ATLANTA – Dany Heatley scored two goals and the Atlanta Thrashers extended the Carolina Hurricanes’ winless streak to six games with a 5-1 victory Wednesday night.
Atlanta won for the fourth time in seven games despite being outshot 30-18.
Pasi Nurminen (17-18-4) recorded 29 saves for Atlanta, which moved within two points of third place in the Southeast Division behind Florida. The Panthers lost 2-1 to Buffalo on Wednesday night.
Carolina goalie Kevin Weekes (14-22-9) allowed four goals on 14 shots through the first two periods.
Atlanta scored first when Ilya Kovalchuk took a crossing pass from Lubos Bartecko and tapped the puck behind two Carolina players in the crease.
Ron Francis’ 536th career goal evened the score midway through the opening period, but Heatley’s slap shot from halfway between the right circle and the blue line put Atlanta ahead with 4:29 left in the period.
Jeff Cowan scored on a rebound of Marc Savard’s shot off the post to give the Thrashers a 3-1 cushion 1:47 into the second period.
Heatley, who has scored 14 points in the past eight games, put the game away with a power-play goal with 1:40 left in the second. It marked Heatley’s ninth two-goal game of the season, tied for third-most in the NHL.
Chris Tamer’s backhanded goal with 6:15 left, his first of the season, closed the scoring.
Blues 1, Wild 0
ST. PAUL, Minn. – Cory Stillman scored the game’s only goal and Chris Osgood recorded his second shutout since joining St. Louis as the Blues beat the Minnesota Wild 1-0 Wednesday night.
Osgood, who came over in a trade with the New York Islanders on March 11, stopped 31 shots as the Blues snapped a two-game losing streak. Minnesota has now lost two in a row, both shutouts, after clinching the team’s first-ever playoff berth on Sunday night.
It was the fourth shutout of the season for Osgood. He blanked the Nashville Predators 1-0 on March 15 in his first start with Blues.
Sabres 2, Panthers 1
BUFFALO, N.Y. – Daniel Briere’s power-play goal late in the second period gave the Buffalo Sabres a 2-1 win over the Florida on Wednesday night, the Panthers’ fourth straight loss.
With Olli Jokinen off for hooking, Briere tipped Miroslav Satan’s shot from the point past Robert Luongo for his 21st goal of the season and fourth in eight games.
Chris Taylor also scored his first NHL goal since Jan. 20, 2000 as Buffalo won its second straight.
Kristian Huselius scored for Florida, which has scored only one goal in the last four games.
Penguins 3, Rangers 1
NEW YORK – Martin Straka and Tomas Surovy scored power-play goals in the first period as the Pittsburgh Penguins snapped a 16-game winless streak with a 3-1 victory over the New York Rangers on Wednesday night.
Sebastien Caron made 33 saves and was 11:46 away from his third shutout in 22 career games before Brian Leetch scored his 10th goal of the season. Eric Meloche also scored for the Penguins, who were 0-14-2 since defeating St. Louis. on Feb. 22 and just two winless games away from tying the worst stretch in club history.
Send questions/comments to the editors.
