Saturday night: Alex Ovechkin returns from his suspension, the Thrashers try and move closer to 8th, and the Kings look to rebound. But there's no question that our Game of the Night comes from sold-out Jobing.com Arena in Glendale, Arizona:
4 
5 (SO)In a battle between two top Western Conference teams, the Phoenix Coyotes outlast the Chicago Blackhawks in another unbelievable comeback, giving Phoenix their 8th-straight win.
A quiet 1st period saw Troy Brouwer score the only goal to give Chicago a 1-0 lead. Patrick Kane made it 2-0 on the power-play about 5 minutes into the 2nd period, but Wojtek Wolski cut the lead in half for the Coyotes just over 4 minutes later.
4 goals were scored in the first 7 minutes of the 3rd period. Lee Stempniak tied it at 2 for Phoenix 1:11 into the period. Andrew Ladd and Patrick Sharp scored 2 goals for Chicago almost a minute-and-a-half apart to quickly give the Blackhawks another 2-goal lead at 4-2. But the resilient Coyotes didn't back off.
Stempniak got his 2nd of the night just over 3 minutes later to cut the lead to 4-3. Adrian Aucoin tied the game at 4 with 5:07 remaining in regulation to send the sold-out arena into a frenzy. The game would go to overtime.
Phoenix had 2 glorious chances in overtime, including a missed penalty shot by Matthew Lombardi and a disallowed goal kicked in by Vernon Fiddler. But in the shootout, Radim Vrbata scored the only goal to seal the win for the Coyotes.
Ilya Bryzgalov made 34 saves for Phoenix, not including all three shots in the shootout, and Antti Niemi finished with 32 saves for Chicago.
Phoenix stays 3rd in the Western Conference with 95 points, but they are now 1 point behind San Jose for the Pacific Division lead and 2 points behind the Blackhawks for the Western Conference lead. They travel to Dallas to face the Pacific Division-rival Stars on Sunday
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3 
1Alex Ovechkin returned from his 2-game suspension on Saturday night in Tampa and scored his 45th goal of the season, his league-leading 97th point, as the Capitals move up to 106 points on the year.
Tomas Fleischmann started the scoring for Washington 2:40 into the game, giving the Capitals a 1-0 lead. Just over 4 minutes later, Vincent Lecavalier tied it at 1 for the Lightning.
Later in the period, Nicklas Backstrom fed a perfect pass off the boards to lead Ovechkin to a breakaway goal. It was Backstrom's 59th assist and 88th point of the season. Alexander Semin added his 33rd goal of the season in the 3rd to put the dagger in the Bolts.
Jose Theodore made 33 saves to win his 6th-straight game and moves to 16-0-2 in his last 18. Antero Niittymaki made 25 saves for Tampa Bay.
The Capitals now have a 9-point lead in the race for the President's Trophy. The Lightning were playing their 4th game of a disastrous 4-game homestand in which their playoff lives have all but ended. Their 0-4-0 homestand has them sitting 6 points back of the 8th and final playoff spot in the East, but they are in 12th place. Tampa Bay scored a total of 5 goals in those 4 games.
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0 
1The Kings scoring drought continues, but when your team's goalie makes every one of his saves, 1 goal will do. It wasn't pretty, but the Kings pick up 2 huge points.
Los Angeles has only scored 7 goals in their last 5 games, but they have now won 2 of those 5 and recorded an overtime loss in another. The win breaks a short 2-game losing streak for the Kings.
Brad Richardson scored the only goal of the game 13:35 into the 1st period, his 11th of the year. Wayne Simmonds tallied his 22nd assist on the goal.
Jonathan Quick ended the game with 26 saves and picked up his 4th shutout of the season and his 38th win. Dwayne Roloson finished with 25 saves for New York.
The Kings move up to 87 points in the West and are tied in points with Nashville for 5th place. They hold the 5th spot though because of their important 2 games-in-hand on the Predators. The Islanders go 0-1-1 in Southern California, and sit 13th in the East with 68 points and are 6 points out of 8th.
