Advantage, Rangers in sweep of Islanders
Petr Prucha's power-play goal, during Chris Simon's major penalty late in the third period, lifted the New York Rangers to a 2-1 victory last night and a sweep of a home-and-home series with the Islanders last night at Uniondale, N.Y.
Prucha smacked in a shot from the slot, off a feed from Michael Nylander with 5:14 left in the game and 1:17 into Simon's penalty.
Simon was ejected after he flattened Rangers forward Ryan Hollweg by clotheslining him with his stick.
The Islanders thought they tied the game with 20.4 seconds left. Marc-Andre Bergeron's shot was stopped by Henrik Lundqvist and Trent Hunter slid the puck back to the goal line, where Lundqvist barely swept it out.
Hollweg drove Simon into the boards with a hard, clean check. Simon got up angrily and met Hollweg as they came together again. Hollweg fell to his back and rolled over onto his stomach by the boards. He was motionless for a few moments, and was bleeding from his chin when he got up.
Simon, who scored in the second period, was ejected -- slapped with a match penalty for deliberate attempt to injure.
The Rangers won, 2-1, Monday but needed a shootout to beat Rick DiPietro, who made an Islanders-record 56 saves.
Devils 4, Penguins 3 -- Patrik Elias had the deciding goal in the shootout as New Jersey extended its Atlantic Division lead to 8 points.
Andy Greene had his first career goal, and Sergei Brylin and Travis Zajac also scored for the Devils, who had lost three in a row but have reached 90 points. New Jersey beat the second-place Penguins in Pittsburgh for the second time in 10 days.
Thrashers 6, Canadiens 2 -- Jon Sim scored two goals and host Atlanta beat Montreal for its fifth consecutive victory, matching the team record and moving into first place in the Southeast Division.
Marian Hossa, Atlanta's leading scorer, had a pair of assists as the Thrashers broke a tie with idle Tampa Bay for the Southeast lead with 82 points.
Senators 5, Maple Leafs 1 -- Mike Fisher and Dean McAmmond each scored twice and Daniel Alfredsson had three assists as host Ottawa ended a three-game losing streak.
Ray Emery made 28 saves for Ottawa, which had blown three straight third-period leads over a 0-1-2 stretch, including allowing three goals 2:48 apart midway through the third period of Tuesday's 5-4 shootout loss to Pittsburgh.
Senators leading scorer Dany Heatley extended his points streak to 13 games with an assist on McAmmond's second goal.
Canucks 4, Coyotes 2 -- Jeff Cowan scored his sixth goal in four games and Markus Naslund also scored to help visiting Vancouver to its fourth straight win.
The Canucks moved 4 points ahead of Calgary for the Northwest Division lead. The Coyotes have lost 11 of their past 13 games.
Panthers 2, Flyers 1 -- Chris Gratton got credit for a fluke, tiebreaking goal early in the third period to lead visiting Florida, which has won six of its last seven games.
Gratton, who also had an assist, was credited with the goal that broke a 1-1 tie at 1:43 of the period when Flyers goaltender Martin Biron's clearing attempt bounced off the right skate of Randy Jones back into the net.
Predators 6, Flames 3 -- Jason Arnott had two goals and an assist and Nashville never trailed playing in its first home game since Feb. 24.
The Predators earned at least a point for a ninth straight game and padded their lead atop the NHL by 3 points over Buffalo and Detroit. Calgary lost for the first time in six games.
Blues 5, Stars 3 -- Doug Weight scored two goals to lead host St. Louis over Dallas.
The Blues are 7-3-1 in last their 11 games and snapped a two-game skid. Dallas has scored just five goals in going 0-2-2 in its last four games. Former Bruin Brad Boyes scored for the Blues.
