NHL roundup
Bruins 3, Senators 2
Claude Julien wasn't happy that his Bruins allowed 47 shots on goal. Fortunately for Boston's coach, his team took a season-high 50.
And their 46th, Nathan Horton's tiebreaking goal midway through the third period, gave them a win over Ottawa with an uncommonly aggressive attack Tuesday night.
"It was good to see our team offensively create some chances because that's an area where we struggled," Julien said, but "I thought that we were very soft defensively."
The Bruins didn't wait for five-time NHL scoring leader Jaromir Jagr to show up to improve their offense. Hours after obtaining him from the Dallas Stars, the Bruins shook off their recent offensive woes with their second straight win after losing five of their previous seven games.
"There's no doubt he's going to help us," Julien said. "He's coming to help us. He's not coming to save us and that's what people have to understand. He's a great player. He still is a great player."
At 41, Jagr is far past his peak but still should help the Bruins' weak power play and add to their overall offense.
They had enough on Tuesday without him.
"We wanted to put pucks on net," said Tyler Seguin, who did that 12 times. "We knew they were such a defensive team so we wanted to come out pretty hard."
Horton got his 12th goal of the season at 10:21 of the third period after goalie Robin Lehner stopped Milan Lucic's shot with his pad. But Horton scored on the rebound.
Earlier Tuesday, the Bruins obtained Jagr for prospects Lane MacDermid and Cody Payne, both forwards, and a conditional second-round pick in this year's draft that becomes a first-rounder if the Bruins reach the Eastern Conference finals.
Jagr is expected to join the Bruins in time for Thursday night's home game against New Jersey.
The Bruins' previous season high for shots was 46 on Feb. 28, also against the Senators, in a 2-1 overtime win. Boston is 4-0 against Ottawa this season with every win coming by just one goal.
"That's the frustrating part for us," Senators coach Paul MacLean said. "We responded well after being down 2-1. We get the thing tied up. But when it's all said and done, they got one more than we did. Again."
The Bruins outshot the Senators 21-19 in the first period, their most shots in a period since they had 22 on Feb. 19, 2012, at Minnesota.
"Both teams did a lot of good things offensively," Ottawa's Daniel Alfredsson said, "but were sloppy with the puck. There were a lot of turnovers from both sides."
The pace slowed for a while in the third period after Andre Benoit tied the score 2-2 with 1:55 gone following an officials' review. Play had continued after Benoit's hard, high shot. At the next whistle, officials ruled that the puck had gone in just under the crossbar then come out, resulting in Benoit's third goal of the season.
"I wasn't happy with that," Bruins goalie Anton Khudobin said, "but, still, it doesn't matter. We got the W."
Colin Greening had given Ottawa a 1-0 lead 2:48 into the game before goals by David Krejci and Seguin 1:01 apart put Boston ahead 2-1 at 4:29 of the first period.
Sabres 4, Penguins 1
Good periods. Bad ones. It didn't matter much to the Pittsburgh during its perfect 15-game run through March. In the end, they always found a way.
April might be a little tougher, particularly without star Sidney Crosby.
Outplayed on both ends of the ice for long stretches by rebuilding Buffalo, Pittsburgh fell for the first time in more than a month.
"We just didn't have much of an answer," defenseman Matt Niskanen said. "Things weren't going well from the start and we didn't have a whole lot of a pushback or a whole lot of urgency."
Pittsburgh was attempting to move within one of the NHL record of 17 consecutive wins set by the 1992-93 Penguins, but looked out of sync without their captain. The Sabres jumped on Pittsburgh early and never really let up to end a four-game winless streak.
Kevin Porter scored his first two goals in more than a year for the Sabres. Steve Ott and Cody Hodgson also beat Pittsburgh's Tomas Vokoun as the Sabres took a quick three-goal lead and then clamped down on the league's highest-scoring team.
