Jaromir Jagr on Saturday became the seventh player in NHL history to score 700 league goals, sparking a four-goal second period that helped the New Jersey Devils rout the New York Islanders 6-1.
Earning the victory was the Devils’ Canadian goaltender, Martin Brodeur, who has making his first start in more than a month.
Jagr gave the New Jersey a 2-0 lead early in the second period, with Ryane Clowe, Marek Zidlicky and Mark Fayne adding one goal each in rapid succession.
The Devils’ four goals came in a span of 4 minutes and 36 seconds during the second.
Brodeur, the subject of trade rumors less than a week before the NHL deadline, played for the first time since being pulled from a loss to the New York Rangers on Jan. 26 when he allowed six goals on 21 shots in two periods.
Brodeur made 10 saves in the first period on Saturday and 18 overall to earn his 14th win of the season and 683rd of his NHL career.
Kyle Okposo scored his team-leading 25th goal for New York.
At a picturesque Soldier Field on Saturday, Chicago reveled in the snow as they beat fellow NHL divisional leaders Pittsburgh 5-1 in the finale of the NHL Stadium Series.
The Blackhawks took the outright lead in the Central Division ahead of idle St Louis, while the Penguins suffered little more than wounded pride as they maintained a yawning 15-point gap atop the Metropolitan Division.
Chicago’s Patrick Sharp scored in the first period and Patrick Kane set up Kris Versteeg’s 100th career goal in the second.
Pittsburgh’s goal came when Blackhawks defenseman Brent Seabrook sent the puck into his own net in the third, giving the Penguins little comfort as they matched a season-worst with their third straight loss.
In other games, Montreal’s Max Pacioretty scored his second goal of the game on a power play 3:28 into overtime to lift the Canadiens to a 4-3 win over the Toronto Maple Leafs.
Alex Galchenyuk and P.K. Subban also scored for the Canadiens, while James van Riemsdyk had two goals and Phil Kessel had one each for the Maple Leafs.
Toronto’s win saw them close the gap on Atlantic Division leaders the Boston Bruins, who were beaten 4-2 at home by an Alex Ovechkin-inspired Washington.
Ovechkin collected his 800th career point and raised his league-leading total to 43 goals with a pair of power-play scores.
Joel Ward and Eric Fehr also scored for the Capitals, who won their fourth straight in their chase for one of the Eastern Conference’s final playoff spots.
Patrice Bergeron and Shawn Thornton had Boston’s goals.
Tampa Bay stayed in the thick of the Atalantic divisional fight as Martin St Louis scored twice for the second consecutive game to lead the Lightning to a 4-2 win over the Dallas Stars.
Nate Thompson and Sami Salo also scored for Tampa Bay, while Antoine Roussel and Vernon Fiddler each had a goal and an assist for Dallas.
In Philadelphia, Wayne Simmonds had a goal and an assist to lead the Flyers to a 4-3 victory over the New York Rangers.
Vincent Lecavalier, Sean Couturier and Luke Schenn also scored for Philadelphia, as Chris Kreider and Derick Brassard netted for the Rangers.
Elsewhere in the league, the Los Angeles Kings won their third game in four days since the season resumed from the Sochi Olympics break by beating Carolina 3-1, while Winnipeg won by the same scoreline in Nashville with goals from Olli Jokinen, Andrew Ladd and Devin Setoguchi.
In Saturday’s other action, Columbus beat Florida 6-3 with four goals coming from special teams, while Calgary’s Sean Monahan scored twice — including the overtime winner — to lead the Flames over the Oilers in a 2-1 victory.
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
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