This one was especially sweet for the Los Angeles Kings and particularly frustrating for the Detroit Red Wings.
Brad Stuart scored the go-ahead goal at 13:07 of the third, helping the Kings rally for a 5-3 win over Detroit on Thursday night.
“It’s always great when you can come back and win a game in the third period,” Stuart said. “But it’s much better when you can do it on the road against the best team in the league.”
Kris Draper was unaware the Red Wings blew a chance to match a franchise record with a ninth straight win, but he was upset about the way they missed out on the opportunity.
“I care because of the way we lost,” Draper said. “We started making mistakes we hadn’t for a majority of the year, taking untimely penalties and they capitalized.”
In other NHL games, it was: Ottawa 5, Florida 4; Pittsburgh 4, the New York Islanders 3; Anaheim 4, New York Rangers 1; Dallas 1, Minnesota 0; Vancouver 2, Atlanta 1; Toronto 4, Montreal 2; Tampa Bay 2, Nashville 1 in overtime; Columbus 2, Phoenix 1; and Chicago 3, Calgary 1.
erg scored a second goal – his 33rd of the season – at 13:05 of the second to make it 3-1.
But Los Angeles scored on four of its first eight shots in the final period against Chris Osgood, who started the game with an NHL-best 1.84 goals-against average. Alexander Frolov tied it on a power-play goal and Stuart put the Kings ahead with an extra skater.
Osgood finished with 20 saves and matched a season high by allowing five goals.
Jason LaBarbera had 26 stops for the Kings, who hadn’t won in Detroit since Feb. 18, 2000, and entered the game with an NHL-low 47 points.
“We played very well all night, and we deserved to win,” Kings coach Marc Crawford said. “We were a much better team tonight than Detroit.
“That’s no disrespect to them – everyone knows that’s a great team – but we really challenged them.”
Senators 5, Panthers 4
Dany Heatley had two goals and an assist for the Senators in his return from a shoulder injury.
Christoph Schubert, Joe Corvo and Chris Phillips also scored for the Senators, who went 3-8-0 with Heatley out with a separated shoulder. Jason Spezza had three assists.
David Booth, Nathan Horton, Brett McLean and Olli Jokinen scored for visiting Florida, which had won three straight.
Penguins 4, Islanders 3
ve loss.
Evgeni Malkin had three assists and Ryan Malone also scored for the Penguins, who have gained at least a point in four of their past five and tied Philadelphia for first place in the Atlantic Division.
Mike Comrie had two goals for visiting New York.
Ducks 4, Rangers 1
Anaheim’s Corey Perry and Chris Kunitz scored 1:27 apart to break open a tight game in the second period.
The defending Stanley Cup champions have found their offense in a pair of road wins this week against New York’s Islanders and Rangers following a six-game losing streak (0-5-1).
Stars 1, Wild 0
At St. Paul, Minn., Mike Smith stopped 25 shots and Niklas Hagman scored early in the third period to give Dallas its fifth straight win.
It was the second shutout of the year for Smith, who started for the first time in six games.
Canucks 2, Thrashers 1
Alex Burrows’ goal midway through the third period completed a rare third-period rally for Vancouver.
Burrows’ goal 11:14 into the third period came after contact between teammate Ryan Kesler and Atlanta’s Eric Perrin in front of the goal that led to Perrin’s stick apparently knocking goalie Kari Lehtonen off his feet. Lehtonen was sitting on his backside in front of the net and was unable to defend Burrows’ shot.
The Canucks had been 1-19-1 this season when trailing after two periods.
which ended a streak of four straight losses by one goal.
Maple Leafs 4, Canadiens 2
Darcy Tucker scored his second goal of the game into an empty net and Vesa Toskala made 34 saves for visiting Toronto.
Kris Newbury and Kyle Wellwood also scored for the Maple Leafs, who had lost four of five (1-3-1).
Tomas Plekanec scored his 20th goal to tie his career high and Alex Kovalev got his 25th for Montreal.
Lightning 2, Predators 1, OT
Vaclav Prospal scored at 58 seconds of overtime to give Tampa Bay its sixth straight road victory after starting off the season 3-14-3 away from the St. Pete Times Forum.
Alexander Radulov scored in the first for Nashville, and Brad Richards tied it in the second.
Blue Jackets 2, Coyotes 1
At Glendale, Ariz., Jason Chimera and Nikolai Zherdev scored early in the first period and Fredrik Norrena stopped 26 shots for his seventh win of the season.
Mike York scored Phoenix’s goal on a power play in the second.
Blackhawks 3, Flames 1
Nikolai Khabibulin made 26 saves to improve to 19-5-2 against Calgary, his highest win total against any NHL opponent.
Khabibulin was busiest in the third period, when the host Flames outshot Chicago 12-6 but couldn’t get the tying goal.
With 4 minutes left, Jarome Iginla nearly evened it at 2 during a scramble in the crease but Khabibulin stuck out his arm and swept the puck off the goal line.
Duncan Keith, Patrick Sharp, and Yanic Perreault, with an empty-netter, scored for Chicago.
Adrian Aucoin scored for Calgary.
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