DENVER (AP) -Martin Brodeur stopped 24 shots in reaching 40 wins for a record seventh time, Jay Pandolfo added a goal and an assist, and the New Jersey Devils snapped Colorado’s five-game winning streak at home by beating the Avalanche 4-2 on Saturday.
Dainius Zubrus, Jamie Langenbrunner and John Madden also scored for the Devils, who have won five of six.
Brodeur (40-22-5) extended his own NHL record by reaching 40 wins again. He broke the league mark last season by earning 48 victories, and is 18 shy of topping former Avalanche goalie Patrick Roy’s career record of 551 wins.
Jose Theodore continued to struggle against the Devils, falling to 4-13 against New Jersey. Paul Stastny and John-Michael Liles scored for Colorado.
Bruins 3, Flyers 2, OT
BOSTON (AP) – Andrew Ference tied the game with 27 seconds left in regulation and Aaron Ward won it for Boston with 2:17 into overtime as the Bruins beat Philadelphia to stay ahead of the Flyers in the Eastern Conference playoff race.
Tim Thomas made 24 saves for Boston, stopping Jeff Carter on a breakaway in overtime.
Martin Biron stopped 33 shots for the Flyers, who coughed up a chance to take over seventh place in the conference. Boston, which had won just once in seven games, took a two-point lead over eighth-place Philadelphia with 10 games to play.
Mike Richards scored for the Flyers in his return from a nine-game hamstring injury, and Danny Briere also scored.
Chuck Kobasew gave the Bruins a first-period lead.
Predators 3, Red Wings 1
DETROIT (AP) – Rich Peverley’s second-period goal broke a tie, and Nashville snapped Detroit’s five-game winning streak.
Dan Hamhuis and Jerred Smithson also scored for Nashville, fighting for the final playoff spot in the Western Conference. Dan Ellis made 34 saves for the Predators, who broke a three-game losing streak.
Niklas Kronwall scored the lone goal for NHL-leading Detroit. Chris Osgood stopped 24 shots.
Canadiens 3, Islanders 0
MONTREAL (AP) – Jaroslav Halak stopped 30 shots for his first shutout of the season, and Roman Hamrlik, Alex Kovalev and Guillaume Latendresse scored for Montreal. Halak earned his third NHL shutout in his first home start of the season.
Montreal, which has nine games remaining, took over the Northeast Division lead with 89 points, two more than idle Ottawa.
New York lost its fifth in a row, one short of its longest losing streak of the season. Rick DiPietro stopped 26 shots and lost his fourth consecutive start.
The Canadiens finished the season series 4-0, their first sweep of the Islanders in 11 years.
Lightning 3, Rangers 0
TAMPA, Fla. (AP) – Mike Smith made 20 saves to lead Tampa Bay past the New York Rangers. Smith, acquired from Dallas on Feb. 26, has three shutouts in 29 games this season. The first two came with the Stars.
Tampa Bay got goals from Alexandre Picard, Martin St. Louis and Michel Ouellet. The Lightning, last in the Eastern Conference, have won three straight.
Henrik Lundqvist made 27 saves for the Rangers, who have lost two in a row after recording at least one point in 13 consecutive games (10-0-3). New York is sixth in the Eastern Conference but only four points ahead of ninth-place Buffalo, the first team below the postseason cutoff.
Sabres 6, Maple Leafs 2
TORONTO (AP) – Jason Pominville and Jochen Hecht each had a goal and two assists, and Buffalo moved within one point of the Eastern Conference’s postseason cutoff with a victory over Toronto.
Ales Kotalik, Drew Stafford, Dan Paille and Henrik Tallinder also had goals for Buffalo, one point behind eighth-place Philadelphia in the East.
Ian White and Jiri Tlusty scored for the Maple Leafs, who are in 12th place and trail the Flyers by six points.
Toronto’s late season playoff drive might ultimately have been derailed by an injury to captain and leading scorer Mats Sundin (groin). He missed his first game of the season. The Maple Leafs then lost No. 2 scorer Nik Antropov to a knee injury during the game.
Canucks 4, Stars 3
DALLAS (AP) – Brendan Morrison scored the tiebreaking goal early in the third period and added two assists to send Vancouver past Dallas Stars after the Canucks wasted an early three-goal lead.
Matt Pettinger, Ryan Kesler and Markus Naslund also scored for the Canucks, and Roberto Luongo made 34 saves.
Brad Richards scored a short-handed goal, Mike Modano notched his 526th career tally – tops among U.S.-born players – and Joel Lundqvist also scored for the Stars, who have lost four of five.
Wild 2, Kings 0
ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) – Niklas Backstrom’s first shutout since October and Marian Gaborik’s 200th NHL goal helped Minnesota snap a five-game losing streak.
Backstrom made 27 saves for his first shutout since Oct. 10 against Edmonton and Brian Rolston also scored for the Wild, who leapfrogged Colorado for first place in the Northwest Division.
Gaborik, who had played a sloppy game for the first 56 minutes with two penalties and two turnovers in Minnesota’s zone, sealed the much-needed win on an odd-man rush with 4 minutes to go.
Erik Ersberg made 24 saves for the Kings, who went 0-for-5 on the power play.
Add A Comment