Martin Brodeur stopped 29 shots for his NHL-leading sixth shutout of the season and the 86th of his career and Brian Rafalski's unusual goal was all the New Jersey Devils needed in a 2-0 victory at the New York Islanders on Saturday.
The Devils increased their Atlantic Division lead to six points over the Islanders.
Patrick Elias put in an empty-net goal with 10 seconds left to complete the scoring.
PHOTO: AP
Rick DiPietro was solid, turning aside 36 shots, but the Islanders have not scored for the last 138 minutes of play.
Senators 3, Maple Leafs 2, OT
At Toronto, Chris Phillips scored at 2:39 of overtime and Ottawa rallied for a victory over rival Toronto.
Ray Emery had 43 saves and Dean McAmmond and Chris Kelly also scored for the Senators.
Predators 5, Bruins 0
At Nashville, Tennessee, Chris Mason stopped 38 shots to earn his fourth shutout of the season to lift Nashville past Boston.
Paul Kariya, David Legwand and Jerred Smithson each scored and added an assist for Nashville.
Blues 2, Avalanche 0
At St. Louis, Manny Legace made 33 saves to lead St. Louis over Colorado.
Legace, in his first season with the Blues after six with Detroit, is 11-1-0 against Colorado.
Rangers 4, Capitals 1
At New York, Petr Prucha scored two goals to help New York snap a seven-game losing skid and end a scoreless streak at 153:38 in a fight-filled victory over Washington.
Michael Nylander and Darius Kasparaitis also scored for the Rangers.
Sabres 4, Thrashers 1
At Buffalo, New York, Thomas Vanek had two goals and an assist and Ryan Miller made 29 saves in Buffalo's victory over Atlanta.
Daniel Briere added a goal and an assist and Jason Pominville also scored for the Sabres, who have won three straight.
Lightning 3, Canadiens 1
At Tampa, Florida, Vinny Prospal snapped a personal 20-game goal-scoring drought with a tiebreaking second-period goal, helping Tampa Bay defeat Montreal.
Brad Richards and Filip Kuba also scored for the Lightning.
Coyotes 8, Sharks 0
At Glendale, Arizona, Curtis Joseph stopped 40 shots for his 437th win, tying Jacques Plante for fifth on the career victories list as Phoenix sent San Jose to its fourth loss in five games.
It was Joseph's 48th career shutout.
Canucks 6, Oilers 2
At Edmonton, Alberta, Daniel Sedin had two goals and an assist and Vancouver continued its strong post-Christmas play with a victory over Edmonton.
Mattias Ohlund added two goals and Sami Salo and Jan Bulis one apiece for the Canucks, while Marc-Antoine Pouliot and Shawn Horcoff answered for the Oilers.
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
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