Mike Grier's goal with 4.6 seconds remaining lifted the Buffalo Sabres to a 6-5 victory over the Philadelphia Flyers on Saturday.
Chris Drury, Teppo Numminen, Jochen Hecht, Jean-Pierre Dumont and Daniel Briere also scored for Buffalo, which has won five straight games to get within two points of Northeast Division-leading Ottawa.
Mike Richards, Simon Gagne, Mike Knuble, Sami Kapanen and Brian Savage scored for struggling Philadelphia, which came in one point behind the first-place New York Rangers in the Atlantic Division.
PHOTO: AP
Martin Biron replaced Ryan Miller after two periods and stopped Philadelphia's only shot in the third. Miller gave up five goals on 20 shots.
The Flyers have lost five of their last seven games, with the two victories coming in shootouts.
Drury's power-play goal tied it at 5 in the third period.
Sharks 3, Predators 2, OT
At San Jose, California, Christian Ehrhoff scored a power-play goal 2:56 into overtime, and San Jose overcame Tomas Vokoun's 39-save performance for a fight-filled victory over Nashville.
Paul Kariya forced overtime by scoring his second goal of the game on a backhand with 10.9 seconds left in regulation.
Mark Smith scored a power-play goal with 7:47 left in the third period, and Jonathan Cheechoo also scored for the Sharks, who have won five straight home games.
Nashville's Scott Nichol and Brendan Witt and San Jose's Milan Michalek and Scott Parker got game misconducts after a series of fights -- and midway through the second period, Parker attempted to climb over the barrier separating the benches to fight Witt, who pounded rookie Michalek in a first-period fight.
Vesa Toskala made 17 saves for the Sharks, who were without injured starter Evgeni Nabokov.
Maple Leafs 5, Lightning 1
At Toronto, Jason Allison scored twice and had an assist, and Toronto defeated Tampa Bay in a matchup of struggling teams.
Matt Stajan, Mats Sundin and Nik Antropov also scored for the Maple Leafs, who have won just six of their last 22 games.
Ruslan Fedotenko scored the lone goal for the defending Stanley Cup champion Lightning, who have lost six of nine and allowed 50 goals during the skid.
Mikael Tellqvist, Toronto's backup goalie, made 29 saves.
Islanders 3, Bruins 1
At Boston, Trent Hunter tipped in Miroslav Satan's shot to snap a tie with 5:01 left and New York beat slumping Boston.
New York won for the second straight night, despite unloading four veteran players -- two forwards and two defensemen -- at the trading deadline.
Alexei Yashin added an empty-net goal with 23.3 seconds left. Rick DiPietro made 32 saves for the Islanders.
After a scoreless first period, Brian Leetch gave Boston a 1-0 lead in the second. Mike York tied it 2:04 later.
Blue Jackets 4, Oilers 3, OT
At Columbus, Ohio, Rostislav Klesla scored from a hard angle in a wild final minute of overtime to give Columbus a win over Edmonton.
Nikolai Zherdev and linemate Sergei Fedorov each had a goal and an assist for Columbus, with Trevor Letowski adding a goal.
Ryan Smyth, Jaroslav Spacek and Michael Peca had goals for the Oilers, who hadn't lost in Columbus in more than four years. They blew two two-goal leads and lost for only the second time (against 16 wins) when leading after two periods.
Sergei Samsonov had two assists in his Oilers debut after being acquired in a trade with Boston on Thursday. Ales Hemsky also had two assists for Edmonton, 7-0-4 in its previous 11 games against the Blue Jackets.
Edmonton's Dwayne Roloson fell to 0-2 since he was acquired Wednesday from Minnesota.
Red Wings 6, Blackhawks 4
At Detroit, Steve Yzerman scored twice and Detroit had three goals in each of the first two periods against Chicago.
Pavel Datsyuk and Kris Draper each added a goal and an assist for Detroit. Mark Mowers and Henrik Zetterberg also scored, and Brendan Shanahan had three assists.
Matthew Barnaby and Curtis Brown each had a goal and an assist, and Michael Holmqvist and Patrick Sharp added goals for Chicago.
