SCOREBOARD
Thursday, Feb. 28
Pittsburgh at Boston (7 p.m. EST). Marian Hossa is expected to make his debut for the Penguins against the Bruins.
STARS
Tuesday
-Ty Conklin, Penguins, stopped a career-high 50 shots to help Pittsburgh beat the New York Islanders 4-2.
-Sergei Samsonov, Hurricanes, tapped in his second goal of the game with 3:24 left in overtime to lift Carolina past New Jersey 2-1.
-Chris Higgins, Canadiens, had two goals and an assist and Montreal topped Atlanta 5-1.
-Loui Eriksson, Stars, scored twice and Dallas rallied for a 3-1 win at St. Louis.
-Paul Stastny, Avalanche, set up the tying goal then scored the overtime winner and Colorado stunned Calgary 3-2.
-Robert Nilsson, Oilers, scored the only goal of the shootout to give Edmonton a 4-3 win over Detroit.
HOSSA FOR HIRE
Pittsburgh made one of the biggest trades at Tuesday’s deadline by acquiring Marian Hossa from Atlanta for Colby Armstrong, Eric Christensen, top prospect Angelo Esposito and a first-round draft pick. A five-time All-Star right wing, Hossa has 26 goals and 30 assists in 60 games after tying for sixth in the NHL with 100 points last season. The Penguins also acquired forward Pascual Dupuis.
STARS ALIGNED
Dallas tried to boost its offense for the playoffs Tuesday, getting center Brad Richards from Tampa Bay in a five-player deal completed hours before the trade deadline. The Stars gave up backup goalie Mike Smith, forwards Jussi Jokinen and Jeff Halpern and a fourth-round pick in next year’s draft for Richards and starting Lightning goalie Johan Holmqvist. Richards, MVP of the playoffs when the Lightning won the Stanley Cup in 2004, was Tampa Bay’s fourth-leading scorer with 51 points (18 goals, 33 assists) in 62 games.
CAPITAL GAINS
Washington added three players on Tuesday, acquiring center Sergei Fedorov, goalie Cristobal Huet and gritty forward Matt Cooke in separate trades. The Capitals sent a minor league defenseman and a draft pick to Columbus for Fedorov, the 1994 Hart Trophy winner as league MVP, and a 2009 second-round draft pick to Montreal for Huet, a 2007 All-Star. Forward Matt Pettinger was traded to Vancouver for Cooke.
GETTING DEFENSIVE
San Jose acquired defenseman Brian Campbell from Buffalo on Tuesday for forward Steve Bernier and a first-round pick in the 2008 draft. Campbell, an unrestricted free agent at the end of this season, is tied for seventh among NHL defensemen with 43 points (5 goals, 38 assists) in 62 games,
BLANKETY, BLANK
Ottawa failed to score for the second straight game, falling at Boston 4-0 Tuesday night. The Senators, who had not gone two games without scoring since November 2000, have won just twice in their last eight games to fall into second place in the East after leading the conference for much of the season. Montreal moved within a point of Ottawa for the Northeast Division lead after beating Atlanta 5-1 on Tuesday.
LUCKY 13
Edmonton recorded its NHL-record 13th shootout win of the season with a a 4-3 victory over Detroit on Tuesday night. The mark was previously held by Dallas, which went 12-1 in 2005-06. The Oilers have also won their last five at home, but still trail eighth-place Nashville by nine points in the Western Conference standings.
SLUMPING
Detroit has dropped three straight games and nine of 10 after a 4-3 shootout loss at Edmonton on Tuesday night. The Red Wings went 1-3-1 on their five-game road trip, including a pair of 1-0 defeats. … St. Louis has lost four in a row (0-3-1) after a 3-1 loss to Dallas. The Blues have scored just three goals in their previous four games after scoring 10 in two games before that.
BAD NEWS, GOOD NEWS
New Jersey had a five-game winning streak snapped with a 2-1 overtime loss at Carolina on Tuesday night, but has recorded a point in each of its last nine contests (7-0-2).
NIGHT OF FIRSTS
Pittsburgh’s Connor James – just up from the minors – scored his first NHL goal during the third period of Tuesday night’s 4-2 win over the New York Islanders. … David Krejci recorded his first NHL goal in a 4-0 victory over Ottawa. … Detroit’s Jonathan Ericsson got his first career goal in a 4-3 shootout loss at Edmonton.
FLICKERING FLAME
After scoring 20 goals in his first 43 games, Calgary forward Kristian Huselius has just one in his last 21 after being blanked in Tuesday night’s 3-2 overtime loss to Colorado.
EXTENSION
Mike Comrie signed a one-year extension Tuesday worth $4 million to stay with the New York Islanders. He could have become an unrestricted free agent this summer.
SPEAKING
“I usually get a little nap in, but I went to bed with 20 minutes left in the deadline and didn’t sleep the two hours I usually sleep. I woke up and wasn’t moved so I was definitely happy.” – Montreal’s Chris Higgins on being the subject of trade rumors leading up to Tuesday’s deadline. Later that night, he had two goals and an assist in the Canadiens’ 5-1 win over Atlanta.