Simon Gagne and Peter Forsberg each had a goal and an assist and the Philadelphia Flyers stretched their road-point streak to 14 games by beating the Washington Capitals 3-1 in the NHL on Friday.
Mike Rathje also scored for the Flyers, who improved to 7-1 on their 11-game road trip. Their only loss in that stretch was a shootout defeat last Saturday in Washington.
Philadelphia has won three straight and eight of 10. With points in their next two road games, the Flyers would tie the team mark set in 1979-1980.
PHOTO: AFP
Alexander Ovechkin scored for Washington, which has dropped three straight and four of five.
Gagne is second in the NHL with 29 goals. Forsberg's empty-netter snapped the Flyers' run of nine consecutive one-goal decisions.
Thrashers 6, Penguins 4
At Atlanta, Ilya Kovalchuk put up his second hat trick of the season, scoring his third goal into an empty net with 44 seconds left to clinch a victory over Pittsburgh.
The Thrashers built a 5-0 lead through two periods before the Penguins scored four times.
Kovalchuk has 30 goals despite missing all of training camp and the first three games in a contract dispute. He came into the night trailing Philadelphia's Simon Gagne by one goal for the NHL lead, but passed him.
Sidney Crosby picked up one assist but largely had a forgettable night for the Penguins. The 18-year-old center was twice penalized for slashing, drew derisive chants from the crowd and was taunted by Kovalchuk after the Thrashers star scored his second goal.
John LeClair, Michel Ouellet, Colby Armstrong and Mark Recchi scored for Pittsburgh in the first 15:42 of the third.
The Thrashers knocked out Penguins goalie Jocelyn Thibault with three goals on their first nine shots, then held on for their third win in four games.
Hurricanes 4, Islanders 1
At Raleigh, North Carolina, Cory Stillman scored the go-ahead goal late in the second period to lead Carolina past New York.
Kevyn Adams, Rod Brind'Amour and Justin Williams also scored for the Southeast Division-leading Hurricanes, who won the last three games of a four-game homestand.
Eric Godard scored for the Islanders, but probably gained more attention for a first-period hit on Williams that raised the ire of both the Hurricanes and their fans. It led to some testy exchanges between the teams, who meet again in New York today.
Stillman extended his point streak to 10 games with his 13th goal. Cam Ward finished with 28 saves in the victory.
New York's Wade Dubielewicz made 31 saves in his first NHL start this season and just his fourth career game. He played in place of injured regulars Rick DiPietro and Garth Snow.
Red Wings 3, Predators 1
At Nashville, Tennessee, defenseman Nicklas Lidstrom scored two power-play goals, leading Detroit over Nashville.
It marked the first time this season that the Predators lost in regulation to a Central Division team.
The Red Wings tied it 1-1 in the second period with a power-play goal. At 17:16, Lidstrom skated just inside the middle of the blue line and fired a one-timer past Tomas Vokoun.
Detroit took a 2-1 lead 2 minutes into the third when Jason Williams scored from close range. Lidstrom scored his second of the game with 6:53 left.
Stars 4, Mighty Ducks 3, SO
At Dallas, Antti Miettinen scored in the fourth round of the shootout to send Dallas over Anaheim.
After both teams missed in the first round, Jussi Jokinen connected in the second for Dallas. Anaheim's Andy McDonald matched that goal in the third and final round of regulation.
Dallas' Mike Modano then missed to force an extra round. Teemu Selanne then was denied on a sliding save by Johan Hedberg, opening the door for Miettinen, who gave the Stars the extra point when he beat Jean-Sebastien Giguere.
Brenden Morrow scored two real goals for the Stars, one short-handed, and Miettinen also had a goal as Dallas rallied from a three-goal deficit.
Selanne had a power-play goal and an assist. McDonald added a power-play goal, and Samuel Pahlsson also scored for Anaheim, which has lost all four meetings with Dallas this season.
Flames 1, Maple Leafs 0
At Calgary, Alberta, Tony Amonte scored the only goal and Miikka Kiprusoff made 27 saves for his NHL-leading sixth shutout as Calgary snapped Toronto's six-game winning streak.
Kiprusoff earned his sixth win in a row and league-best 22nd of the season. He was especially sharp in the third period, making 11 saves, as Toronto generated a number of good scoring opportunities.
In the final seconds with the Leafs buzzing in the Calgary zone, Darcy Tucker had a great opportunity but fanned on Jason Allison's cross-ice pass from 20 feet out.
It's only the second time Toronto has been shut out this season.
Sidney Crosby is not the only rookie paying dividends for the Pittsburgh Penguins.
In a 6-4 win over Montreal on Tuesday, every Penguins goal was netted by a rookie. Crosby and Michel Ouellet had two each, and Shane Endicott and Maxime Talbot scored one apiece.
It was the first time in more than 20 years, and only the fifth time since the 1943-1944 NHL season, that a team had as many as six goals in a game all scored by rookies.
What made it even more special for Crosby was the fact that it happened in his first game in Montreal against the Canadiens, the team he grew up idolizing.
"If you're too awe-struck, you get caught watching, you get caught being happy to be there and you're not worrying about trying to contribute and then make the difference," Crosby said.
"Don't get me wrong, it's nice to enjoy the moment, but you don't want to get caught up in watching too much and getting stuck out there, so I think the best part for me was probably at the end, getting the win. It was a bonus to come out with the first star."
The Canadiens were the last team to pull off the rookie feat when they did it in an 11-6 loss at Hartford on Oct. 19, 1985.
PACKING THEM IN
The NHL's rebirth is continuing to lure people back to the rinks.
For the third straight month, the NHL says it set a record -- claiming to have had the best December attendance in the league's 88 years. The reported attendance was 3,382,628 for 200 games.
The average was 16,913 per game and arenas were said to have been filled to 91.7 percent of capacity. That is 2 percent above the previous December high of 16,578, set in 2001.
Of the 30 teams, 24 are at least even with their numbers of the 2003-2004 season, the last one before the lockout. The Pittsburgh Penguins continue to be the top gainers with a 36 percent increase in attendance.
DEVILS DUE
It's not like Lou Lamoriello to make personnel decisions that don't work out, but the New Jersey Devils general manager-turned-interim coach has faced a string of them in the first three months of the season.
No one can blame Lamoriello for the departure of top free-agent defenseman Scott Niedermayer, who left the Devils after 13 seasons in New Jersey to go to Anaheim to play with his brother, Rob. And it's not his fault that longtime captain Scott Stevens was forced to retire because of lingering effects of a concussion.
And add in the fact that, until this week, the Devils were without top scorer Patrik Elias because of Hepatitis A that he contracted during the NHL lockout.
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