Simon Gagne had two goals and an assist to lead the Philadelphia Flyers to their sixth straight victory, a 3-1 win over the Carolina Hurricanes on Wednesday night.
Matt Carle scored the go-ahead goal with just under 18 minutes left for the Flyers, who are on their longest winning streak in more than three years.
Gagne started the decisive sequence by leading an odd-man rush during a four-on-four play. He slipped the puck to Carle during Philadelphia’s three-on-one break and the defenseman put the Flyers up 2-1 by beating Cam Ward high to his glove side.
Antero Niittymaki made 27 saves for the Flyers, who have won six straight for the first time since Oct. 30 to Nov. 12, 2005. Chad LaRose scored for Carolina.
CAPITALS 5, THRASHERS 3
In Washington, Alex Ovechkin had his sixth career hat-trick and added an assist as Washington ended their three-game losing streak.
Eric Fehr and Viktor Kozlov added goals for Washington. Bryan Little, Slava Kozlov and Nathan Oystrick scored goals for Atlanta.
DEVILS 3, PANTHERS 2, OT
In Sunrise, Florida, Johnny Oduya scored with 55.5 seconds left in overtime to give New Jersey their fifth consecutive victory.
Scott Clemmensen stopped 35 shots, while Brian Gionta and Travis Zajac also scored for New Jersey, 6-5 since goalie Martin Brodeur was sidelined by a torn bicep.
Florida sent the game into overtime with two goals in the last 2 minutes, 19 seconds of regulation, the first by Jay Bouwmeester and the second by David Booth with 7.2 seconds left.
SHARKS 3, BLACKHAWKS 2, OT
In San Jose, California, Joe Thornton scored on a give-and-go with Ryane Clowe 45 seconds into overtime to give San Jose their fifth consecutive victory.
Evgeni Nabokov stopped 26 shots in his return from a seven-game injury absence, while Rob Blake and Patrick Marleau added goals to help NHL-leading San Jose improve to 12-0-1 at the Shark Tank.
Jonathan Toews had two goals for Chicago.
CANADIENS 3, RED WINGS 1
In Detroit, Michigan, Carey Price made 32 saves and Maxim Lapierre, Tomas Plekanec and Christopher Higgins scored second-period goals for Montreal.
Johan Franzen scored for Detroit, while Ty Conklin stopped 22 shots.
RANGERS 3, LIGHTNING 2, SO
In Tampa, Florida, Markus Naslund scored twice, including one of two New York goals in a shootout, to help the Rangers sweep the four-game season series.
Nikolai Zherdev had two assists and also scored in the shootout.
Henrik Lundqvist stopped 27 shots and also turned aside both Tampa Bay shots during the shootout.
Mark Recchi and Ryan Malone scored for the Lightning.
PENGUINS 5, ISLANDERS 3
In Uniondale, New York, Sidney Crosby scored a goal and set up two by Evgeni Malkin in a 5 minute, 35 second span of the third period for Pittsburgh.
Malkin finished with a hat-trick — all within the third — when he sealed the win with an empty-netter with 17.5 seconds left.
Brooks Orpik also scored and John Curry won in his NHL debut, stopping all 11 shots he faced after Dany Sabourin was chased from the net with Pittsburgh down 3-0. Doug Weight, Trent Hunter and Bill Guerin scored for New York.
SABRES 3, BRUINS 2
In Buffalo, New York, Derek Roy scored twice as Buffalo beat Boston to snap a five-game losing streak.
Jochen Hecht also scored to help Buffalo improve to 10-8-3 with their second victory in nine games. Buffalo goalie Ryan Miller made 27 saves.
Matt Hunwick and Phil Kessel scored for Boston (14-4-4), who had their four-game winning streak snapped. Boston’s Tim Thomas stopped 20 shots in losing for the first time in regulation since Oct. 30 at Calgary.
STARS 4, WILD 3
In St Paul, Minnesota, Loui Eriksson had a goal and two assists as Dallas overcame a two-goal deficit to beat the hosts.
Down 3-1 late in the second period, Dallas tied it on goals by James Neal and Brad Richards, then took the lead when Eriksson tipped Stephane Robidas’ shot for the winner with 7 minutes to play.
It was Eriksson’s team-leading 10th goal of the season.
Neal had two goals. Eric Belanger had goal and an assist for the Wild, while Owen Nolan and Andrew Brunette also scored.
COYOTES 3, BLUE JACKETS 2
In Columbus, Ohio, Viktor Tikhonov scored with 2 minutes, 32 seconds remaining and Mikael Tellqvist made 38 saves to help Phoenix end a six-game losing skid.
David Hale picked up his first career goal in his five seasons in the NHL and tough guy Daniel Carcillo added his second of the season.
Kristian Huselius and Jason Chimera scored for Columbus.
AVALANCHE 3, BLUES 1
In Denver, Colorado, Daniel Tjarnqvist scored his first goal in almost two years and had an assist for Colorado in a victory that made Paul Stastny a winner in his first NHL match-up against brother Yan.
Peter Budaj made 21 saves, while Ian Laperriere and Ryan Smyth added goals. Keith Tkachuk scored for St Louis.
KINGS 2, OILERS 1
In Edmonton, Alberta, Jason LaBarbera made 22 saves and Anze Kopitar and Patrick O’Sullivan each had a goal and an assist for Los Angeles.
Ales Hemsky scored for Edmonton.
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
DOMINATION: McLaren drivers Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris took the first two spots as Mercedes’ George Russell and Red Bull’s Max Verstappen followed them Australian Oscar Piastri yesterday roared back from season-opening disappointment in his home race by winning the Formula One Chinese Grand Prix from pole position in a McLaren one-two with championship-leading teammate Lando Norris. George Russell finished third for Mercedes, ahead of Red Bull’s reigning champion Max Verstappen with Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc and Saturday’s sprint winner Lewis Hamilton fifth and sixth respectively. Piastri’s win denied Norris a third victory in a row, including last year’s Abu Dhabi season-ender, but left champions McLaren unbeaten in two races so far this year. “Mega job guys. The car was very, very lovely,” Piastri said
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BRING THE NOISE: Brazil’s Fonseca attracted a boisterous crowd that brought such dominant soccer-style energy the referee switched to Portuguese to ask for quiet Australia’s Alex de Minaur on Monday put an end to Brazilian talent Joao Fonseca’s challenge at the Miami Open, outlasting the 18-year-old 5-7, 7-5, 6-3 in an enthralling contest. Attendance on stadium court had been sparse throughout the day, but the Hard Rock Stadium turned into a mini-Maracana Stadium for Fonseca’s match, complete with Brazilian flags and soccer-style chanting. Fonseca brought his energetic brand of ultra-attacking tennis, but De Minaur was up to the challenge, coping with blistering forehands and a partisan crowd. Such was the dominance of Fonseca’s raucous support that the referee switched to Portuguese for his appeals for quiet. However, De
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