The Kings have a home-and-home coming up against Colorado, which sits 7th and is just 1 point back of the Predators and Kings in the Western Conference.
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Hurricanes 3 Penguins 2 (OT)
Jamie McBain scored his first NHL goal with 9-tenths of a second left in overtime to give Carolina the win over Pittsburgh. The Hurricanes have 68 points and move to within 6 points of the final playoff spot in the East with 11 games remaining. Pittsburgh's point gives them 90 and a 2-point lead over the Devils for the Atlantic-Division lead.
Senators 4 Stars 5
Dallas keeps their very slim playoff hopes alive and hands Ottawa their 5th-straight loss in the process despite a hat trick for Senators' Jason Spezza. The Stars are 11th in the West but are 8 points back of 8th-place Detroit with 11 games remaining. The Senators have 79 points and are tied in points with both Philadelphia and Montreal for 5th in the East.
Canadiens 2 Maple Leafs 3 (SO)
Toronto wins their 3rd-straight to give them 64 points on the year, staying in last in the East 3 points behind Florida for 14th. Montreal's point gives them 79 and they sit in 7th in the East but are tied in points for 5th place.
Blues 1 Devils 0
Alexander Steen scored the only goal of the game for St Louis late in the 1st period, and Ty Conklin made 29 saves to record his 4th shutout of the season in only his 10th win of the season for the Blues. Devils' Pierre-Luc Letourneau-Leblond and Blues' Cam Janssen had the longest fight of the season, going toe-to-toe for almost 3 minutes. The Blues move to 10th in the Western Conference and are 6 points back of Detroit for the last playoff spot. New Jersey stays 4th in the East with 88 points and are 2 points behind the Penguins for the Atlantic Division lead with a game-in-hand on Pittsburgh.
Flyers 2 Thrashers 5
Atlanta wins their 3rd-straight game after going 0-5-1 in their previous 6 to move back to 9th in the Eastern Conference with 73 points and 1 point back of Boston for 8th. 17,024 people attended the game at Philips Arena in Atlanta. The Flyers are tied for 5th in the East. These two teams play again on Sunday in Philadelphia.
Sabres 3 Panthers 1
Florida loses their 3rd-straight game as their playoff hopes have fallen off a cliff. They have 67 points and sit 14th in the East. The Sabres remain tops in the Northeast Division with 86 points and sit 3rd in the East.
Blue Jackets 0 Predators 1 (OT)
Pekka Rinne made 33 saves for Nashville to record his 2nd-straight shutout and 6th of the season. 3 of his last 4 wins have been by a shutout. Columbus' Steve Mason took a shutout into overtime, but Cody Franson beat him 1:54 into overtime to give the Predators the win. Mason finished with 30 saves. The Predators move to 6th in the Western Conference with 87 points, tied with L.A., but they have played 2 more games than the Kings. The Jackets have 70 points and are 14th in the West.
Red Wings 4 Canucks 3 (OT)
A 3-goal 2nd period, including 2 goals 5 seconds apart, and a Henrik Zetterberg overtime goal with less than 1 second remaining--the 2nd-straight night of last-second heroics for Detroit--moves the Red Wings 2 points ahead of 9th-place Calgary for the 8th and final playoff spot in the West. The Red Wings have 83 points, the Flames have 81, and both teams have 11 games remaining. Detroit ended the game with 54 shots on Roberto Luongo. Vancouver has 92 points and remains the leader in the Northwest Division by 6 over Colorado.
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Sunday's Schedule (ET):
Rangers @ Bruins, 12:30, NBC
Flames @ Wild, 3:00
Sabres @ Hurricanes, 5:00
Lightning @ Panthers, 5:00
Predators @ Blues, 6:00
Thrashers @ Flyers, 7:00
Coyotes @ Stars, 7:00
Sharks @ Oilers, 8:00
Avalanche @ Ducks, 8:00, Prime Ticket
