carolina Hurricanes on Friday. Pittsburgh hosts the Columbus Blue Jackets on Sunday.

Pens Quotes

Mike Johnston: "I thought early in the series against them we had a lot of new people in the lineup. The last game (a 3-1 loss Feb. 17) was probably our best game against them, and then tonight we notched it up. To our credit, Washington ran around quite a bit, tried to get hits, tried to play outside their game. We just stuck to the way we needed to play. It was a good hockey game. A lot of emotion in the game. When you're entering the stretch run, getting that extra one or two power plays a game is very important. But I thought early in the game one thing we did well was they got three power plays in a row, and it didn't rattle our group. We just killed the penalties. We hung in there. We stuck with it, and you know eventually over time you're going to get a power-play chance."
Sidney Crosby: "We just needed to play better. I don't think we really put together a solid game against them up to this point. Kind of a weird game tonight with the power plays kind of switching back and forth first couple of periods. Good to get a win, score some goals and hopefully build off it."
Evgeni Malkin: "Of course because we know how good Washington [is], one of the most dangerous teams in the League. We lost the last three games, and this was chance to beat them tonight. We have more confidence right now."

Penalties

1st Period
08:13 WSH	Michael Latta  Roughing against  Blake Comeau
08:13 WSH	Tom Wilson  Roughing against  Steve Downie
08:13 PIT	Steve Downie  Roughing against  Tom Wilson
08:13 PIT	Blake Comeau  Roughing against  Michael Latta
11:47 PIT	Chris Kunitz  Hooking against  Karl Alzner
14:02 PIT	Kris Letang  Hooking against  Joel Ward
16:52 PIT	Sidney Crosby  Holding against  Tom Wilson
2nd Period
00:34 WSH	Joel Ward  Slashing against  Patric Hornqvist
02:44 WSH	Brooks Laich  Tripping against  Derrick Pouliot
03:25 WSH	Cameron Schilling  Interference against  Craig Adams
07:12 WSH	Jason Chimera  Holding against  Steve Downie
09:29 PIT	Paul Martin  Cross checking against  Brooks Laich
12:42 WSH	Tom Wilson  Cross checking against  Christian Ehrhoff
12:42 PIT	Rob Scuderi  Roughing against  Tom Wilson
12:42 WSH	Tom Wilson  Roughing against  Christian Ehrhoff
15:55 WSH	Cameron Schilling  Hooking against  Brandon Sutter
19:02 PIT	Blake Comeau  Slashing against  Alex Ovechkin
3rd Period
16:22 PIT	Marc-Andre Fleury  Roughing against  Joel Ward

NHL Results - Wed, Feb 25, 2015

Calgary @ New Jersey 3-1 - Cammalleri gave the Devils a 1-0 lead on a backhand from the slot that beat Ramo between the pads at 17:03. Brodie lost the puck in the neutral zone, giving Jordin Tootoo and Cammalleri on a 2-on-1. Less than two minutes earlier, Schneider stopped Jiri Hudler on a breakaway. The Flames pulled into a 1-1 tie with 13.5 seconds remaining in the second when Glencross, who has been the subject of trade rumors, scored his first goal in 14 games on a backhand off great pass from Joe Colborne. Monahan scored his Flames-leading 21st goal to give Calgary its first lead 35 seconds into the third period on a power play. Giordano took a shot from the right circle that deflected off Monahan's stick in the slot. Monahan, 20, is the first Flames player to have consecutive 20-goal seasons to begin his NHL career since Sergei Makarov in 1989-90 and 1990-91. Makarov was 32 in 1991. Ramo made his best stop against Tuomo Ruutu off a shot from the left hash at 11:17 with the Flames holding a 2-1 lead. TJ Brodie added an empty net goal with 50 seconds remaining. The Flames received a scare at the end of the game when captain Mark Giordano, who scored his 48th point on an assist, appeared to sustain an injury in the final seconds after getting tangled in the stick of Devils forward Steve Bernier.

Ottawa @ Anaheim 3-0 - Ryan Kesler had a chance to give the Ducks the lead 9:35 into the game, but Hammond robbed him at the right post. Ottawa then took the lead for good less than 90 seconds later when Eric Gryba stepped into a slap shot at the right point that hit Condra's leg and deflected into the net at 10:57. It was Condra's seventh goal and extended his point streak to five games. Zibanejad got to the front of the net and made it 2-0 for the Senators at 3:23 of the second period. He got position on Kesler in front and popped in the rebound of Mike Hoffman's bad-angled shot from the left circle for his 15th goal. Hammond made perhaps his best stop of the night 7:20 into the third period when he got his left pad on Corey Perry's wide-open shot from well inside the right circle. He also stopped Hampus Lindholm from the slot and made a left-pad save on Andrew Cogliano's rebound attempt with eight minutes remaining. Turris hit the empty net with 6.4 seconds remaining. Jiri Sekac, acquired by the Ducks in a trade with the Montreal Canadiens on Tuesday, made his debut with Anaheim. He had one shot on goal and was minus-1 in 14:35. Linesman Steve Miller left the game at 14:25 of the first period after being hit in the face with a stick after a faceoff. The game continued with three officials until Miller returned for the start of the third period.

Dallas Stars @ Winnipeg Jets 2-4 - 02/24

The Dallas Stars needed a win against the Winnipeg Jets on Tuesday to boost their fading Stanley Cup Playoff hopes. The Jets needed two points to provide them some breathing room from the streaking Minnesota Wild. Goals from Adam Lowry and Dustin Byfuglien and Michael Frolik broke open what had been a tie game and gave Winnipeg a 4-2 win at MTS Centre. The victory pushed the Jets 10 points ahead of the Stars in the Western Conference standings. The Jets, who had lost two in a row, moved four points ahead of Minnesota for the first wild-card spot in the postseason race. The win started a four-game homestand for the Jets, who host the St. Louis Blues on Thursday. Dallas has lost four consecutive games (0-3-1) and remains six points behind the Wild for the second wild card. Minnesota has a game in hand on Dallas. Bryan Little scored a first-period power-play goal for the Jets (31-20-11) before Erik Cole tied the game in the second period for the Stars (27-25-9). Jason Demers had a late goal for Dallas. Jhonas Enroth made 21 saves after he returned from allowing all six third-period goals at Minnesota. Winnipeg's Michael Hutchinson had 26 saves and held the Jets in the game in the second period when Dallas controlled the tempo. Jets coach Paul Maurice began the game with two more key injuries in their lineup. Right wing Blake Wheeler's consecutive-games played streak ended at 226 games because of a lower-body injury. Defenseman Ben Chiarot had surgery on Sunday after injuring himself in a fight during a game against the Toronto Maple Leafs last Saturday. The Stars came to Winnipeg with a three-game losing streak and fresh off a 6-2 road loss against Minnesota on Sunday in which they surrendered six goals in the third period. In three of their past four games, the Stars have lost games against Winnipeg, Minnesota and the San Jose Sharks, three teams they're chasing for a wild-card spot. Another issue is that Dallas is 5-12-6 against Central Division opponents this season. The Stars have picked up one win in their past five games against the Central (1-3-1). Ruff said goaltender Kari Lehtonen, who has played in 50 of the Stars' 62 games this season, had "a little issue, a medical issue" in explaining decision to give Enroth his second consecutive start. Winnipeg put Dallas in a 1-0 hole 5:05 into the game after Spezza took an offensive-zone penalty. Little scored his team-leading 24th goal with a left-side shot that snuck past Enroth. The Jets are 7-for-23 on the power play in their past six games. Little leads the Jets with 50 points and has six goals in his past 11 games. But the Stars began to take over the game in the second period. Dallas had outshot Winnipeg 8-0 when Cole tied it. Spezza moved the puck to the slot before sending a pass that Cole put past Hutchinson at 12:00 for his third goal in the past four games. However, Lowry regained Winnipeg's lead 2:26 later when he drove to the net and slipped his rebound over Enroth's right shoulder for his seventh goal. Lowry's two shots were Winnipeg's first of the second period. The goal was Lowry's first in 12 games dating to Jan. 27. The Stars held the Jets without a shot for 14:45 before Lowry’s goal. Byfuglien's 15th goal off a breakaway 5:10 into the third period provided Winnipeg some insurance and made it 3-1. Frolik scored an empty-net goal with 3:06 remaining, his 13th of the season. Frolik replaced Wheeler on the Jets' top line with Little and left wing Andrew Ladd and led all forwards with 21:24 of ice time. The Stars begin a three-game homestand Friday against another Central Division opponent, the Colorado Avalanche. Each team has 63 points. Reversing their struggles against the Central Division will be critical for the Stars if they are to revive their playoff chances. Maurice received a strong rebound performance from Hutchinson, one of two rookies the coach is beginning to hand a heavier workload. The 24-year-old goaltender had allowed four goals in each of his past three starts. Another rookie, Lowry, played 17:50, and Maurice will depend on him to play a key third-line center role as the Jets continue their playoff pursuit.

