Cam Ward recorded his second career regular-season shutout -- both against Washington -- and Justin Williams, Niclas Wallin and Andrew Ladd scored leading the Carolina Hurricanes to a 3-0 win on Friday.
Ward made 25 saves for the defending Stanley Cup champions, who entered the day in a three-way tie for the eighth and final Eastern Conference playoff berth with the idle Toronto Maple Leafs and New York Rangers.
The Capitals have lost six consecutive games and 11 of 12. The Hurricanes had lost three of their previous four games, scoring only six goals in that span. The offense was a bit better -- although Wallin's goal was an empty-netter with 29.9 seconds left -- but credit goes to Ward and his defense for holding Alex Ovechkin and the Capitals in check.
Red Wings 3, Kings 2, OT
At Detroit, Mikael Samuelsson's goal 3:26 into overtime completed a comeback and lifted Detroit over Los Angeles.
Pavel Datsyuk had a goal and an assist, and Brett Lebda also scored for Detroit. Dominik Hasek, who returned after missing three games, made 24 saves.
Stars 3, Blue Jackets 0
At Colombus, Ohio, Sergei Zubov, Niklas Hagman and Mike Ribeiro scored goals and Marty Turco posted his 29th career shutout to lead Dallas past Columbus.
It was the 15th time Columbus has been shut out this season, extending a club record.
Wild 5, Sabres 1
At Buffalo, New York, third-string rookie goalie Josh Harding made 35 saves, and Dominic Moore scored twice to lift Minnesota over Buffalo.
Ducks 5, Oilers 1
At Anaheim, California, Ryan Getzlaf had two goals and an assist, Corey Perry and Dustin Penner each had a goal and an assist, and Anaheim beat Edmonton for its fourth straight victory.
Andy McDonald scored his 20th goal for the Pacific Division leaders, helping send Edmonton to its sixth straight loss.
Canucks 2, Sharks 1, OT
At San Jose, California, Henrik Sedin scored a breakaway goal with 1:30 left in overtime, and Roberto Luongo became Vancouver's single-season victories leader with 25 saves.
Taylor Pyatt's goal early in the third period ended more than eight periods of scoreless hockey by Sharks goalie Evgeni Nabokov, but captain Patrick Marleau tied it with a snappy power-play goal with 6:58 left.
Sedin then got a sharp pass from Kevin Bieksa and sneaked behind new Sharks defenseman Craig Rivet late in overtime, barely sliding the puck under Nabokov as he sprawled on the ice.
Shaquille O’Neal is staying with TNT Sports on a new contract worth more than US$15 million per year, Front Office Sports reported on Friday. The news means the cast of Inside the NBA is staying together even as TNT is set to license out the show to ESPN starting next season. TNT was the odd network out in the NBA’s recent TV rights negotiations, as NBC and Amazon joined previous rightsholder ESPN in inking deals for basketball games. That left TNT without a need for pregame and postgame NBA shows. In a trade with ESPN, TNT is licensing Inside the NBA to the
Juventus on Sunday stopped Inter from replacing SSC Napoli at the top of Serie A by beating their fierce rivals 1-0 and moving into the UEFA Champions League positions. Francisco Conceicao made sure that Napoli would stay two points ahead of reigning champions Inter by classily tucking home the winning goal 16 minutes before the end of an entertaining contest in Turin. Portugal attacker Conceicao netted his fourth goal of the season in all competitions after brilliant work from Randal Kolo Muani to give Juve a third straight league win. Juve are in fourth place on 46 points, ahead on goal-difference from SS
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