Hurricanes get short shrift

Islanders boosted by 3 shorthanded goals

Despite the man advantage, Hurricanes Mike Commodore (right) and goalie Cam Ward can't stop this goal by the Islanders' Mike Sillinger. (Karl B DeBlaker/Associated Press)

Mike Sillinger scored two of New York's three shorthanded goals to lead the Islanders past the Carolina Hurricanes, 6-3, last night in Raleigh, N.C.

Richard Park also scored down a man, Sean Bergenheim scored on a breakaway while being dragged down, and Brendan Witt and Blake Comeau added late goals for the Islanders, who scored three shorthanded goals for the third time in franchise history and first since 2000.

Radek Martinek and Trent Hunter both had two assists and Comeau assisted on a goal for New York, which broke a 1-all tie with three goals in the second period and won its fourth straight road game.

Eric Staal, Mike Commodore, and Matt Cullen scored for Carolina, which had its two-game winning streak snapped and probably wished it could have declined New York's penalties.

The Southeast Division leaders have allowed an NHL-worst 10 shorthanded goals and failed to generate a second straight rally from a two-goal deficit against the Islanders.

"The odd one once in a while is going to happen, but three in a game is unacceptable," Commodore said.

"Those are supposed to be opportunities for us to score, and we didn't do that."

Cullen scored with 13 1/2 minutes remaining to pull Carolina within 4-3, but the Hurricanes - who had scored eight goals in the third period or later of their previous two games, both wins - couldn't get anything else past Wade Dubielewicz.

Rangers 4, Thrashers 0 - Jaromir Jagr scored and had two assists on a newly created line with Sean Avery and Scott Gomez, and defenseman Fedor Tyutin helped set up three goals for host New York.

Looking as they did last spring when they swept Atlanta in the Thrashers' first trip to the playoffs, the Rangers put together the complete game coach Tom Renney had grown weary waiting to see.

Avery and Brandon Dubinsky scored first-period goals, Martin Straka added one in the second, and Jagr finished the surge in the third to provide plenty of offense for Henrik Lundqvist.

Lundqvist stopped 14 shots in earning his seventh shutout and 14th in three NHL seasons.

Kari Lehtonen made 35 saves, but failed to win for the fourth straight outing - all losses for the Thrashers, who have slipped into second place in the Southeast Division behind Carolina.

New York showed jump and life, elements that were sorely lacking in a home-and-home sweep by Boston last weekend and during the 2-6-2 slide.

Devils 7, Flyers 3 - Low-scoring defenseman Johnny Oduya had a goal and three assists and visiting New Jersey scored five times on the power play in a victory over the Flyers.

The Devils beat Philadelphia for the fifth straight time this season to move into first place in the Atlantic Division.

Patrik Elias and Zach Parise each had a pair of goals, and Jamie Langenbrunner and Dainius Zubrus also scored for New Jersey.

The Devils equaled the team record for power-play goals and fell one short of the franchise mark. New Jersey had five power-play goals two other times in club history.

Predators 4, Avalanche 0 - Dan Ellis stopped 39 shots and Martin Erat scored two goals to lead Nashville to a victory in Denver.

It was the fourth shutout of the season for Ellis, who improved to 11-5-1 and gave the Predators their third straight win.

Erat scored his 13th and 14th goals of the season. Shea Weber, and Alexander Radulov scored for the Predators.

Nashville's J.P. Dumont had an assist to extend his point streak to 13 games (9-9-18). His streak is the second longest behind the 14-game streak of Anaheim's Ryan Getzlaf.

Flames 2, Wild 1 - Craig Conroy scored the go-ahead goal at 8:36 of the third period for host Calgary, which took over first place in the Northwest Division.

The Wild entered the night as the division leader, one point up on the Flames and the Avalanche.

Stephen Yelle had the other goal for Calgary. Brian Rolston scored for Minnesota.

Panthers 5, Senators 3 - All-Star Tomas Vokoun stopped 43 shots, Tanner Glass scored his first NHL goal and Nathan Horton had four assists as the host Panthers beat the slumping Senators.

Jay Bouwmeester, Stephen Weiss, David Booth, and Gregory Campbell also scored for the Panthers, who snapped a six-game losing streak against the Senators.

Mike Fisher had a goal and two assists for Ottawa, which also got goals from Dean McAmmond and Chris Neil. The Senators still lead the Eastern Conference with 64 points but have lost five of their last six.

Lightning 4, Oilers 3 - Martin St. Louis had a goal and two assists to help Tampa Bay snap a five-game home losing streak.

Vinny Lecavalier, Brad Richards, and Craig MacDonald also scored for the Lightning. Andrew Cogliano, Steve Staios, and Ales Hemsky scored for Edmonton.

Despite three victories in a row, the Lightning are last in the Eastern Conference standings.

Red Wings 3, Kings 0 - Detroit's Chris Osgood made 27 saves in his third shutout of the season to beat host Los Angeles.

The Red Wings got goals from Tomas Holmstrom, Mikael Samuelsson, and Johan Franzen.

Blue Jackets 4, Stars 2 - Rookie defenseman Kris Russell scored his first two NHL goals, including the tiebreaker on a power play with 6:15 left, for victorious Columbus.

Host Dallas's three-game winning streak ended.

Sharks 3, Blackhawks 2 - Joe Pavelski scored a shorthanded goal, Christian Ehrhoff finally got his first goal of the season, and the host Sharks snapped a four-game losing streak.

Sandis Ozolinsh also scored and Evgeni Nabokov made 28 saves for the Sharks.