Stars Quotes

Lindy Ruff: "That's tough in a playoff race. No doubt, that's a hard one to swallow because we need points. We're desperate for points. We could have gotten points tonight the same as we could have gotten points in Minnesota. It's like Groundhog Day. It's the same story. We dominated play. We had some point-blank [chances] that if you don't take advantage of that, you know you're going to make a mistake here or there, and we made a mistake. You've got to give them credit. When we made [a] mistake, they take took advantage of it. That was the counterpunch that hurt us."
Erik Cole: "It's a tough division, that's for sure. It's a tough game every night. Our struggles started early in the [season]. We had some pushes here and there, but we haven't been able to put together the [run] that we've needed."

Montreal Canadiens @ St Louis Blues 5-2 - 02/24

Alex Galchenyuk scored two goals and had an assist in his return to the lineup in the Montreal Canadiens' 5-2 victory against the St. Louis Blues at Scottrade Center on Tuesday. Galchenyuk, who missed the past two games because of the flu, had his first three-point game since his hat trick Dec. 16 against the Carolina Hurricanes. Carey Price made 27 saves in his ninth consecutive road victory, passing Rogie Vachon for the Canadiens record. Brendan Gallagher scored twice, and Michael Bournival had a goal for the Canadiens (39-16-5, 83 points), who won in St. Louis in regulation for the first time since March 10, 2007. P.K. Subban and Andrei Markov each had two assists. The Canadiens are one point ahead of the New York Islanders for the top spot in the Eastern Conference with two games in hand. Price leads the NHL in goals-against average (1.91) and is second to Pekka Rinne of the Nashville Predators in wins (34). He has allowed more than two goals once in the past 15 games. T.J. Oshie had a goal and an assist, David Backes scored, and Jake Allen made 18 saves for the Blues (38-18-4, 80 points), who went 1-3-0 on their four-game homestand. St. Louis fell nine points behind the Nashville Predators in the Central Division and lead the third-place Chicago Blackhawks by three points.
The Blues are 4-5-0 in the past nine games, and the comments from coach Ken Hitchcock reflected the way they have been playing. Galchenyuk gave the Canadiens a 1-0 lead when he deflected Subban's shot from the right point past Allen with 6:38 remaining in the first period. The Blues, who have been outscored 11-3 in the first period over their past 11 games, have allowed the first goal in eight straight home games. They failed to score in the first period in seven of those games and have gone nine straight home games without a lead after one period. Galchenyuk put Montreal ahead 2-0 when he took Tomas Plekanec's faceoff win and beat Allen on the short side with a wrist shot from a sharp angle 3:11 into the second. It was his 18th goal. Backes cut Montreal's lead in half when he took Vladimir Tarasenko's pass in the slot and redirected the puck past Price 6:01 into the second for his 20th goal. But the Canadiens scored two goals in 49 seconds to go up 4-1. Gallagher made it 3-1 when he took a snap shot that beat Allen with 4:11 left in the second off a 2-on-1 after Tarasenko's blind drop pass in the offensive zone was behind Jay Bouwmeester. Bournival. who was serving a penalty for roughing, came out of the box, took a pass from Galchenyuk and beat Allen upstairs on a breakaway with 3:22 left in the second. Oshie's shot from the blue line got through traffic and past Price at 17:45 of the second after hitting a Canadiens defenseman out high. Oshie's 17th goal made it 4-2. Gallagher scored his second of the game, 17th of the season, on Montreal's second power play of the game at 15:47 of the third period to make it 5-2.

Blues Quotes

Ken Hitchcock: "What we're doing is not paying any respect to checking. We're not paying any respect to defense, to managing the puck, to managing the proper way to playing. I don't care what the shots on goal are. When you give up as many odd-man rushes as we gave up in the last two games, we're showing no respect for what matters in the National Hockey League at this time.
And in the offensive zone, the sense of urgency that we're not playing with, that we've played with all year, is not there. That's why we don't score, that's why we don't get second and third chances, that's why we don't win the front-of-the-net battles. Those combinations are lethal the wrong way. You have no control over the hockey game because of the scoring chances you give up off these odd-man rushes. You work your way back in the game like we did today and give up the chances on casual puck play that we're giving up ... we're a team that's made a very good ... a lot great inroads on playing a certain way, and now we don't want to play that way, and we're not interested in playing the way that's been successful here. We want to play a different way right now, and it's really, really hurting us."

NHL Results - Tue, Feb 24, 2015

Vancouver @ Boston 2-1 - Kassian scored 6:47 into the third period to give the Canucks the lead and Lack made 40 saves in his first start since Ryan Miller’s injury. Kassian scored on a one-timer from the top of the right circle after Daniel Sedin’s pass deflected across the ice and off the right sideboards. Daniel Paille returned to the Bruins’ lineup after being a healthy scratch the past two games and scored his first goal in 37 games 1:05 into the first period. Paille retrieved a rebound in front of Lack and sent a backhand shot past him from the slot to give Boston a 1-0 lead. But the Bruins failed to solve Lack the rest of the game. The Canucks answered Paille’s goal after a Jannik Hansen end-to-end rush later in the first period. Hansen set up defenseman Ryan Stanton for a one-timer from the top of left circle that got past Rask at 3:28 and tied the score 1-1.
Phoenix @ NY Islanders 1-5 - Matt Martin and Johnny Boychuk scored 57 seconds apart early in the third that sparked the Islanders to a 5-1 victory. Martin broke a 1-1 tie at 3:18 off a broken play. A good forecheck by New York's fourth line freed the puck. It came into the left circle, and Martin quickly sent a high shot past goaltender Mike Smith for his eighth goal of the season. Boychuk made it 3-1 when he drifted into the high slot, took a pass from John Tavares and beat Smith with a slap shot for his seventh. Kael Mouillierat, a 27-year-old rookie playing in his third NHL game, scored his first goal at 7:16 when he took a passout from Colin McDonald and quickly shot it past Smith from the slot. Brock Nelson capped the outburst when he batted a rebound past Smith at 9:10 for his 17th of the season and New York's fourth goal in a span of 5:52. New York went ahead 37 seconds into the second period. Travis Hamonic raced down the right side and threw a hard pass toward the slot, where Anders Lee was unchecked. He stopped the puck with his skate, turned and sent a backhand shot past Smith for his 20th goal of the season. Phoenix tied the game at 15:52, taking advantage of David Moss' takeaway from Tavares in the Coyotes zone. Moss sent the Coyotes up ice 3-on-2, and Martin Erat set up Arcobello for a one-timer from the top of the left circle that went past Boychuk's attempted block and beat Johnson to the short side.
Calgary @ NY Rangers 0-1 - Kevin Hayes scored three minutes into the third period and Cam Talbot made 21 saves to lift the Rangers to a 1-0 victory at Madison Square Garden. Hayes is normally New York's third-line center but was playing on the first line with Derick Brassard and Mats Zuccarello with Nash out of the lineup because of neck spasms.

