Defenseman Kimmo Timonen’s shootout goal lifted the Philadelphia Flyers to a 4-3 win over the Tampa Bay Lightning in a battle between the two top teams in the Eastern Conference on Tuesday.
“I guess we ran out of options for the shooters,” Timonen told reporters.
“Sometimes you have to put the d-man [defenseman] out there to do something else. I’ve got one move and that’s my move. I wanted to come at full speed and wait for him [the netminder] to make the first move.”
The Flyers quickly built a 3-1 lead in the second period on a shorthanded penalty shot goal by Darroll Powe just 1:15 after Scott Hartnell put the Flyers ahead for the second time.
“I usually try to go backhand, but I saw the blocker was kind of opened, so I just snapped it home,” Powe said. “It’s a pretty cool feeling.”
The advantage was shortlived, however, as Vincent Lecavalier and Teddy Purcell both struck within two minutes of Powe’s goal.
“Whenever the challenge has been high it’s been extremely rare that we haven’t been up to it, and we were up to it again tonight so I was proud of our effort against these guys,” Lightning head coach Guy Boucher said.
James van Riemsdyk had scored the only goal of the first period to stake the Flyers to a 1-0 lead, before Dominic Moore tallied early in the second period to tie the game.
The Lightning’s netminder Dwayne Roloson and Flyers’ counterpart Brian Boucher took center stage in the third period and overtime, turning aside a combined 19 shots and stopping 11 of the 14 attempts in the shootout.
Canucks 4, Wild 1
In St Paul, Minnesota, Manny Malhotra had a goal and an assist, and Cory Schneider stopped 27 shots as Vancouver defeated Minnesota.
Jannik Hansen, Mikael Samuelsson and Ryan Kessler also scored to help the banged-up Canucks win in Minnesota for the first time in their last five tries despite registering just one shot on goal in the third period.
Cal Clutterbuck scored for Minnesota, his fourth goal in three games.
Maple Leafs 4, Bruins 3
In Boston, Mikhail Grabovski scored the tiebreaking goal with 1:01 remaining as Toronto rallied for a win over Boston.
Grabovski and former Bruin Phil Kessel both finished with two goals for the Maple Leafs, who fell behind 3-2 on Patrice Bergeron’s 20th goal of the season with 10:52 to play.
Kessel’s second goal of the game tied it with 6:33 left.
Grabovski’s game-winner extended Boston’s losing streak to three straight.
Joffrey Lupol had two assists, his first points with Toronto, and James Reimer finished with 32 saves.
Tim Thomas stopped 24 shots for the Bruins.
Sabres 3, Canadiens 2, SO
In Montreal, Jochen Hecht scored on Buffalo’s 10th shootout attempt to give the Sabres a win over Montreal.
Rookie goalie Jhonas Enroth stopped seven of Montreal’s final eight shooters in the tiebreaker. He made 32 saves during the game, his first with the Sabres since Nov. 24 last year, when he had 28 saves in a 1-0 loss to Pittsburgh.
Jason Pominville leveled it at 2 for Buffalo with his 13th goal 6:08 into the third. The Sabres won the shootout 4-3.
Drew Stafford got his ninth goal in five games late in the second to bring the Sabres within 2-1. His power-play effort snapped Carey Price’s shutout streak at 102 minutes, 54 seconds.
Max Pacioretty and Benoit Pouliot scored for Montreal.
Oilers 4, Stars 1
In Edmonton, Oilers captain Shawn Horcoff had a goal and two assists as Edmonton beat Dallas.
Jordan Eberle, Taylor Chorney and Ales Hemsky also scored for the last-place Oilers, who won for the first time in their last eight home games and for just the second time in their last nine overall.
Edmonton goalie Nikolai Khabibulin made 24 saves and snapped a 14-game losing streak.
Loui Eriksson scored for the Stars, who have only two wins in their last seven games.
In other NHL action, it was:
‧ Islanders 4, Senators 3, SO
‧ Sharks 2, Predators 1, OT
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