Caps Roll; Preds Gain

Lots of headlines from Tuesday's 11 games, including the Capitals rolling without Ovechkin, the Canadiens and Coyotes winning again, and the Stars derailing the Sharks. But tonight's GON goes to an inter-conference matchup:

3 4 (SO)

Both teams entered Tuesday in 7th place in their respective conferences and at the end of the day, both teams are 6 points in a playoff spot. Philadelphia earned their 1 point coming back from a 3-1 3rd period deficit.

Jeff Carter opened the scoring for the Flyers less than a minute-and-a-half in to give Philadelphia a 1-0 lead. Steve Sullivan, Martin Erat, and Jerred Smithson each had a goal for Nashville in the 1st period to give the Predators a 3-1 lead after the 1st, taking that lead all the way into the 3rd.

The Flyers trailed 3-1 more than halfway through the 3rd period when Simon Gagne scored to make it 3-2. About 3 minutes later, Chris Pronger tallied on the power play to tie the game at 3.

After a scoreless overtime, Martin Erat scored the only goal in the shootout and Nashville's goalie Pekka Rinne stopped all 3 Flyers' shooters. Rinne ended the game with 42 saves, earning first-star honors.

The Predators have won 3-straight and are within 2 points of 6th-place Los Angeles in the West. The Flyers are within 1 point of 6th-place Montreal in the East.

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7 3

No Ovie, no problem--again--for Washington. Brooks Laich scored twice while Nicklas Backstrom, Eric Fehr, Brendan Morrison, Jason Chimera, and Alexander Semin each scored for the Capitals. Laich and Morrison each added 2 assists to finish with 3 points.

Steven Reinprecht, Kamil Kreps, and Michal Repik tallied for Florida. Panthers' starting goalie Tomas Vokoun, arguably the team's MVP this season, was pulled after allowing 5 goals on 21 shots. Jose Theodore stopped 24 shots for Washington.

The Capitals are now 7-2 this season without Ovechkin, averaging over 4 goals a game in those 9. They will be without him against the Hurricanes in Raleigh on Thursday while he serves the final game of his 2-game suspension.

The Capitals are up to 103 points and have a 7-point edge over the Sharks for the President's Trophy. Florida is 8 points out of a playoff spot.

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Bruins 5 Hurricanes 2

Boston's big win has them sitting in the 8th and final playoff spot in the East with 74 points and 3 points up on the 9th-place Rangers with a game-in-hand on New York. Carolina has 64 points and sits 14th in the East.

Sabres 3 Thrashers 4

Atlanta keeps their playoff hopes alive with a big win over Northeast Division-leading Buffalo. Jim Slater broke a 3-3 tie for the Thrashers with under 7 minutes left in the 3rd period. They sit 10th in the East and are 5 points out of 8th. Buffalo holds a 3-point lead over Ottawa for 1st in the Northeast and they sit 3rd in the Conference.

Canadiens 3 Rangers 1

New York fails to stay within 1 point of a playoff spot and now sits in 9th and 3 points out in the East. Montreal's 6th-straight win has them at 78 points and 6th place in the East.

Maple Leafs 4 Senators 1

Last-place Toronto hits the 60-point mark in their 70th game of the season. Ottawa's loss has them 3 points behind Buffalo for the Northeast lead and they sit 5th in the East with 79 points.

Coyotes 2 Lightning 1

Phoenix wins their 6th-straight and they now have 91 points and are sitting pretty in 4th place in the West. Their win coupled with a Sharks' loss has Phoenix within 5 points of Pacific Division and Western Conference-leading San Jose. Tampa Bay has lost 2-straight 2-1 games at home and they are now 6 points out of the final playoff spot in the East.

Avalanche 5 Blues 3

Colorado is up to 86 points and they pass the idle Kings for 5th in the Western Conference. St Louis is 7 points out of 8th in the West with only 13 games to go as it doesn't look like they will have a run like they did last season to make the playoffs.

Oilers 2 Wild 4

Minnesota keeps their slight playoff hopes alive with a win over last-place Edmonton. The Wild are 10th in the West with 74 points and are 6 points behind 8th-place Detroit. Edmonton has lost 3-straight overall and 6-straight on the road and remain at 49 points.

Sharks 2 Stars 8

In a game that seems like it was all Dallas, one of the biggest stories was Stars' goaltending. Kari Lehtonen, who was traded to Dallas from Atlanta earlier in the season, stopped 45 shots and earned first-star honors. Mike Ribeiro and Brendan Morrow each had 2 goals and 2 assists for the Stars. San Jose remains at 96 points and 1st in the West, but their Conference lead and even their Division lead could be in question. Dallas is 7 points out of a playoff spot.