Philadelphia @ Carolina 1-4 - The Hurricanes took advantage of their first power play for a 1-0 first-period lead. After peppering goalie Rob Zepp with a handful of shots, Justin Faulk scored on a high, short-side shot from the right circle at 7:29. Faulk later had an assist, giving him a Hurricanes-high 38 points. Philadelphia tied the game 1-1 when Jakub Voracek circled the net, outworked three Carolina defenders and left a backhand pass for Nicklas Grossmann, who scored his fourth of the season on a wrist shot at 17:46. Jeff Skinner made it 2-1 at 2:16 of the second period when Semin threaded a pass through four Philadelphia defenders. Skinner, driving the net, received the pass on the forehand and quickly sent it past Zepp for his fifth goal in seven games. The Hurricanes scored again on the power play after Chris VandeVelde tripped Michal Jordan in the Carolina defensive zone. Faulk hit Semin with a pass at the top of the crease, and after Zepp stopped him point-blank, Jordan Staal scored on the rebound at 15:55 of the second. Malone gathered a loose puck behind the net and fed Jay McClement in front for his fourth goal of the season with 5:23 remaining in the third period.
Buffalo @ Columbus 4-2 - Zemgus Girgensons had a goal and an assist before leaving midway through the game after a slap shot from James Wisniewski hit him on the right ankle. Nolan fears it could be a long-term injury. Hodgson scored his third goal, first in 28 games, with a soft backhander from the left wall. Forsberg had a clean look, but the puck glanced off his glove, then his body before going into the net at 9:30. Shortly thereafter, the Blue Jackets were on the power play when Wisniewski tried to knock a pass down at the blue line with a high stick. The puck traveled to the other end and Cody Goloubef elected not to touch it to avoid a whistle. Girgensons came in and took the puck. Forsberg came out of the net, but Girgensons went around him to score his 15th goal at 14:42. The Blue Jackets cut the deficit in half 1:18 into the second period when Calvert one-timed a blind pass from Brandon Dubinsky for his 10th goal. The Sabres responded 42 seconds later to take a 3-1 lead when Pysyk scored his second of the season with a slap shot from near the blue line that deflected off Calvert. Stewart scored his 10th goal to give Buffalo a 4-1 lead at 4:30 during a 5-on-3 when he beat Forsberg near-side from the left dot. Connauton scored at 7:42 of the second to make it 4-2 but that was it and the Sabres preserved rare advantage.
Colorado @ Nashville 2-5 - Colorado took a 1-0 lead at 3:57 of the first period on a shot by Nathan MacKinnon that went off of Roman Josi's skate and past Rinne. The goal was MacKinnon's 13th of the season and his fourth in the past two games. Calle Jarnkrok tied the game 15 seconds later when he converted on a breakaway past Colorado goaltender Semyon Varlamov. Jarnkrok made a backhand-to-forehand move and placed the puck past Varlamov for his sixth goal of the season. Smith gave Nashville a 2-1 lead at 4:32 of the second period on a slap shot from the top of the right faceoff circle. Smith took a shot that cleanly beat Varlamov for his 19th goal and fifth in the past six games. Josi gave the Predators a 3-1 lead at 11:06 of the second period on a wrist shot from the point. Josi's shot found its way through traffic and past Varlamov, who never saw the puck. The goal was Josi's 11th of the season. Filip Forsberg gave Nashville a 4-1 lead 54 seconds into the third period on a turnaround slap shot off of an offensive zone faceoff win by Mike Ribeiro. Forsberg kicked the puck on his stick and beat Varlamov on the stick side for his 21st goal. Eric Nystrom made it 5-1 with a shorthanded goal at 8:28 of the third period when he cleared the puck down the ice into an empty net. Colorado pulled goaltender Reto Berra, who came in the game to relieve Varlamov, and Nystrom cleared the puck into the net for his seventh goal of the season. John Mitchell made it 5-2 with 1:19 remaining in the third period on a one-timer from the slot on the power play. Mitchell's shot trickled through Rinne's pads for his seventh goal. Weber spent 17 minutes in the penalty box after jumping to Josi's defense when he was hit by Avalanche forward Gabriel Landeskog in the corner.
Edmonton @ Minnesota 2-1 - The Oilers went ahead 1-0 at 11:12, taking advantage of a Wild turnover at their blue line. Oscar Klefbom kept the puck in the zone and tipped it to Pouliot in the high slot. Pouliot moved the puck to the right circle to Jordan Eberle, who quickly returned it to Pouliot at the top of the crease for a tap-in past goalie Devan Dubnyk. Minnesota tied the score at 1-1 when Thomas Vanek scored at 15:14 on a shot from the top of the crease after a pass from Jordan Schroeder from behind the net. Edmonton regained the lead less than a minute later when Pouliot and Eberle worked another pretty give-and-go passing play. After a clean zone entry by Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, the Oilers center passed to Pouliot near the left point. Pouliot moved the puck to Eberle at the left circle and followed Eberle toward the front of the net. Eberle drew coverages from two Wild players before passing back to Pouliot, who snapped a shot past Dubnyk from the left hash at 15:46 to make it 2-1. Before the game, the Wild acquired forward Sean Bergenheim and a seventh-round pick at the 2016 NHL Draft from the Florida Panthers in exchange for a third-round pick in 2016. Bergenheim is expected to meet the Wild in Nashville, and Yeo said he will likely make his debut Thursday. Florida general manager Dale Tallon said the deal was made at Bergenheim's request.
Florida @ Chicago 2-3 SO - Patrick Kane's upper-body injury overshadowed the Blackhawks' hard-earned 3-2 shootout win. Kane, whose 64 points are tied for the NHL lead, was injured at 7:49 of the first period when he was cross-checked by Panthers defenseman Alex Petrovic, lost his balance and fell hard into the boards in the Florida end. Kane's left shoulder and arm appeared to take the brunt of the impact. The Blackhawks called it an upper-body injury. Kane leads the Blackhawks with 27 goals and 37 assists in 61 games. Recently, he's been double-shifting at times to help make up for a lack of production from the bottom two lines. Jussi Jokinen scored at 12:23 of the third to make it 2-1.

Darling had to make a few high-quality saves with time running out in overtime to force the shootout, in which he denied Trocheck and Nick Bjugstad. Chicago got goals from captain Jonathan Toews and left wing Patrick Sharp in the first two rounds of the tiebreaker. Toews opened the scoring at 9:25 of the first period by scoring on the power play that followed Petrovic's cross-checking penalty on Kane. Versteeg's 13th goal made it 2-0 at 14:28 of the second. It was his fourth goal in seven games since returning from a broken left hand. Sharp assisted on Versteeg's goal for his 500th point with the Blackhawks. Kane's injury dominated the talk inside the Blackhawks locker room. Versteeg said it will be disappointing if Kane has to miss extended time. He recalled a conversation the two of them had in which Kane expressed disappointment with the start to his season.
Detroit @ Los Angeles 0-1 - Justin Williams scored his 16th goal 2:24 into the game when he tipped a point shot by Jake Muzzin while Drew Miller was serving a holding penalty. The Kings were 1-for-17 on the power play in their previous seven games, and that one goal was scored on an empty net. Marian Gaborik hit the post in a first period largely controlled by the Kings, who did not allow a shot in the opening six minutes. Former Kings forward Tony Granato was honored before the game.

NHL Results - Mon, Feb 23, 2015

Phoenix @ New Jersey 0-3 - Scott Gomez scored a goal to move into fifth place on the Devils all-time list with 473 points and Mike Cammalleri scored twice, including an empty-net goal with 1:48 left. Coyotes coach Dave Tippett pulled goaltender Mike Smith with 2:08 remaining for the extra attacker, but Cammalleri scored his second of the game 20 seconds later to seal the win. Cammalleri gave the Devils a 2-0 lead off a breakaway 1:41 into the third to give the Devils a 2-0 lead. After taking a bank pass from Jordin Tootoo, Cammalleri skated down the middle of the ice with Connor Murphy in hot pursuit. Cammalleri went forehand-to-backhand and tucked the puck over Smith's glove inside the right post. Smith made 25 saves. Gomez, signed as a free agent by the Devils on Dec. 1, scored his fifth goal of the season off a backhand at the right post 12:33 into the game to move into fifth place on the Devils all-time scoring list. He now trails Scott Niedermayer (476 points) by three points for fourth place.
Detroit @ Anaheim 3-4 SO - A sellout crowd featured a typically-large turnout of Red Wings fans, and Teemu Selanne's presence seemingly helped turn the game for the Ducks. Corey Perry and Jakob Silfverberg scored and goalie John Gibson saved two of three attempts in the shootout to give the Anaheim a 4-3 win against Detroit to complete a comeback from 2-0 down in the third period.
Anaheim scored three goals in a 3:40 span of the third, a sequence that began right after Selanne, the Ducks' all-time leading scorer, was shown in attendance on the video board. Perry scored five-hole on Red Wings goalie Jimmy Howard and Silfverberg scored his NHL-leading ninth shootout goal this season with a snap shot. Gibson denied Pavel Datsyuk and Tomas Tatar, who missed the net, to end the game. It was Gibson's first career shootout win for the Ducks, who are 26-0-7 in one-goal games. Riley Sheahan tied it 3-3 for the Red Wings when he converted a rush with Gustav Nyquist at 16:09 of the third. It swung the momentum after Anaheim erased a two-goal deficit with fewer than 11 minutes remaining on goals by Cogliano, Emerson Etem and Beauchemin. Beauchemin shot a loose puck from the right side through traffic at 12:57 to give Anaheim a 3-2 lead. Cogliano whacked in Hampus Lindholm's rebound from the slot at 9:17, and Etem tapped the puck five-hole on Howard at 11:27. Detroit was on its way to a big win in its first game without injured leading scorer Henrik Zetterberg.