Penguins 6, Devils 3
At Pittsburgh, Sidney Crosby helped chase Martin Brodeur by late in the second period with two goals and an assist for Pittsburgh.
Brodeur had won six in a row in Pittsburgh since Nov. 27, 2001, only to be pulled after allowing six goals on 16 shots while starting for the second night in a row.
Crosby scored his 30th of the season only 42 seconds in and set up Ryan Malone's short-handed goal less than four minutes in.
Andy Hilbert, playing his first game for Pittsburgh after being claimed from the Blackhawks, also had a goal -- his first in 17 games -- and an assist.
John Madden, Erik Rasmussen and Jamie Langenbrunner scored for New Jersey.
Canadiens 1, Rangers 0
At Montreal, Cristobal Huet recorded his second shutout in two games and Craig Rivet scored on a power play in the first period, leading Montreal over the New York Rangers.
The sold-out crowd observed a moment of silence before the game in honor of Bernie "Boom Boom" Geoffrion, who died earlier in the day in Atlanta. Moments earlier Geoffrion's wife Marlene -- the daughter of Canadiens great Howie Morenz -- and the couple's three children raised Geoffrion's No. 5 jersey to the rafters alongside the No. 7 of her father.
Huet, who made 28 saves in Thursday's 3-0 win in Boston, stopped 26 shots in his 13th straight start and earned his fifth shutout of the season.
New York's Henrik Lundqvist made 23 saves.
Panthers 4 Hurricanes 3
At Sunrise, Florida, Joel Kwiat-kowski scored 1:41 into overtime to push Florida past Carolina.
Olli Jokinen, Jon Sim and Jozef Stumpel also scored for Florida and Roberto Luongo had 39 saves. It was the third straight win for the Panthers and the second in two nights against Carolina.
Doug Weight, Matt Cullen and Kevyn Adams scored for Carolina. Martin Gerber stopped 26 shots.
The Panthers, who trailed 3-1, tied it in the third.
Mighty Ducks 5, Coyotes 3
At Glendale, Arizona, Rob Niedermayer scored twice, Teemu Selanne added his team-leading 28th goal, and Anaheim gained ground in the Western Conference playoff race.
Jonathan Hedstrom and Francois Beauchemin scored 43 seconds apart late in the second period for the Mighty Ducks, who won for the fifth time in seven games (5-1-1) and moved within two points of eighth-place Edmonton in the West.
Geoff Sanderson and Steven Reinprecht scored 48 seconds apart midway through the first period, and Shane Doan added a late third-period goal for the Coyotes, who have lost seven of nine (2-6-1).
Kings 2, Blues 1
At St. Louis, Mathieu Garon made 31 saves and stopped all three attempts in the shootout, lifting Los Angeles over St. Louis.
Luc Robitaille scored the only goal of the shootout. Mark Parrish, in his second game with the Kings, scored his 25th goal -- which leads Los Angeles.
Patrick Lalime, starting his second game since returning from the minors, made 25 saves for the Blues. St. Louis is winless against the Kings (0-3) and 1-12-2 in the second game of back-to-back matches this season. Petr Cajanek had the only goal for St. Louis.
Stars 2, Canucks 1
At Vancouver, British Columbia, Mike Modano scored the tying goal 5 minutes into the third period and then netted the winner with 5 minutes left as Dallas rallied to beat Vancouver.
Modano ripped a drive from the point on the power play, beating a screened Alex Auld low on the stick side to make it 2-1 with 4:38 remaining.
Marty Turco only needed to make 14 saves for the win, but had to be at his best late as the Canucks spent the final 1:49 on the power play. Vancouver pulled Auld for a 6-on-4 skating advantage in the final minute.
Jere Lehtinen added two assists for the Stars, who outshot the Canucks 29-15 and won for the fourth time in five games.
Henrik Sedin scored a short-handed goal with 24.5 seconds left in the second period for the Canucks, who have lost four of five.
With his team clinging to the eighth and final Western Conference playoff spot with only five weeks left in the regular season, Edmonton Oilers General Manager Kevin Lowe was busy as last Thursday's trading deadline approached.
