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
Wednesday
-Mats Sundin, Maple Leafs, scored his second goal with 1:08 left in regulation and Toronto scored the lone shootout goal to beat Florida 4-3.
-Patrick Lalime, Blackhawks, made 32 saves for his first shutout in more than a year and the 35th of his career as Chicago blanked Phoenix 1-0.
STANDINGS
Joe Sakic tied the game with 14.7 seconds left, and Marek Svatos scored the winning goal in the shootout, lifting Colorado to a 3-2 win over Northwest Division-rival Vancouver on Wednesday night. The Avalanche moved within one point of the third-place Canucks and three points behind division leaders Minnesota and Calgary.
GOOD START
Steve Bernier scored on his first two shots and added an assist in his Sabres’ debut, Toni Lydman had a career-high four assists and Ales Kotalik had a goal and two assists as Buffalo routed Nashville 8-4 Wednesday night. Bernier, acquired from San Jose on Tuesday, snapped a career-worst 12-game goal drought.
MAKING AN IMPACT
Newly acquired defenseman Brian Campbell notched his first point for San Jose and Jonathan Cheechoo ran his goal streak to four games as the Sharks won their third straight Wednesday night, 4-2 over Columbus.
CHANGES
Struggling Ottawa fired coach John Paddock on Wednesday, with just 18 games to go in the season. General manager Bryan Murray will take over as coach. Murray stepped aside to become general manager last summer, when Paddock was given the job. Assistant coach Ron Low was also fired, a day after the Senators were shut out for the second consecutive game.
SLUMPING
Tampa Bay’s 3-2 loss to Minnesota on Wednesday night was its fifth straight.
SWINGS
David Vyborny ended a 24-game goal drought by scoring twice for Columbus in a 4-2 loss to San Jose on Wednesday night.
MISSING OUT
Chad Kilger, acquired by Florida in a trade with Toronto, was granted a leave of absence by the Panthers on Wednesday due to personal reasons. Kilger flew back to Toronto after meeting with Jacques Martin, the Panthers coach and general manager, and team officials said it wasn’t known when he would return.
SIDELINED
Penguins defenseman Rob Scuderi will undergo surgery to repair a broken left little finger and will be sidelined three to four weeks. Scuderi, who played in Pittsburgh’s first 64 games this season, was injured during a 4-2 win over the Islanders on Tuesday night.
GOOD SHOOTING
Darwin Head, a 35-year-old sawmill worker from Saskatchewan, won slightly more than $1 million by shooting 15 of 20 pucks into the net from the far blue line in less than 24 seconds, as part of a television contest during the Vancouver-Colorado game Wednesday night.
SPEAKING
“It’s always a surprise when a coach gets let go. We’ve been struggling, but as a team I don’t think we thought it would come to the coach getting fired. It just shows the high standard we have in our dressing room, the city of Ottawa, and that our owner has. It shows how competitive a team they think we have.” – Ottawa center Jason Spezza on the firing of coach John Paddock on Wednesday.