Datsyuk scored his 20th and 21st goals in a 1:56 span of the second and Howard looked solid until Anaheim put Detroit under duress in the third after it chased most of the game shorthanded. Datsyuk executed a delayed backhand past Gibson on a power play at 6:50 of the second. Datsyuk freely skated alone to the front of the net and took a pass from Justin Abdelkader seconds into Patrick Maroon's holding penalty. Datsyuk's first goal was just as impressive. He grabbed Clayton Stoner's clearing attempt and beat Gibson high with a snap shot inside the right post at 3:54. The goal clinched Datsyuk's eighth 20-goal season, and his two goals tied him with Slava Kozlov for fifth on the all-time Russian points list at 853.

Dallas Stars @ Minnesota Wild 2-6 - 02/22

Trailing by one after two periods, the Minnesota Wild looked like the team playing the second half of back-to-back games. A six-goal outburst in the third period changed that, and the Wild won 6-2 against the Dallas Stars at Xcel Energy Center on Sunday. Minnesota (31-21-7) has won three straight games and moved into the second wild-card position in the Western Conference for the Stanley Cup Playoffs. The Wild are 11-1-1 since the All-Star break. The six-goal third is a Wild record for one period. Dallas (27-24-9), which lost 7-6 in overtime to the Detroit Red Wings on Saturday, has allowed 10 goals in its past two third periods. The Stars are six points behind the Wild, and they have played one more game than Minnesota. Through two periods, many of Minnesota's 20 shots on goal had come from the perimeter. The Wild had hoped to jump on loose pucks, but they were unable to win those battles until the third, when the Stars defensemen began to wear down. That's when Minnesota pounced. Zach Parise tied the game at 1-1 at the 1:40 mark, standing at the back door and finishing off a backhand feed from defenseman Christian Folin from the left corner. Less than two minutes later, Mikko Koivu's shot from a bad angle below the left circle beat Jhonas Enroth five-hole to give the Wild the lead.
Stephane Veilleux shoveled in a loose puck after a Marco Scandella shot from the point hit traffic in front at 8:41, and Matt Dumba made it 4-1 with a power-play goal from the right faceoff dot at 13:25. Mikael Granlund took a stretch pass from defenseman Nate Prosser and scored on a breakaway at 14:33 to make it 5-1. Enroth denied Granlund on a breakaway chance earlier in the third.
Parise's second of the night came at 17:52 and made it 6-1. His 25 goals lead the Wild. Koivu took back-to-back penalties in the second period, and the Stars took advantage on the second one, a delay of game call for shooting the puck over the glass at 13:45. Jason Spezza ripped a slap shot from the right circle, beating Wild goalie Devan Dubnyk glove side at 14:33. Spezza also scored the final goal of the game with 1:43 remaining, beating Dubnyk five-hole on a short break for his 14th goal. Spezza's power-play goal was the first allowed by Minnesota since Jan. 20, a span of 32 man-advantages, two shy of the Wild record of 34. Dubnyk made 18 saves for his 22nd win this season. He's 13-2-1 with a 1.64 goals-against average and a .936 save percentage since being acquired from the Phoenix Coyotes on Jan. 14. Enroth made 29 saves. In three starts against the Wild this season, including two with the Buffalo Sabres, he's allowed 18 goals. Dallas will wrap up a stretch of three games in four nights Tuesday with another important Central Division game against the Winnipeg Jets at MTS Centre. The Wild will host the Edmonton Oilers on Tuesday before road games against the Colorado Avalanche and Nashville Predators later in the week.

Stars Quotes

Lindy Ruff: "It was embarrassing. We lost some battles, their determination was better than ours, and it led to goals. We had four guys in front of our net on one goal. That just can't happen."
Jamie Benn: "A back-to-back is no excuse. You got a 1-0 lead after two periods and come out in the third and lay an egg and give up six goals. It's embarrassing. We let our goalie ... we left him hanging tonight when he played a good game."

Florida Panthers @ Pittsburgh Penguins 1-5 - 02/22

Evgeni Malkin and Patric Hornqvist each scored twice for the Pittsburgh Penguins in a 5-1 win against the Florida Panthers at Consol Energy Center on Sunday. The Penguins were outplayed through two periods, but led 2-0. Defenseman Paul Martin scored Pittsburgh’s third goal 19 seconds into the third and put the game out of reach. Sidney Crosby held the puck alone near the right boards and sent a cross-ice pass to Martin in the left faceoff circle. Martin placed a wrist shot through traffic and over Panthers goalie Al Montoya's glove to push Pittsburgh's lead to 3-0. With two wins in as many days, the Penguins (34-17-9) surpassed the Washington Capitals in the Metropolitan Division and are three points behind the division-leading New York Islanders. Florida (26-21-12), which lost twice in as many days, fell three points back of the Boston Bruins for the second wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference. Upshall scored the Panthers' lone goal with 7:37 remaining. Pittsburgh began the season scoring a bulk of its goals from in or around the opposing crease, but hasn't executed that plan for a few months. The past two nights, the Penguins have shown glimpses of re-establishing their net-front presence. After scoring a few dirty goals in a 4-1 win against the St. Louis Blues on Saturday, including a power-play goal from Hornqvist, Pittsburgh benefited from Hornqvist's tendency to cycle toward the net again on Sunday. Hornqvist's second goal came on a power play, 3:53 into the third. Crosby backhanded a pass from behind the Panthers net to Hornqvist skating past the crease. Hornqvist whacked at the puck twice, making contact on his backhand with the second attempt, to give the Penguins a 4-0 lead. Malkin scored his second goal of the game to extend the lead to 5-0, 9:06 into the third. Penguins Defenseman Kris Letang set up Hornqivst's first goal in a similar fashion to how Crosby assisted his second. Letang pressured Panthers forward Tomas Kopecky and pushed him off of the puck before gaining possession and carrying it below the goal line. Letang slid a pass back into the Florida crease, with Hornqvist darting in, and he tipped a shot over Montoya for a 1-0 Penguins lead, 9:18 into the first period. The Panthers took a 16-8 shot advantage into the first intermission, but faced a one-goal deficit. Florida also carried the play throughout the second period, but again allowed the period's only goal. Malkin scored off of a Panthers turnover to give Pittsburgh a 2-0 lead entering the third period. Panthers defenseman Erik Gudbranson passed the puck to center ice, where forward Jussi Jokinen was waiting along the boards. Jokinen tipped the puck back toward his own end, but to Malkin, who charged into the Panthers zone before backhanding a shot through Montoya's five-hole with 26.6 seconds remaining in the second. Florida's best chances came from Brian Campbell and Jimmy Hayes a few minutes past the period’s midpoint. Marc-Andre Fleury shrugged away a wrist shot from Campbell with 7:51 left in the second, but allowed a rebound for Hayes to collect. Fleury stopped Hayes' wrist shot seven seconds after Campbell's, and lost his balance while allowing a second rebound.
Hayes gathered his own rebound with Fleury stumbling his in his crease, but sent a shot a few inches wide of the net. Fleury, who made 34 saves, has allowed seven goals in his past seven starts.

