Olli Jokinen scored in the third round of a shootout to give the Florida Panthers a 3-2 victory over the New York Rangers on Friday in a game that saw Jaromir Jagr become the NHL's first 50-goal scorer since 2002-2003.
Petr Sykora scored for New York in the shootout, but Michael Nylander and Jagr missed. Nathan Horton also scored for Florida and Jozef Stumpel missed. After Jagr's shot went just wide, Jokinen put the puck past Kevin Weekes for the deciding goal.
The Panthers closed within five points of Atlanta for the eighth and final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference, while the Rangers earned a point to move a point ahead of Philadelphia for first place in the Atlantic Division.
Jagr opened the scoring with 5:27 left in the first period.
The Czech star scored 50 goals for the third time in his career and became only the third player in Rangers history to accomplish the feat. Vic Hadfield had 50 in 1971-1972, and Adam Graves scored 52 goals in 1993-1994.
Jagr also is the first player to score 50 goals in a season since Milan Hejduk had 50 for Colorado in 2002-03. Calgary's Jarome Iginla, Atlanta's Ilya Kovalchuk and Nashville's Rick Nash tied for the league lead with 41 in 2003-2004, the last season before the lockout.
Sykora also scored in regulation for New York and Weekes had 40 saves. Horton and Gregory Campbell scored for the Panthers and Roberto Luongo had 26 saves.
Penguins 4, Islanders 3, OT
At Pittsburgh, Sidney Crosby scored with 1:32 left in overtime as Pittsburgh edged the New York Islanders.
Crosby, who earlier hit the post with Islanders goalie Rick DiPietro out of the net less than a minute into overtime, collected the puck in his own end and led a 2-on-1 break with Colby Armstrong against New York defenseman Radek Martinek.
Crosby's wrister from just inside the left-wing circle beat DiPietro on the short side for the rookie star's 32nd goal of the season.
Ryan Malone, Andy Hilbert and Sergei Gonchar also scored for Pittsburgh. Jason Blake, Trent Hunter and Sean Bergenheim scored for New York.
The Islanders, who led 3-1, have lost three of their last four games.
Devils 4, Bruins 2
At East Rutherford, New Jersey, Scott Gomez broke out of a scoring drought with a goal and an assist and Scott Clemmensen won in his first start for New Jersey since Dec. 29.
On a night when the Devils retired former defenseman Ken Daneyko's No. 3, they won for just the second time in their last seven games. They are seventh in the Eastern Conference, three points ahead of eighth-place Atlanta.
Brian Gionta, Zach Parise and Paul Martin also scored for New Jersey, and Clemmensen stopped 25 shots. Glen Murray and Brad Isbister scored for Boston.
Senators 3, Sabres 1
At Buffalo, New York, Ray Emery made 28 saves and Daniel Alfredsson, Antoine Vermette and Patrick Eaves scored to help Ottawa beat Buffalo and clinch a playoff spot.
The Eastern Conference-leading Senators won their fourth straight to improve to 12-1-1 in their last 14 games. Ottawa moved 27 points ahead of ninth-place Montreal, which has 13 games remaining.
Daniel Briere scored the lone goal for Buffalo, which has lost four straight, matching the team's longest losing streak this season.
Blue Jackets 3, Flames 2
At Columbus, Ohio, Jason Chimera scored his career-high 15th goal with 2:47 left to help Columbus beat Calgary and end a five-game losing streak.
Manny Malhotra and Nikolai Zherdev also scored, and Adam Foote tied a career high with three assists. Chuck Kobasew and Daymond Langkow scored for Calgary.
The US’ bid for a fourth consecutive CONCACAF Nations League title came to a stunning end as they fell 1-0 to Panama after a stoppage-time goal from Cecilio Waterman on Thursday in Inglewood, California. Despite dominating possession, the US struggled to break down a resilient Panama side for long periods. Panama spent the bulk of the match defending, but pounced on a giveaway by the US before substitute forward Waterman sent a shot from the right side of the area to the bottom left corner late in stoppage time. Up next for Panama in tomorrow’s final is to be Mexico, who beat
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