Islanders 5 Canucks 2

New York's surprising outburst over Northwest Division-leading Vancouver gives them their 3rd-straight win. John Tavares, the first pick in last year's draft, tallied a point on every Islander goal. He ended the game with 2 goals and 3 assists. The Canucks scored their only 2 goals in the 2nd period when they outshot New York 19-4, but the Islanders also put up 2 goals on their 4 shots. Roberto Luongo stopped 8 of the Islanders 12 shots in the first 2 periods for Vancouver, and was replaced for the 3rd period. The Canucks remain in 3rd place in the West while the Islanders are 7 points out of the playoffs in the East.

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Wednesday's Schedule (ET):

Penguins @ Devils, 7:00

Flames @ Avalanche, 9:00

Blackhawks @ Ducks, 10:00, NHL Network, FS West

Missed Opportunities

Monday's Game of the Night:

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Coming into the game, Detroit was sitting in the 8th and final playoff spot in the Western Conference with 78 points. On their tails, the Calgary Flames, 1 point behind them and looking to capitalize on home-ice a day after losing to the Canucks in Vancouver.

It looked good for Calgary's "C of Red" right off the bat. Craig Conroy scored 1:47 into the tilt to give the Flames a 1-0 lead. Unfortunately for them, that was the only puck that found its way past Jimmy Howard.

Late in the 2nd period, with the Flames still up 1-0, Calgary's Curtis Glencross was awarded a penalty shot after being hooked from behind on a short-handed breakaway. He couldn't convert, and the Red Wings' Pavel Datsyuk scored on the same power play 40 seconds later to tie it at 1.

The Flames had another great chance to get their 2nd goal of the game and take the lead early in the third on a 4-minute power play. They tallied only 2 shots in those 4 minutes and ended the game 0-for-3 on the power play.

With 1:19 to go in regulation, Tomas Holmstrom deflected a Johan Franzen slapshot past Flames' goalie Miikka Kiprusoff to give Detroit a 2-1 lead and the win. Kiprusoff ended the game with 26 saves and was selected as the first star. Red Wings' goalie Jimmy Howard was the second star, finishing with 22 saves.

The win gives 8th-place Detroit a 3-point lead over 9th-place Calgary with 13 games remaining for each team.

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Bruins 2 Devils 3

New Jersey scored 3 goals in the first period--including one coming from a pass by goalie Martin Brodeur to spring David Clarkson to a breakaway and a goal--and held off the Bruins to move within 2 points of Pittsburgh for the Atlantic Division lead with 14 games remaining and a game-in-hand on the Penguins. Boston currently sits in 8th in the East with 72 points and failed on a chance to take a 3-point lead over the 9th-place Rangers.

Oilers 3 Blue Jackets 5

The battle of the last-place teams in the Western Conference proved to be a pretty good one. Kristian Huselius had a goal and 3 assists and Columbus finished with 5 different goal-scorers. They have 67 points and are 14th in the West. Edmonton is last place in the league, with 49 points, and are 9 points behind the next-highest team, Toronto. The Oilers are 8-23-3 on the road, and 1-14-1 on the road in their last 16 tries. They travel to Minnesota tomorrow.

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Tuesday's schedule (times ET):

Bruins @ Hurricanes, 7:00

Sabres @ Thrashers, 7:00

Canadiens @ Rangers, 7:30, Versus

Maple Leafs @ Senators, 7:30

Coyotes @ Lightning, 7:30

Capitals @ Panthers, 7:30, CSN

Avalanche @ Blues, 8:00

Flyers @ Predators, 8:00

Oilers @ Wild, 8:00

Sharks @ Stars, 8:30

Islanders @ Canucks, 10:00

Ovie Suspended; Versus is Back

Alex Ovechkin has been suspended for 2 games by the NHL for his hit on Blackhawks' Brian Campbell on Sunday. Campbell is reported to have suffered a broken collarbone and broken ribs and could be out the remainder of the season. Ovechkin will miss Tuesday's game at Florida and Thursday's game at Carolina, and is eligible for Saturday's game at Tampa Bay. This was his third game misconduct of the season and it is now his second suspension.

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For those of you that have DirecTV and haven't been able to see NHL games on Versus this season--i.e. me--because of the little scuffle between Comcast (which owns Versus) and DirecTV, you're now in luck. The two sides have reached an agreement and Versus is back on the DirecTV lineup starting today just in time for the final month of the season and thankfully in time for the playoffs.