Pens Quotes

Mike Johnston: "Bits and pieces of tonight's game, I liked. I thought actually Florida had a lot of jump. Both teams arrived late last night. It’s a really tough back-to-back, them coming in from Ottawa and us coming over from St. Louis is almost the same flight arriving early in the morning on a back-to-back. I thought they had their legs early. I thought we got our legs later. They're a good young team, but really when you look at the game, what I liked about the game was our goals against, certainly. And we started to score. Our power play started to look dangerous. Those are positive signs."
Evgeni Malkin: "It's not that we need to relax on the ice. It's that we need to relax in the locker room. There's a lot of pressure on us. It's the media and everyone. We know how good we are. … We focus and play all 60 minutes and we played really well."
Marc-Andre Fleury: "I felt pretty good. I faced a few shots at the beginning, so it was good to get into it and it felt pretty good. … They're a team that's battling to make the playoffs every night and they need to come out hard, and they did. For me, I just tried to keep the team in the game, keep the game close and we got some big goals after that, so I could relax a little bit."

NHL Results - Sun, Feb 22, 2015

Washington @ Philadelphia 2-3 - Michael Del Zotto scored with 4:13 remaining to lift the Flyers to a 3-2 win. Del Zotto's goal broke a 2-2 tie, but it was their penalty killing that sealed the victory. The Flyers killed off all five Capitals power plays, none bigger than one over the final 57.2 seconds after Nick Schultz was called for delay of game for shooting the puck over the glass. The Capitals' best chance came early in the man-advantage when Alex Ovechkin, the NHL's leading goal-scorer, was set up for a one-timer on the left side. But Flyers defenseman Braydon Coburn stepped into the line of fire and blocked the shot. Del Zotto's goal came after the Capitals had rallied from a 2-0 deficit early in the second. Wilson finished a cross-ice feed from John Carlson to get Washington on the board at 5:23 of the second, then Ward knocked a bouncing puck off the Flyers' Zac Rinaldo and past Zepp to the short side, over his blocker, at 15:22 of the period. Giroux's power-play goal at 4:39 of the first ended an 11-game drought and gave Philadelphia an early lead, and then Simmonds' power-play goal at 1:34 of the second, his 24th of the season, made it 2-0.
Boston @ Chicago 6-2 - Bruins goalie Tuukka Rask slammed his goal stick against the left post when Jonathan Toews scored a power-play goal with 1.4 seconds remaining in the first. Rask’s anger stemmed from his own delay-of-game penalty for playing the puck outside the trapezoid behind the net, which preceded the goal. His stick clipped the elbow of Chicago forward Kris Versteeg on its way to the post, which prompted another penalty for slashing. Bryan Bickell scored the lone goal of the third period at 14:18 to complete the scoring. The Bruins had already dominated the game in the first 40 minutes and didn’t let off in the third. Campbell scored with a wrist shot from the slot. Backup Antti Raanta allowed two goals in the final 2:33 of the period and finished the game, facing 16 shots. Bergeron reached the 200 goal milestone when Marchand beat Bickell in the neutral zone to create a 3-on-2 situation. Smith spun and flipped a reverse pass to Bergeron, who tapped the puck between Crawford’s pads for a 1-0 lead 3:00 into the game. Kane assisted on Toews’ goal for his 64th point to tie Nicklas Backstrom of the Washington Capitals for the League lead.
Nashville @ Buffalo 2-1 SO - Mike Santorelli and Filip Forsberg scored in the shootout, and Carter Hutton stopped three out of four shooters to give the Predators a 2-1 win. Forsberg ended the shootout in the fourth round when he deked and beat Sabres goalie Michal Neuvirth with a backhand shot. Mike Ribeiro helped send the game to overtime when he scored a power-play goal with 4:17 left in the third period. The Predators had 79 shot attempts compared to 30 for the Sabres, but they scored one goal through 65 minutes because of Neuvirth. Ribeiro scored his 12th goal when he put a rebound off Cody Franson's shot from the left faceoff circle past Neuvirth. Ribeiro was open at the far side of the net when Franson's shot deflected off the stick of Andre Benoit. Ennis gave the Sabres a 1-0 lead with 13.9 seconds left in the second period. He took a backhand pass from Zemgus Girgensons, who was covered by Mattias Ekholm, and deked around Hutton to score his 15th goal.


Vancouver @ NY Islanders 4-0 - Zach Kassian scored his third goal in two games at 28 seconds on a man-advantage with a slap shot from inside the blue line to the right of Islanders goalie Jaroslav Halak. The shot hit the left post, then Halak's back before trickling past the line. Radim Vrbata scored his 22nd on a power play at 9:53. He took a shot from just inside the left point on a pretty passing play from Daniel Sedin and Henrik Sedin, who each picked up assists on the play. Bo Horvat scored to increase the Canucks' lead to 3-0 at 13:55. Dan Hamhuis dumped the puck in around the boards behind the Islanders net, which was played by Hansen, who passed to Ronalds Kenins. Kenins fed Horvat and his wrist shot eluded Halak from inside the right point.
The Islanders pulled Halak with almost four minutes remaining to try and generate some offense while on a power play, but Yannick Weber added an empty-net goal at 19:49. Frans Nielsen took a hit from Derek Dorsett in the second period and headed to the dressing room. Nielsen was able to return for the start of the third. Luca Sbisa was hit in the mouth with the puck while sitting on the bench and went to the dressing room midway through the third period, but returned to the bench toward the end of the game.
Tampa Bay @ Colorado 4-5 - Nathan MacKinnon ended a month-long goal drought with his first NHL hat trick to lead the Avalanche to a 5-4 win.
MacKinnon, who scored on all three of his shots, had gone 13 games without a goal. The Lightning nearly sent the game to overtime. Brett Connolly scored with 8:17 left in the third period to make it 5-3, Nikita Kucherov drew them within a goal when he scored with 1:02 remaining after goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy went to the bench for a sixth skater, and they kept pressing until the final buzzer against goalie Semyon Varlamov, who had 28 saves. Alex Tanguay scored what proved to be the winning goal at 7:20 of the third period. Rookie Dennis Everberg skated down the right wing and passed in front to Tanguay, who banged the puck past Vasilevskiy for a 5-2 lead. MacKinnon, who has 12 goals, completed his hat trick at 12:50 of the second period on a breakaway off a pass from Ryan O'Reilly. MacKinnon skated down the middle and shot the puck by Vasilevskiy's glove for a 4-2 Avalanche lead. MacKinnon was standing at the edge of the crease when he deflected in O'Reilly's shot at 3:10 of the second period for his second goal to put the Avalanche in front 2-1. Duchene scored 29 seconds later after he intercepted Nikita Nesterov's pass in the Lightning end.
Tampa Bay responded after Colorado turned over the puck in its own end. Kucherov took a shot, and Varlamov made the save, but Tyler Johnson jammed in the rebound at 5:51. MacKinnon tied the game 1-1 at 16:21 of the first period. He accepted a pass from Gabriel Landeskog, skated into the Lightning end and used his speed to get by Nesterov and Jason Garrison before beating Vasilevskiy with a backhand to the glove side. The Lightning took a 1-0 lead at 10:53 of the first period on a goal by Ondrej Palat after Brad Stuart didn't handle a pass inside the blue line. Johnson passed to Palat moving down the right wing for a shot that beat Varlamov to the short side.
Columbus @ NY Rangers 3-4 SO - Rick Nash scored in the third round of a shootout to lead the Rangers to a 4-3 win. Nash sent the crowd home happy after skating toward the right circle before breaking into the middle of the ice and releasing a hard snap shot that found the left corner of the net. In the tiebreaker, St. Louis scored in the first round and J.T. Miller hit the right post against Blue Jackets goaltender Curtis McElhinney in the second. Mark Letestu scored for the Blue Jackets in the first round and Ryan Johansen hit the crossbar before Cam Atkinson was stopped by Cam Talbot to seal the game, giving him his first career shootout win. After spotting the Rangers a 3-0 lead, the Blue Jackets pulled even with three unanswered goals, the tying goal coming with 4:19 remaining in the third off a point shot by David Savard that deflected off the stick of Talbot and into the net. The Blue Jackets carried much of the play in the third, outshooting the Rangers 8-1. The Blue Jackets scored twice in the second on goals by Dano and Anisimov. Dano made it 3-1 after taking a pass from Nick Foligno and sending a shot from the right circle for his second of the season at 2:17. Anisimov, acquired by Columbus in the trade that sent Nash to the Rangers in the summer of 2012, scored his fourth of the season off a great individual effort at 18:11. With the Rangers defense backing up, Anisimov threw a backhand on net, then took another shot that was blocked before jamming a third attempt inside the right post. St. Louis connected for his second goal 1:24 into the second to give the Rangers a 3-0 lead. McDonagh found St. Louis alone in the right circle and the veteran completed a nice passing play for his 18th of the season. It marked the first two-goal game by St. Louis since Nov. 3 in a 4-3 shootout loss against the St. Louis Blues. Hayes and St. Louis scored in the first period to give the Rangers a 2-0 lead. Hayes opened the scoring when he took a pass from Carl Hagelin at the Blue Jackets blue line, skated uncontested down the middle of the ice and sent a shot over the glove of McElhinney at 5:57. St. Louis made it 2-0 when he took a pass from Derek Stepan at the left post and scored at 8:06.

