Ondrej Pavelec made 25 saves and Rich Peverley scored twice to lead the in-form Atlanta Thrashers to a 3-0 win over the Montreal Canadiens on Friday.
Peverley opened the scoring with 29 seconds left in the first period and added another on a power-play in the second as Atlanta (11-9-3) recorded their four straight win.
“I think just our mindset going into games,” Peverley said, when asked what is behind the winning run. “We’ve started slow in the past here, but I think we’ve been playing well right from the get-go.”
Tobias Enstrom scored Atlanta’s second goal when he floated a wrist-shot from the blue line that fooled Montreal goalie Alex Auld, who made 44 saves in his second start of the season.
“I didn’t see it,” Auld said. “It came over the top of everyone and I just sort of saw the reflection off the top of the puck. You just kind of see a light and I guessed, and then I saw it go by me at the last second.”
The Thrashers took command of the game in the second period, dictating the play and outshooting the Canadiens 23-4.
“The second period was the difference in the hockey game,” Canadiens coach Jacques Martin said. “They were on the puck, they were more determined and they won the special teams part of the game.”
The Canadiens (14-8-1) have dropped three of their last five games, but still hold a three-point lead in the Northeast Division.
ISLANDERS 2, DEVILS 0
In Uniondale, New York, Rick DiPietro stopped all 29 shots he faced as the New York Islanders ended a 14-game winless streak with a victory over the New Jersey Devils.
Jesse Joensuu and Rob Schremp scored for the Islanders, 1-11-3 in their last 15 games since Oct. 21.
The loss ended New Jersey’s two-game winning streak.
The win was the first for new Islanders coach Jack Capuano since he took over for the fired Scott Gordon last week. Capuano had been coaching the Islanders’ American Hockey League affiliate in Bridgeport and went 0-2-2 in his first four games after taking over the NHL franchise.
The Islanders also avoided the dubious distinction of matching the club record of 15 games without a win, set in 1999.
CAPITALS 6, LIGHTNING 0
In Washington, Alexander Semin scored three times in the second period for his NHL-high third hat-trick of the season, while Semyon Varlamov made 17 saves for NHL-leading Washington.
Semin has 17 goals in 24 games this season.
In two games against the Lightning this season, Semin has twice scored three goals in a period.
John Carlson, John Erskine and Tom Poti also scored to help the Capitals extend their Southeast Division lead over the Lightning to six points.
RED WINGS 2, BLUE JACKETS 1
In Columbus, Ohio, Jimmy Howard stopped a Jared Boll penalty and finished with 34 saves to help Detroit beat Columbus in a fight for the Western Conference lead.
Johan Franzen and Valtteri Filppula scored for Detroit, coming off a 5-1 loss at Atlanta last weekend.
The Red Wings killed all five Columbus power-plays en route to their ninth victory in their last 12 games.
Antoine Vermette scored midway through the third period to spoil Howard’s shutout bid.
PENGUINS 2, SENATORS 1
In Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Marc-Andre Fleury made 43 saves as Alex Goligoski scored the winner for Pittsburgh.
Pittsburgh and Fleury are 7-0-1 with a 1.60 goals-against average in their past eight games.
Evgeni Malkin also scored, while Sidney Crosby assisted on the play to extend his points streak to 11 games. Jesse Winchester scored for Ottawa.
BLACKHAWKS 4, DUCKS 1
In Anaheim, California, Patrick Sharp scored for the fourth time in five games as Chicago edged out Anaheim.
Duncan Keith had a short-handed goal and Nicklas Hjalmarsson ended a 44-game goal drought for the Blackhawks.
Troy Brouwer capped a three-goal third period and Corey Crawford made 26 saves for defending Stanley Cup champions the Blackhawks.
Dan Sexton scored on a power-play for the Ducks, who have just 10 goals during a six-game losing streak that began on Nov. 14 against Chicago.
SABRES 3, MAPLE LEAFS 1
In Buffalo, New York, Ryan Miller made 35 saves, while Jordan Leopold, Thomas Vanek and Patrick Kaleta scored to help Buffalo beat Toronto for the 16th time in their last 19 meetings.
Miller returned from a two-game absence because of a minor groin injury and improved to 23-8-0 lifetime against Toronto. Phil Kessel had a short-handed goal to spoil Miller’s shutout bid with 3 minutes, 27 seconds left.
Jonas Gustavsson made 25 saves for Toronto, winless in their last seven road games.
RANGERS 3, PANTHERS 0
In Sunrise, Florida, Henrik Lund-qvist made 40 saves for his third shutout of the season, while rookie Derek Stepan scored his sixth goal as New York defeated Florida.
Ryan Callahan and Brandon Prust also scored, while Marc Staal had two assists.
The Panthers have lost three in a row for the first time this season.
HURRICANES 3, BRUINS 0
In Boston, Tuomo Ruutu scored a power-play goal and set up another, while Cam Ward stopped 37 shots for his first shutout of the season for Carolina.
Jeff Skinner and Jussi Jokinen also scored power-play goals.
FLAMES 3, FLYERS 2, SO
In Philadelphia, Niklas Hagman and Rene Bourque scored shootout goals for Calgary.
Curtis Glencross had a short-handed goal, while Steve Staios also scored for the Flames.
James van Riemsdyk and Nikolay Zherdev scored for Philadelphia.
Wild 5, Predators 2
In St Paul, Minnesota, Martin Havlat scored twice, Marek Zidlicky, Andrew Brunette and Nick Schultz added goals, while Jose Theodore made 32 saves for Minnesota.
Steve Sullivan and Martin Erat scored for Nashville.
Friday’s other results:
‧ Stars 3, Blues 2
‧ Canucks 6, Sharks 1
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
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but
Taiwanese gymnast Lee Chih-kai failed to secure an Olympic berth in the pommel horse following a second-place finish at the last qualifier in Doha on Friday, a performance that Lee and his coach called “unconvincing.” The Tokyo Olympics silver medalist finished runner-up in the final after scoring 6.6 for degree of difficulty and 8.800 for execution for a combined score of 15.400. That was just 0.100 short of Jordan’s Ahmad Abu Al Soud, who had qualified for the event in Paris before the Apparatus World Cup series in Qatar’s capital. After missing the final rounds in the first two of four qualifier