Bruins make playoff push
With one week to go in the regular season, the Boston Bruins are playing like they deserve a berth in the playoffs.
"It's step up or go home," goalie Tim Thomas said after shutting out the Ottawa Senators 4-0 Saturday. "Fortunately, we seem to be stepping up."
Thomas stopped 34 shots for his third shutout of the season, and David Krejci had a goal and 2 assists to help the Bruins briefly move into seventh place in the Eastern Conference. Philadelphia beat the New York Islanders later Saturday night, giving the Flyers 91 points -- 1 more than the Bruins.
The Washington Capitals were in ninth, 3 points behind the Flyers.
"We're going in the right direction, but so many things can change so quickly with so few games left," Bruins coach Claude Julien said. "I don't know what it's going to take, but we have to keep going here until we clinch a spot."
Martin Gerber stopped 27 shots for Ottawa, which won 13 of its first 14 games this season but just 13 of its last 36.
Flyers 4, Islanders 3 (SO): Danny Briere scored the only goal in the shootout for Philadelphia, which rallied twice in the third period and escaped with a victory over host New York.
Wade Dubielewicz made a career-high 51 saves against the Flyers and then stopped Mike Richards and Jeff Carter in the first two rounds of the shootout. Antero Niittymaki matched him at the other end with saves against Frans Nielsen, Kyle Okposo and Richard Park. That set up Briere for the winner on the final attempt of the tiebreaker.
The Flyers jumped back over Boston, which won earlier in the day, into seventh place in the Eastern Conference playoff race. Philadelphia is tied in points with the sixth-place Rangers and is 3 ahead of Washington, the first team below the postseason cutoff.
Stars 7, Kings 2: Loui Eriksson scored twice less than 3½ minutes apart during a 4-goal second period, and Dallas connected three times on power plays to beat host Los Angeles.
Eriksson, Stephane Robidas and Brenden Morrow all scored with the man advantage for the Stars, who earned a split of the eight-game season series after winning all eight meetings with the Kings last season. Stu Barnes, Jere Lehtinen and Niklas Hagman also had goals, Mike Ribeiro had 3 assists and defenseman Robidas had 2.
Kevin Dallman and Michael Cammalleri scored for the Kings, who were outshot 35-14.
Maple Leafs 4, Canadiens 2: Rookies Anton Stralman and Jiri Tlusty each scored 2 goals, and host Toronto beat Eastern Conference-leading Montreal. Nik Antropov added 3 assists for the Maple Leafs, who are playing for pride after being eliminated from playoff contention Thursday night.
Capitals 3, Panthers 0: Cristobal Huet stopped 32 shots for his fourth shutout of the season, and Viktor Kozlov had a goal and 2 assists as Washington continued its playoff push with a win over host Florida. Florida was mathematically eliminated from playoff contention by losing in its home finale.
Lightning 2, Hurricanes 1: Jeff Halpern scored the go-ahead goal early in the third period, and Karri Ramo made 38 saves to lead host Tampa Bay past Southeast Division-leading Carolina. The Hurricanes' second-place Washington was cut to 2 points.