Los Angeles Kings @ San Jose Sharks 2-1 - 02/21

Under the stars or under a roof, it doesn't seem to matter now to the Los Angeles Kings. They'll win wherever you want them to play. The Kings won their seventh consecutive game and moved into third place in the Pacific Division on Saturday with a 2-1 victory against the San Jose Sharks in front of a sellout crowd of 70,205 on a pristine Northern California night for the 2015 Coors Light NHL Stadium Series game at Levi's Stadium.

Two weeks ago, the Kings (28-18-12) were five points out of the second Western Conference wild-card spot for the Stanley Cup Playoffs with four teams to climb. Now they're one point behind the Vancouver Canucks for second place in the division. Marian Gaborik scored the winning goal early in the third period, Kyle Clifford gave the Kings an early lead in the first and Jonathan Quick made 31 saves. Quick has played every minute of the winning streak and has made 73 saves in his past two games.

Antti Niemi made 27 saves and Brent Burns scored for the Sharks (30-23-8), who dropped out of a playoff position in the Western Conference with their third loss in four games, sixth in their past eight and eighth in their past 11 games (3-6-2). Los Angeles, the Calgary Flames and San Jose are tied with 68 points, but the Kings have the lead in the standings by virtue of having played fewer games. They have played 58, Calgary has played 59 and San Jose has played 61. The Flames occupy the second wild-card spot.

The temperature was 57.4 degrees Fahrenheit when the game started at 7:16 p.m. PT. The tailgates going on outside of the stadium started hours before that under the sun on what was a picture-perfect Northern California day. Eventually 70,205 people packed inside the home of the NFL's San Francisco 49ers to watch a game and get treated to a show, including a riveting national anthem and concerts from John Fogerty and Melissa Etheridge.

The game manifested itself into an event to celebrate hockey in Northern California almost 13 months after the League celebrated hockey in Southern California with the NHL Stadium Series game at Dodger Stadium between the Kings and Anaheim Ducks. The Ducks won that game 3-0 in front of 54,099 fans. That makes 124,304 fans that have been treated to outdoor NHL hockey in California. The fact that it was a celebration of the game in this market and, ultimately, in this state made the loss sting even more for Sharks coach Todd McLellan.

Gaborik put the Kings ahead to stay at 4:04 of the third period. After coming off the bench for a line change, Gaborik stripped the bouncing puck from Burns at the red line, skated in alone to the top of the left circle and beat Niemi with an uncontested slap shot to the glove side. Kings center Jeff Carter was credited with an assist because the puck hit him in the neutral zone and bounced to Burns, who never had control before Gaborik took it away.

Los Angeles was 3-for-3 on the penalty kill, running its consecutive kill streak to nine in a row, and is 15-for-16 during its seven-game winning streak. Burns tied the game at 1-1 with his 16th goal of the season at 18:56 of the first period. His wrist shot from the hash marks outside the right circle glanced off Quick and went into the far corner.

It was shortly before that the Sharks turned the momentum in their favor. They were trailing 1-0 on Clifford's deflection goal at 2:46 of the first period and down 11-5 in shots on goal with less than three minutes remaining before the first intermission.

However, the Sharks were credited with five of the last six shots on goal in the first period, all during a span of 2:08. They kept the pressure on for the majority of the second period and outshot the Kings 15-6. The Sharks finished plus-11 in total shot attempts in the second period after being minus-11 in the first. And just as they did for their season two weeks ago, when they started the win streak with a 4-2 win at the Tampa Bay Lightning, the Kings flipped a switch and started to play more aggressive hockey at the start of the third period.

Dwight King was one-on-one with Niemi in the slot 39 seconds into the period, but he whiffed on a shot. Gaborik had back-to-back shots on the same shift less than a minute later, forcing Niemi to cover the puck at 1:23. He scored soon after that.

Sharks Quotes

Todd McLellan: "This was our show. These were our fans. This is Sharks territory. They showed up in droves. I know there were Kings fans here, and there were just plain hockey fans. That's what made tonight so special. The fact we lost was disappointing, but to be part of it, I wouldn't trade it for anything."
Joe Thornton: "We were hopping good. Probably the first five minutes of the game kind of went their way and then we felt like it was tipping our way. We were peppering them pretty good there in the second but just couldn't seem to crack him."

Detroit Red Wings @ Dallas Stars 7-6 OT - 02/21

The Detroit Red Wings would not be denied. The Red Wings overcame a pair of two-goal deficits in the third period before Niklas Kronwall scored 36 seconds into overtime for a 7-6 victory against the Dallas Stars on Saturday at American Airlines Center. Detroit (33-14-10) trailed 4-2 after two before defenseman Jakub Kindl scored twice in 45 seconds before the third period was two minutes old. The Red Wings were behind 6-4 midway through the third, but Justin Abdelkader scored a power-play goal with 7:13 remaining in regulation and Pavel Datsyuk forced overtime when he scored his second of the night off a scramble with 1:48 to play and goaltender Jonas Gustavsson on the bench in favor of an extra attacker. Kronwall won it when he took a pass from Darren Helm, came into the slot and whipped a backhander from between the hash marks that beat Kari Lehtonen. Datsyuk had the second assist on the goal, giving him a four-point night. According to the Elias Sports Bureau, the Red Wings are the first team to trail by two goals in the third period, tie the game, fall behind again by two goals and come back to win since the Toronto Maple Leafs did it against the Ottawa Senators on Jan. 16, 1934. After Kindl scored 56 seconds into the third and again at 1:41 to tie the game, Dallas went ahead 5-4 at 4:29 when Jordie Benn's slap shot deflected off Curtis McKenzie and went past Jimmy Howard. Dallas regained its two-goal lead on Shawn Horcoff's power-play goal at 10:37. Horcoff's goal chased Howard, who made 26 saves before being replaced by Gustavsson. Four Stars, Jamie Benn, Erik Cole, Trevor Daley and Horcoff, had a goal and an assist. Jordie Benn and Ales Hemsky had two assists, and Cody Eakin also scored for Dallas (27-23-9). Gustav Nyquist had a goal and an assist for Detroit and Tomas Tatar had two assists. Stars captain Jamie Benn gave Dallas the lead 12:42 into the first period with his 23rd of the season, knocking the rebound of older brother Jordie's shot under Howard and extending his point streak to six games. Detroit tied it at 16:57 when Nyquist scored his 21st of the season. He took a pass from Riley Sheahan in the slot and fired a wrist shot that hit Lehtonen's blocker and deflected into the net off the upper part of the goaltender's stick. The Red Wings took their first lead at 9:20 of the second when Datsyuk stole the puck from Stars rookie defenseman Jyrki Jokipakka near the Dallas blue line, raced in alone on Lehtonen and beat him with a wrist shot that hit the far post before going in. Dallas responded in a big way, scoring three goals in three minutes to take a 4-2 lead after two periods. Daley tied it at 15:16 with his 16th, a wrist shot from the right circle that went in after traveling up and over Howard. Eakin gave Dallas the lead with his 12th of the season at 17:02. He took a pass from Daley and fired a wrist shot from the left point that beat Howard, who was heavily screened by McKenzie, to the short side. The Stars made it 4-2 with 1:44 remaining when Jason Demers' wrist shot from the right circle hit Cole, who knocked the loose puck past Howard for his 17th of the season. The lead didn't last long. Kindl, who had missed the previous 20 games with an elbow injury, beat Lehtonen to the far post with a screened slap shot from the high slot 56 seconds into the third period, then tied the game 45 seconds later by taking a pass from Tatar and beating Lehtonen with a slap shot from the right circle. The two quick goals matched his season total. Red Wings captain Henrik Zetterberg sustained an upper-body injury in the second period; he played only 15 seconds in the third and didn't see the ice after 9:45 of the final period. Datsyuk's equalizer late in regulation didn't sit well with the Dallas bench; the Stars felt Abdelkader had clearly interfered with Lehtonen after colliding with the Stars goaltender prior to the goal. Detroit continues its six-game road trip Monday at the Anaheim Ducks. Dallas plays Sunday at the Minnesota Wild.