But at what cost?
On Wednesday, Lowe acquired the 36-year-old goaltender Dwayne Roloson from Minnesota for Edmonton's first-round pick in this summer's entry draft. On Thursday, Lowe obtained the 27-year-old left wing Sergei Samsonov, the 1997 rookie of the year, from Boston for a second-round pick in the draft, as well as forwards Marty Reasoner and Yan Stastny.
Considering that he swapped a first-round pick and a second-round pick in two days for two players who are eligible for free agency after the season, one had to wonder if Lowe was trading for the present at the expense of his team's future.
But the Oilers -- who, at 32-22-9 and 73 points lead Anaheim by three points for the final playoff spot in the West entering Saturday's games -- could do some damage in this season's playoffs, if they can get in.
"Yes and no," Lowe, who won five Stanley Cups with the Oilers and another with the Rangers, said Friday by telephone. "Of course, we wouldn't have done it if we didn't think we had a chance. But we've really stockpiled a lot of young players. We have five or six A prospects in our system and a whole lot of B's and C's. Plus, we still have an additional second-round pick in the draft.
"So, really, we gave up our first-round pick in a weak draft, which will probably be anywhere from No. 18 to 22. We just felt it was worth the risk this time."
Inconsistent goaltending has plagued the Oilers all season. They entered Friday ranked 19th in the 30-team league with a 3.13 goals against average. Hence the trade for Roloson, who allowed five goals on 31 shots Thursday in his Edmonton debut, a 5-2 loss to San Jose.
Considering Roloson's age and his impending status as an unrestricted free agent this summer, many people around the league felt that Lowe gave up too much with the first-round pick.
ANOTHER TAMBELLINI
Perhaps the person most interested in Jeff Tambellini's debut with the Islanders on Friday was watching in Vancouver, British Columbia: his father, Steve, who is considered a candidate to be the Islanders' next general manager.
"I was excited for him that he gets a chance to step in and have an opportunity right now," Steve Tambellini, the Canucks' assistant general manager, said on Friday.
The Islanders obtained Jeff Tambellini, a 21-year-old left wing; Denis Grebashkov, a 22-year-old defenseman; and a conditional third-round pick in this summer's draft for Mark Parrish and Brent Sopel.
Before Friday's game at Nassau Coliseum -- a 2-1 Islanders' victory over Toronto in a shootout -- Tambellini, a first-round pick in the 2003 draft, joked that he had beaten his father back to Long Island.
Steve Tambellini, who played with the Islanders from 1979 to 1981 and was also an original member of the Devils in 1982-1983, said: "I'm not going to go there with that. I'm just pleased that Jeff's happy with his new place to play."
Taiwanese tennis veteran Hsieh Su-wei (謝淑薇) and her Latvian partner Jelena Ostapenko finished runners-up in the Wimbledon women's doubles final yesterday, losing 6-3, 2-6, 4-6. The three-set match against Veronika Kudermetova of Russia and Elise Mertens of Belgium lasted two hours and 23 minutes. The loss denied 39-year-old Hsieh a chance to claim her 10th Grand Slam title. Although the Taiwanese-Latvian duo trailed 1-3 in the opening set, they rallied with two service breaks to take it 6-3. In the second set, Mertens and Kudermetova raced to a 5-1 lead and wrapped it up 6-2 to even the match. In the final set, Hsieh and
Taiwanese tennis veteran Hsieh Su-wei and her Latvian partner, Jelena Ostapenko, advanced to the Wimbledon women’s doubles final on Friday, defeating top seeds Katerina Siniakova of the Czech Republic and Taylor Townsend of the US in straight sets. The fourth-seeded duo bounced back quickly after losing their opening service game, capitalizing on frequent unforced errors by their opponents to take the first set 7-5. Maintaining their momentum in the second set, Hsieh and Ostapenko broke serve early and held their lead to close out the match 6-4. They are set to face the eighth-seeded pair of Veronika Kudermetova of Russia and Elise Mertens
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