Jagr, Rangers blank Thrashers
Jaromir Jagr scored and had 2 assists on a newly created line, and defenseman Fedor Tyutin helped set up 3 goals for the New York Rangers, who beat the visiting Atlanta Thrashers 4-0 Tuesday night.
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.
Sean 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.
Panthers 5, Senators 3: All-star Tomas Vokoun stopped 43 shots, Tanner Glass scored his first NHL goal and Nathan Horton had 4 assists as host Florida beat Ottawa.
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 2 assists for Ottawa, which also got goals from Dean McAmmond and Chris Neil.
Canadiens 8, Bruins 2: Tom Kostopoulos scored 14 seconds into the game, and Maxim Lapierre got Montreal's fourth goal of the opening period with three seconds remaining in a rout of visiting Boston.
Andrei Kostitsyn, who also scored in the first, got his second goal of the game on a power play 17:44 into the third as the Canadiens set a season high for goals.
Devils 7, Flyers 3: Low-scoring defenseman Johnny Oduya had a goal and 3 assists, and visiting New Jersey scored five times on the power play to beat Philadelphia.
The Devils beat the Flyers 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.
Islanders 6, Hurricanes 3: Mike Sillinger scored 2 of New York's 3 short-handed goals as the Islanders beat Host Carolina.
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 3 short-handed goals for the third time in franchise history and first since 2000.
Lightning 4, Oilers 3: Martin St. Louis had a goal and 2 assists to help Tampa Bay snap a five-game home losing streak with a win overEdmonton.
Vinny Lecavalier, Brad Richards and Craig MacDonald also scored for the Lightning. Andrew Cogliano, Steve Staios and Ales Hemsky scored for the Oilers.
Despite three victories in a row, the Lightning is last in the Eastern Conference standings.
Blue Jackets 4, Stars 2: Rookie defenseman Kris Russell scored his first 2 NHL goals, including the tiebreaker on a power play with 6:15 left, and visiting Columbus rallied to stop Dallas' three-game winning streak.
Andrew Murray also scored, Zherdev had 3 assists, and Pascal Leclaire stopped 31 shots for the Blue Jackets. Rick Nash added an empty-netter on a Columbus power play for his 26th of the season.
Mike Smith made 26 saves, Brenden Morrow scored his 20th goal, and Steve Ott also scored for the Stars.
Predators 4, Avalanche 0: Dan Ellis stopped 39 shots, and Martin Erat scored 2 goals to lead Nashville past host Colorado.
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 added goals for the Predators.
Jose Theodore, who has started the last nine games for the Avalanche, had 25 saves.
Flames 2, Wild 1: Craig Conroy scored the go-ahead goal at 8:36 of the third period as host Calgary beat Minnesota to take over first place in the Northwest Division.
The Wild entered the night as the division leader, 1 point up on the Flames and the Colorado Avalanche, who lost 4-0 to the Nashville Predators.
On the decisive goal, Stephane Yelle kept the puck in at the blue line before knocking it forward to Owen Nolan. The veteran forward steered the puck across to Conroy cutting across the slot, and the Flames center lifted a backhander over the blocker of Josh Harding and into the top corner.