Stars Quotes

Lindy Ruff: "Tough one to lose. Played our hearts out. You just put it behind you. We just move on to the next one, put this one behind us and go on to win the game."
Kari Lehtonen: "I just got kind of pushed in the net and the puck was sliding the other way at the same time, pretty frustrating. Stuff like that should not happen. It's weird how they can look at some things from the video and that kind of things, they cannot. They got it wrong."


Pavel Datsyuk: "We did not play great today. They played better than us. We were lucky to win."

Pittsburgh Penguins @ St Louis Blues 4-2 - 02/21

The Pittsburgh Penguins had scored three goals in three consecutive losses. They figured their offensive woes were bound to change. They didn't need Sidney Crosby or Evgeni Malkin to carry them against the St. Louis Blues at Scottrade Center on Saturday. Blake Comeau had two goals and an assist to help the Penguins get out of their funk in a 4-2 win. It was Pittsburgh's first victory in regulation at St. Louis since Nov. 1, 2008. Johnston mixed up his top two line combinations and it seemed to have a jolt in the Penguins' offense. Patric Hornqvist scored a power-play goal, the Penguins' first in 10 games, Brandon Sutter had a goal and Thomas Greiss made 21 saves. Comeau, who played with Malkin and Chris Kunitz on Saturday, benefited the most. The Blues (38-17-4) lost for the second time in three games during a four-game homestand; they defeated the Boston Bruins 5-1 on Friday. Dmitrij Jaskin and Ian Cole scored, Vladimir Tarasenko had two assists and Brian Elliott made 25 saves. The Blues missed out on a chance to pull within three points of Central Division-leading Nashville Predators with a game in hand, but they suffered from another slow start. St. Louis allowed the first goal of the game in the first period for the third time on this homestand. The Penguins took a 1-0 lead on Comeau's 13th of the season, and first against the Blues in 10 games, after a fortuitous bounce. Blues forward Alexander Steen won a defensive zone faceoff, but defenseman Petteri Lindbohm's clearing attempt caromed into the slot, where Comeau backhanded a shot five-hole through Elliott with 3:29 remaining in the first period. Hornqvist took a pass from Crosby in the slot and beat Elliott with a wrist shot 6:26 into the second to make it 2-0. The Penguins had gone 0-for-20 on the power play the previous nine games. Comeau scored again in the second period off a redirection in the high slot of a Simon Despres shot from the point with 4:22 left in the second to give Pittsburgh a 3-0 lead. Crosby thought he had scored his first goal against the Blues off a quick redirection of a cross-ice pass in the third period on the power play, but a lengthy eight-minute review went with the call on the ice. Officials ruled no goal with 15:14 remaining in the game. Sutter scored with 7:39 remaining just as a Blues penalty expired on a wrist shot from the slot to make it 4-0. Jaskin ended Greiss' shutout bid when his shot from the low slot squirted through the pads with 5:27 remaining after taking Jori Lehtera's feed. Cole's slap shot from the top of the right circle with 1:22 remaining cut the Penguins' lead to 4-2.

Pens Quotes

Mike Johnston: "We're playing a very good team; I know they had a back-to-back and that's a factor in the game for sure, but St. Louis is one of the better teams as far as structure, how they play the game and I thought for two and a half periods, we were really good. I thought all four of our lines contributed, our six defensemen and the power play started to convert. Any time you don't feel your team's playing as well as it should, you can mix and match some pieces on your lines. Sometimes it works and gives you jump and sometimes it doesn't. I thought tonight it did. We actually mixed up all four lines there for a while. It seemed like there was new energy, new life."
Sidney Crosby: "It's nice to get four there and generate some chances. Just a really well-rounded game."
Blake Comeau: "We played a little together earlier in the season before I was injured and I thought we had some good chemistry then. I feel like me and [Malkin] play off each other real well and [Kunitz] plays a lot like [Hornqvist]. It felt good to be able to contribute. We weren't scoring a lot of goals lately, so sometimes it's nice to be able to switch things up. We did a lot of things we've been preaching over the last couple weeks, getting guys to the net and specialty teams come up big, especially the way they did for us tonight."
Patric Hornqvist: "We've been struggling on the power play, but even in the last game against Columbus, we did some good things. We're moving the puck quicker and you just have to hit the net. Tonight, we hit the net."

Blues Quotes

Ken Hitchcock: "I think you have slow starts when you're not connected in your team play. We're a team that relies on structure, puck support, discipline with puck support, everybody in the same page. Some teams can maybe play on 70 percent on the same page; we're not one and we're on 70 percent. This is the same feeling early in December. It's the same feeling ... off the page, not all in sync so we get exposed a little bit."
T.J. Oshie: "I feel like the other teams are starting to get into playoff mode and I think we're a step behind. It's taking us too long. Our third period was better, but for the most part, we're not playing good enough. Our goalies have been out best players all year and we're hanging them out to dry right now."

