Martin Brodeur stopped 26 shots for his NHL-best eighth shutout of the season and the New Jersey Devils opened a 10-point lead in the Atlantic Division with a 1-0 win over the New York Rangers on Tuesday.
Defenseman Brad Lukowich scored in the first period, ending a 20-game goal drought with his second of the season. The surging Devils won for the ninth time in 11 games (9-1-1) and moved 10 points in front of the second-place Rangers.
Penguins 5, Islanders 2
PHOTO: AP
At Pittsburgh, Sidney Crosby and Erik Christensen each scored two goals to lead Pittsburgh over the New York Islanders.
Christensen added an assist, and Michel Ouellet had a goal and an assist for Pittsburgh, who moved into third place in the Atlantic Division with their second straight win.
Richard Park and Arron Asham scored for New York.
PHOTO: AP
Thrashers 6, Kings 2
At Atlanta, Marian Hossa picked up his second hat trick of the season and Atlanta defeated Los Angeles, ruining the first start for Kings goalie Yutaka Fukufuji.
Fukufuji, the first Japanese-born player in the NHL, was lifted less than two minutes into the second period after Jim Slater's deflection gave the Thrashers a 3-1 lead. He stopped only six of nine shots.
Blue Jackets 5, Blackhawks 4, OT
At Chicago, Jason Chimera scored at 2:31 of overtime to give Columbus a win over Chicago that snapped the Blue Jackets' four-game losing streak.
Chimera beat Nikolai Khabibulin between the legs with a shot from the right circle to complete a 2-on-1 break.
Sergei Fedorov, Rostislav Klesla, Joe Motzko and Fredrik Modin scored in regulation for the Blue Jackets.
Motzko's goal was his first in the NHL.
Maple Leafs 4, Lightning 2
At Tampa, Florida, Alex Steen snapped a third-period tie with a power-play goal and Andrew Raycroft made 21 saves to help Toronto beat Tampa Bay.
Rebounding from a poor performance in a 6-1 loss to Vancouver last Saturday, the Maple Leafs also got goals from Nik Antropov, Alexei Ponikarovsky and John Pohl, the latter wiping out a 2-1 deficit late in the second period.
Canucks 4, Canadiens 0
At Montreal, Roberto Luongo made 30 saves to post his third shutout of the season and Vancouver won its fifth consecutive road game, beating the slumping Montreal.
Josh Green, Lukas Krajicek, Ryan Kesler and Jan Bulis scored for the surging Canucks, who have won nine of 10 to move past Calgary into first place in the Northwest Division.
Senators 5, Capitals 2
At Ottawa, Mike Comrie scored twice and Daniel Alfredsson had a short-handed goal and an assist as Ottawa extended its winning streak to a season-high five games with a victory over Washington.
Comrie, acquired in a Jan. 3 trade with Phoenix, scored a power-play goal 19:33 into the first. He added his second of the game -- his fourth in four games -- midway through the second to increase Ottawa's lead to three.
Oilers 2, Wild 1
At St. Paul, Minnesota, Joffrey Lupul and Marc-Andre Bergeron each scored a power-play goal, and Edmonton held off Minnesota.
The Oilers, who have the NHL's best penalty-kill unit on the road, held Minnesota scoreless in six power plays to snap a seven-game losing streak against Northwest Division opponents.
Hurricanes 3, Panthers 2, OT
At Sunrise, Florida, Justin Williams scored a power-play goal at 1:47 of overtime to give Carolina a victory over Florida.
With Mike Van Ryn in the penalty box for holding, Williams beat Ed Belfour with a wrist shot over his right shoulder. Scott Walker and Erik Cole also scored for Carolina, which improved to 17-0 this season when leading after two periods.
Blues 6, Ducks 2
At Anaheim, California, Eric Brewer had a goal and two assists, Radek Dvorak added three assists and the steadily improving St. Louis breezed past NHL-leading Anaheim.
Petr Cajanek had a goal and an assist for the Blues, who got a short-handed goal from Jamal Mayers to cap a four-goal second period. It was the first short-handed goal given up this season by the Ducks, who were the only team that hadn't allowed one.
Bologna on Thursday advanced past Empoli to reach their first Coppa Italia final in more than half a century. Thijs Dallinga’s 87th-minute header earned Bologna a 2-1 win and his side advanced 5-1 on aggregate. Giovanni Fabbian opened the scoring for Bologna with a header seven minutes in. Then Viktor Kovalenko equalized for Empoli in the 30th minute by turning in a rebound to finish off a counterattack. Bologna won the first leg 3-0. In the May 14 final in Rome, Bologna are to face AC Milan, who eliminated city rivals Inter 4-1 on aggregate following a 3-0 win on Wednesday. Bologna last reached the
If the Wild finally break through and win their first playoff series in a decade, Minnesota’s top line likely will be the reason. They were all over the Golden Knights through the first two games of their NHL Western Conference quarter-finals series, which was 1-1 going back to Minnesota for Game 3 today. The Wild tied the series with a 5-2 win on Tuesday. Matt Boldy had three goals and an assist in the first two games, while Kirill Kaprizov produced two goals and three assists. Joel Eriksson Ek, who centers the line, has yet to get on the scoresheet. “I think the biggest
The Minnesota Timberwolves, with so many promising performances spoiled by late mistakes fresh in their memory bank, sure timed this strong finish well. Jaden McDaniels scored a career playoff-high 30 points and spearheaded Minnesota’s stifling defense on an ailing Luka Doncic, and the Timberwolves beat the Los Angeles Lakers 116-104 to take a 2-1 lead in the best-of-seven Western Conference first-round series in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on Friday night. “Jaden never looks tired. He looks like he could play 48 minutes,” said teammate Anthony Edwards, who had 29 points, eight rebounds and eight assists. Julius Randle added 22 points for the Wolves, who outscored
From a commemorative jersey to a stadium in his name, Argentine soccer organizers are planning a slew of tributes to their late “Captain” Pope Francis, eulogized as the ultimate team player. Tributes to the Argentine pontiff, a lifelong lover of the game, who died on Monday at the age of 88, have been peppered with soccer metaphors in his homeland. “Francisco. What a player,” the Argentine Football Federation (AFA) said, describing the first pope from Latin America and the southern hemisphere as a generational talent who “never hogged the ball” and who showed the world “the importance of having an Argentine captain,
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