Senators beat Panthers to snap losing streak

Sunrise:

Randy Robitaille scored twice, and Ray Emery stopped Kamil Kreps's penalty shot in the third period to help the Ottawa Senators snap a seven-game losing streak with a 5-4 victory over the Florida Panthers on Wednesday.

Mike Fisher, Nick Foligno and Jason Spezza also scored for the Senators. Ottawa won for the first time since a 4-2 victory over Montreal on November 19. It was Ottawa's longest losing streak since an 11-game slide in the 1995-96 season.

The Senators are 6-0 against Florida in the last two seasons.

Olli Jokinen had two goals for Florida, which has lost three in a row since a four-game winning streak got the Panthers to .500. Steve Montador had a goal and two assists, and David Booth had the other goal.

Emery finished with 21 saves.

Devils 4, Bruins 3, OT

At Newark, New Jersey, Patrik Elias scored his second goal of the game with 1:44 left in overtime, and New Jersey edged Boston to extend its winning streak to eight.

Zach Parise also scored twice, and Martin Brodeur made 23 saves to help the Devils overcome a three-goal deficit. Zdeno Chara, Glen Murray and Dennis Wideman had first-period goals for Boston.

On the winner, Elias took a drop pass from Parise and beat goalie Tuukka Rask with a screened shot that went between Boston defenseman Andrew Alberts' legs. Rask came in after starter Tim Thomas fell awkwardly while trying to snare a deflected shot with 1:10 left in regulation.

Thrashers 4, Islanders 3, SO

At Atlanta, Slava Kozlov and Ilya Kovalchuk scored in a shootout for Atlanta, and goalie Kari Lehtonen stopped Bill Guerin and Miroslav Satan in the tiebreaker.

Lehtonen made 30 stops in only his second start _ both wins against the Islanders _ since missing 16 games because of a groin injury.

Kovalchuk scored his NHL-leading 23rd goal, and Marian Hossa had a short-handed goal and added an assist for Atlanta. Pascal DuPuis also had a short-handed goal for the Thrashers, 0-for-9 on the power play.

Mike Comrie, Mike Sillinger and Trent Hunter scored for the Islanders.

Blue Jackets 5, Avalanche 4

At Columbus, Ohio, Dan Fritsche's goal with 4:05 left capped a wild six-goal third period in Columbus' comeback victory over Colorado.

The Blue Jackets pulled even on Rick Nash's second goal of the night and another by Joakim Lindstrom midway through the period.

Columbus' Nikolai Zherdev scored on a low shot from the slot with 5:16 left for a 4-3 lead, but Colorado's Scott Hannan countered off a rebound with 4:35 remaining.

Just 30 seconds later, with the crowd roaring on every play, Jason Chimera's shot was stopped by Colorado goalie Peter Budaj, but Fritsche cleaned up on a backhander.

Hannan and Peter Stastny each had a goal and an assist for Colorado, and Jeff Finger and Wojtek Wolski also scored for the Avalanche.

Flyers 3, Wild 1

At St. Paul, Minnesota, Jeff Carter had a goal and an assist, and Braydon Coburn also scored to help Philadelphia extend its road winning streak to four games.

Minnesota, riding a four-game winning streak, was kept in check by the Flyers despite a decided advantage in power-play minutes. The Flyers, behind 28 saves by Antero Niittymaki, held Minnesota to just one power-play goal in eight opportunities, including a pair of extended two-man advantages.

Pavol Demitra scored for the Wild, and Niklas Backstrom made 22 saves.

Canucks 3, Blackhawks 2

At Chicago, Brendan Morrison scored early in the third period to break a tie and also had an assist as Vancouver downed Chicago.

Morrison's shot from the right circle deflected off Chicago defenseman Andrei Zyuzin and slid past goalie Nikolai Khabibulin just inside right goal post.

Mattias Ohlund and Byron Ritchie also scored for the Canucks in their fourth victory in five games. Taylor Pyatt had two assists, and Roberto Luongo made 25 saves.

Martin Lapointe and Martin Havlat scored for the Blackhawks, whose five-game home winning streak ended.

Sharks 3, Stars 2

At Dallas, Joe Thornton scored the go-ahead goal with 8:36 left and added two assists to help San Jose beat Dallas for its third straight win.

With the game tied at 2, Milan Michalek took possession behind the Dallas net and passed in front to Thornton, who beat Marty Turco for his 12th of the season.

Patrick Marleau added a goal, Jonathan Cheechoo scored on the power play, and Evgeni Nabakov stopped 17 shots for the Sharks, 7-1-3 in their last 11 games.

Ducks 4, Sabres 1

At Anaheim, California, Andy McDonald had a goal and an assist, Mathieu Schneider and Corey Perry scored power-play goals, and Anaheim snapped a 10-game winless streak against Buffalo.

About a half-hour before the opening faceoff, Ducks general manager Brian Burke announced that playoff MVP Scott Niedermayer decided to return to the defending Stanley Cup champions after spending five months contemplating retirement.

Penguins 4, Oilers 2

At Edmonton, Alberta, Sidney Crosby had three assists in the third period in his first professional game in Western Canada, leading Pittsburgh past Edmonton.

It was the first time Crosby played in Edmonton due to the unbalanced schedule. The 20-year-old star will play his first pro game in Calgary against the Flames on Thursday night, then make his Vancouver debut Saturday night.

Kris Letang, Maxime Talbot, Ryan Whitney and Colby Armstrong scored for Pittsburgh and Robert Nilsson and Shawn Horcoff countered for Edmonton.

Coyotes 4, Kings 1

At Glendale, Arizona, rookie Peter Mueller had a goal and two assists, and Phoenix beat Los Angeles to snap a four-game losing streak.

The 19-year-old Mueller knocked a rebound past goalie Jean-Sebastien Aubin to put Phoenix up 3-1 at 11:03 of the second period. It was the eighth goal for Mueller, Phoenix's first-round pick in 2006.

Ilya Bryzgalov made 28 saves, allowing only Michael Cammalleri's goal. The Kings have lost nine of their last 11 games.