NHL Results - Sat, Dec 21, 2015

NY Islanders @ Washington 2-3 SO - Evgeny Kuznetsov scored the only goal of the shootout in the first round for Washington. Kuznetsov scored on his forehand to open the shootout. The Islanders' first two shooters, Frans Nielsen and John Tavares, did not score. After Alex Ovechkin missed an opportunity to end the game in the top of the third round, Holtby stopped Ryan Strome on a backhand attempt. Strome forced overtime by scoring with 47.8 seconds left and goalie Chad Johnson pulled for an extra skater. With the Islanders on the rush in the first period, Hamonic sped into open ice and joined the play, curling inside and beating Holtby underneath his catching glove with a wrist shot at 7:41. Hamonic hadn't scored since Nov. 26 against the Capitals. Niskanen's third goal of the season at 19:19 was his first at even strength. Backstrom entered the offensive zone near the left-wing boards, carrying the puck below the goal line before finding Niskanen in the right circle for a one-timer. A save by Holtby on Johnny Boychuk late in the third period sent the Capitals on a rush that led to Fehr's goal at 14:26. Fehr grabbed the rebound of Boychuk's shot and pushed the puck to Brooks Laich. Laich raced toward Johnson as Fehr trailed closely behind, receiving Laich's pass and scoring his 17th goal of the season on a wrist shot from the slot. With 1:05 remaining and Johnson pulled, Tavares clanged a bouncing puck off the post with Holtby out of position, but the Islanders tied the game less than 20 seconds later. Tavares shot from above the right circle, and Anders Lee deflected it positioned himself in front of Holtby. Strome, standing to Holtby's right, collected the rebound and quickly scored on a sharp-angle shot.
Nashville @ Philadelphia 2-3 SO - Jakub Voracek and Wayne Simmonds scored in the tiebreaker, and goalie Rob Zepp finished with a flourish, making a glove save on Craig Smith and celebrating the win with a fist pump. Cody Franson and Michael Santorelli each made his Predators debut after being acquired from the Toronto Maple Leafs in a trade on Sunday. Franson played 17:52 and Santorelli 12:11. Simmonds' goal, at 8:59 of the first period, was his Flyers-best 23rd of the season. He got position on Predators captain Shea Weber in the left circle and tipped Michael Del Zotto's shot down between Weber's skates. The puck bounced on net, past Rinne's glove and inside the right post. The Predators went 13:47 without a shot when Wilson scored his 19th of the season with 1:02 remaining in the first. He intercepted a Del Zotto pass in the neutral zone, skated in and beat Zepp with a wrist shot from the left side. White's second goal of the season gave the Flyers a 2-1 lead. He started the play by forcing Seth Jones into a turnover deep in the Predators zone, and White finished with a wrist shot from above the hashmarks that beat Rinne.
Nashville got even 23 seconds into the third on Smith's goal that finished a 3-on-2 rush.
Winnipeg @ Toronto 3-4 OT - James van Riemsdyk scored with 1:13 remaining in overtime to give the Leafs a 4-3 win. Van Riemsdyk broke in 2-on-1 with center Olli Jokinen, took a pass from his new teammate, and his one-timer beat Winnipeg goaltender Michael Hutchinson. Jokinen was acquired in a trade from the Nashville Predators on Sunday, which could be the first of others by Toronto heading into the NHL Trade Deadline on March 2. Nazem Kadri tied it 3-3 at 3:57 of the third period by scoring on a wraparound. Toronto led 1-0 12:57 into the first period when Leo Komarov scored a shorthanded goal with Korbinian Holzer in the penalty box for goaltender interference. Komarov carried the puck from the Toronto line into the Winnipeg zone and beat Hutchinson with a slap shot from the top of the left faceoff circle. The Jets tied it 1-1 34 seconds later when Jacob Trouba scored on the power play with Holzer in the penalty box. Trouba's shot from a bad angle tipped off the stick of Morgan Rielly. Mark Scheifele gave the Jets a 2-1 lead at 19:10 with Winnipeg's second straight power-play goal. The puck squirted to him in the shallow slot and he beat Bernier with a quick high snap shot. Daniel Winnik made it 2-2 at 15:07 of the second period when he tipped a Holzer shot from the point past Hutchinson.
Frolik gave Winnipeg a 3-2 lead at 19:05 when he scooped the puck deep in the Toronto zone, circled with it in the slot, and snapped a high shot to the top right corner.
Columbus @ Montreal 1-3 - Pacioretty scored on a power play at 2:29. His second goal of the game put the Canadiens up 2-0 at 13:03. Nick Foligno scored at 14:05 to make it 2-1. Tomas Plekanec scored a shorthanded, empty-net goal with 50 seconds remaining in the third period. Each of Pacioretty's goals came on a one-timer from the right side off a pass from a Canadiens defenseman. Andrei Markov made a clever pass to set up Pacioretty's first goal, a snap shot past McElhinney into the top left corner. Moments earlier, a shot by P.K. Subban got through the Blue Jackets goalie but trickled wide of the left post after Kevin Connauton was penalized for tripping Brendan Gallagher at 1:34. Nathan Beaulieu made a cross-ice pass to Pacioretty on Montreal's second goal, which came five seconds after David Desharnais won a faceoff from the left dot in the Columbus zone. Foligno scored Columbus' goal 1:02 after Pacioretty made it 2-0. Price stopped Artem Anisimov's intial shot, and the rebound deflected off Foligno's skate on its way into the net. The goal was confirmed by a video review. Cam Atkinson's shot from the point struck both posts without crossing the goal line with one second remaining in the second. Jarred Tinordi had a jaw protector added to his helmet after his fight with 3:58 left in the first against Blue Jackets right wing Jared Boll, who was penalized for roughing in addition to his fighting major.
Florida @ Ottawa 1-4 - The Panthers led 1-0 on Barkov's ninth goal of the season at 7:38 of the first period. Brian Campbell, using his strong skating, brought the puck down the right-wing boards and below the goal line. He found Jonathan Huberdeau in front of Hammond, and Huberdeau touched it quickly to Barkov. Barkov's shot went underneath a sprawling Hammond and over the goal line before Hammond reached back and pulled the puck out of the net. The Senators tied the game 1-1 on Turris' goal at 10:16 of the first period. He finished a nice three-way passing play that started when Michalek lifted the stick of Florida defenseman Aaron Ekblad in the right-wing corner. Michalek passed the puck to Mark Stone in the circle, and he spotted Turris going to the net at the left post. Shawn Thornton got his stick on the puck, but not enough to stop it from getting to Turris, whose shot found the open side. The Senators took a 2-1 lead with the only goal of the second period on a deflection by Ryan that came as a penalty to Kopecky expired. Working to the right of Luongo and facing Turris out at the top of the left-wing circle, Ryan got his stick on Turris' shot and redirected it over Luongo's shoulder at 8:40 for his 15th of the season. Karlsson's shot went against the grain to the top corner over Luongo's glove to make it 3-1 at 8:03 of the third period. Lazar scored at 12:09.
Carolina @ New Jersey 1-3 - Ruutu redirected a slap shot from the point by Adam Larsson between the pads of Khudobin at 10:32 to give New Jersey a 1-0 lead. Henrique scored his first goal in eight games at 12:05 when he picked up a loose puck along the right-wing boards and broke in 1-on-1 against Khudobin before flicking a shot between his pads. Greene then scored his first goal since March 20, 2014, a span of 70 games, when he finished off a pass from Jordin Tootoo in the slot with 28 seconds remaining in the first to give the Devils a 3-0 lead. Jeff Skinner scored off a slap shot from between the circles with 6:04 remaining in the third for the Hurricanes.
Anaheim @ Edmonton 2-1 - Ryan Getzlaf got some help when he scored with 7:14 left in the third period to lift the Ducks to a 2-1 victory. Justin Schultz inadvertently kicked the puck into the net after Getzlaf poked it from under goaltender Ben Scrivens. Beauchemin scored a power-play goal 45 seconds into the first period on the first shot of the game to give Anaheim the early lead. The Ducks defenseman took a pass at the blue line off a face-off and put a snap shot past Scrivens for his sixth goal. Purcell tied the game 1-1 with his eight goal 28 seconds into the second period. The Oilers left wing took a cross-crease pass from Nail Yakupov and snapped a shot past Gibson. Derek Roy started the play, winning a battle along the boards and spotting Yakupov unattended at the side of the net. It was Purcell's second goal in his past three games. Ryan Nugent-Hopkins came close to giving Edmonton the lead midway through the first period, but his rising shot from the slot hit the crossbar. Getzlaf scored the winner after Scrivens was unable to smother a shot from Kyle Palmieri, allowing the puck to drop under his pad. Getzlaf was first to the puck, poking it toward the net. Schultz knocked it in and Getzlaf was credited with his 19th goal.
Tampa Bay @ Phoenix 4-2 - Lightning captain Steven Stamkos scored the second of Tampa Bay’s two power-play goals, his 32nd, into an empty net with 4.3 seconds remaining. Callahan set up Palat’s first goal. Michael Stone scored in the first period and Mark Arcobello scored to cut a 3-1 Tampa Bay lead in half with 7:18 left to play. Lightning goalie Ben Bishop made 13 of his 22 saves in the third period and had  Lauri Korpikoski forced a Brett Connolly turnover and Martin Erat deflected the puck toward Stone at the top of the right circle. Stone had to settle the bouncing puck down before he sent a wrist shot past Bishop inside the far post to give the Coyotes a 1-0 lead at 14:02 of the first period. Stone has four points in the past five games. When David Moss caught Jason Garrison on the side of the face with a high stick to draw a double-minor, the Lightning finally cashed in on the back end. Tyler Johnson hit the post from point-blank range in the first half of the power play before Callahan took a loose puck and found Palat with speed behind Connor Murphy. Palat sent a shot that went past Smith at 6:45 of the first to tie the game 1-1. Callahan ran down a wayward shot behind the net and sent a two-handed shot from a bad angle that caught Smith dropping down and crawled over his right shoulder at 14:31. Palat scored what proved to be the game-winner 3:27 into the third period. Victor Hedman grabbed the puck in the neutral zone and passed to Palat, who made a power move past Andrew Campbell to free himself for a shot that went past Smith. But the Lightning made things tougher on themselves when Arcobello intercepted a Stamkos pass at the Tampa Bay blue line, skated in alone and lifted a wrist shot over Bishop with 7:18 left in the third. Arcobello’s 11th goal was his third since being claimed off waivers from the Pittsburgh Penguins on Feb. 11. Oliver Ekman-Larsson and Yandle both took penalties in the final 3:16 to cripple any chance of a comeback and Stamkos atoned for his error with the empty net goal.