SCOREBOARD
Saturday, March 8
N.Y. Islanders at Philadelphia (7 p.m. EST). The Flyers, who hold the last playoff spot in the Eastern Conference, look to move up against the Islanders.
Sunday, March 9
San Jose at Minnesota (4 p.m. EDT). The Sharks try to reach franchise records with nine straight wins and seven consecutive road victories when they visit the Wild.
STARS
Thursday
-Patrick Elias, Devils, scored in the final minute of overtime to give New Jersey a 2-1 win over Tampa Bay.
-Andrew Cogliano, Oilers, scored 1:53 into overtime and Edmonton defeated Columbus 2-1.
-Erik Christensen, Thrashers, scored the only goal in the shootout and Atlanta rallied for a 3-2 win over Minnesota.
-J.P. Dumont, Predators, scored 2:13 into overtime, leading Nashville to a 2-1 victory at Calgary.
WOUNDED DUCK
Anaheim right wing Corey Perry will be sidelined about six weeks after surgery for a lacerated tendon above his right knee. He was injured by a skate in the third period of the Ducks’ 1-0 loss at Colorado on Thursday night. Perry leads the team with 29 goals and is second on the club with 54 points.
REMEMBERING THE PAST
The Chicago Blackhawks honored Hall of Famers Bobby Hull and Stan Mikita before their game Friday night against San Jose. Earlier this season, the team announced that the two long-estranged stars would “rejoin the Blackhawks family” as ambassadors. Hull is the Blackhawks’ career goals leader with 604. Mikita holds team records for points (1,467), assists (926) and games (1,394). Both starred in the 1960s and into the 1970s, and played for Chicago’s last Stanley Cup winning team in 1961.
BACK ON TOP
New Jersey regained first place in the Eastern Conference by beating Tampa Bay 2-1 in overtime on Friday night. The Devils jumped over idle Montreal and Pittsburgh to reclaim first in the East for the first time since Feb. 29 with 84 points, one more than the Canadiens and Penguins.
EIGHT STRAIGHT
San Jose tied a team record with its eighth straight win Friday night, edging Chicago 3-2. The streak equals the team’s run from April 3-15, 2006. The Sharks also won their sixth straight on the road, tying a team high. They have the NHL’s best road record at 23-8-3.
ON THE PROWL
Nashville moved past Vancouver and into a tie with Colorado for seventh place in the Western Conference, and improved to 3-2 on its season-long six-game road trip with Friday night’s 2-1 overtime win at Calgary. The trip wraps up Sunday against NHL-leading Detroit.
SNAPPED
Atlanta snapped an eight-game losing streak by beating Minnesota 3-2 on Friday night. Ilya Kovalchuk tied the game in the final minute of regulation for the Thrashers before Erik Christensen got the only goal of the shootout.
ELIAS STATS
New Jersey’s Patrik Elias recorded his eighth winning goal of the season, and team-record 60th in his career, with an overtime tally that gave the Devils a 2-1 win over Tampa Bay on Friday night. His 14 overtime goals are also a franchise mark.
HOME WOES
Columbus, which had the league’s fourth-best home record in mid-January, had its winless streak at Nationwide Arena reach seven games after falling to Edmonton 2-1 in overtime on Friday night. The skid is one shy of the franchise record.
SPEAKING
“We haven’t scored goals. That falls on our core people.” – Tampa Bay coach John Tortorella after a 2-1 overtime loss at New Jersey on Friday night. Vincent Lecavalier, who scored an NHL-best 52 goals last season, went a 12th straight game without one – his worst stretch in seven years – and Martin St. Louis has just two assists in 10 games.