Ryan Miller made 19 saves on the night he surpassed Dominik Hasek for the most games played by a Sabres goaltender. It wasn't lost on Miller that his 492nd appearance could also be his final one in a Buffalo uniform. With the Sabres toiling near the bottom of the Eastern Conference, Miller understands he could be traded sometime before today's 3 p.m. deadline.
"It's one of those things where the players are definitely just chess pieces and the general managers are shuffling and moving them around and you don't have a say so you just worry about hockey," Miller said. "I thought it was great, we worried about hockey and we did a nice job."
Pittsburgh has already made its big moves, acquiring three veterans — including six-time All-Star Jarome Iginla — last week to bolster a run at a Stanley Cup.
Islanders 5, Jets 2
Frans Nielsen scored the go-ahead goal and Kevin Poulin made 23 saves for his first win of the season and New York defeated Winnipeg.
With the victory, the Islanders moved past the idle New York Rangers into the eighth and final Eastern Conference playoff spot.
The Islanders have 11 games remaining while the Rangers have 13.
Nielsen's power-play goal at 19:32 of the second period came when a rebound of a Mark Streit slap shot ricocheted to him in the right circle. Nielsen fired the puck past Ondrej Pavelec for this fourth of the season.
Matt Moulson added his 12th of the season at the 18:00 mark of the third. And John Tavares scored his team-leading 23rd of the season into an empty net with 36 seconds left.
Jets rookie defenseman Paul Postma scored twice for Winnipeg.
Panthers 3, Lightning 2 (SO)
Peter Mueller scored the only goal in the shootout and Jacob Markstrom had 39 saves to lead Florida past Tampa Bay.
Tomas Kopecky and Greg Rallo both scored goals on deflections of shots by T.J. Brennan to give the Panthers a 2-0 lead after two periods.
The Lightning rallied in the third period to tie the score with goals from Tom Pyatt and Alex Killorn.
After a scoreless overtime, Mueller went first for the Panthers and scored on a backhand shot that slipped past Lightning goalie Mathieu Garon. Markstrom denied Teddy Purcell, Victor Hedman and Steven Stamkos to give the Panthers the win.
Capitals 5, Hurricanes 3
Alex Ovechkin had two goals and an assist, and Washington beat Carolina despite allowing three goals to Jiri Tlusty.
Mike Green scored two goals, Joel Ward added a goal, Nicklas Backstrom matched a career high with four assists and Braden Holtby made 31 saves.
Washington trailed 2-0 early before scoring five goals on its first 11 shots, won its seventh in 11 games and won for the first time since 2007 when allowing a hat trick to an opposing player, according to STATS LLC.
It also was the Hurricanes' first loss when a player scored three goals since the move from Hartford in 1997.
Eric Staal and Alexander Semin each had two assists for the Hurricanes, who lost defenseman Joni Pitkanen to an apparent leg injury late in the second period.
Carolina's Dan Ellis stopped four of the seven shots he faced.
Predators 3, Avalanche 1
David Legwand scored with 1:14 left, and Nashville edged Colorado.
Patric Hornqvist scored a power-play goal that tied it up at 1 at 8:23 of the third, and Taylor Beck had two assists. Paul Gaustad had an empty-netter for his third this season with 14.7 seconds remaining.
Matt Duchene scored on a breakaway 61 seconds into the third for Colorado, which missed a chance to sweep the Predators for the first time in franchise history. Goalie Jean-Sebastien Giguere made 35 saves in giving the Avalanche a chance at their second win over Nashville in four days.
Coyotes 3, Kings
Jason LaBarbera stopped 39 shots, Keith Yandle scored his second goal late in the third period and Phoenix opened a critical homestand with a win over Los Angeles.
Needing to make up ground in the Western Conference standings, the Coyotes played their usual close-to-the-vest game and managed to hold on for their second win in 10 games after blowing two one-goal leads last week.
Matthew Lombardi put Phoenix ahead with his fourth goal of the season in the second period and Yandle followed his 50th career goal in the first with a tough-angle shot that beat Jonathan Quick with less than 3 minutes left.
LaBarbera made some tough saves in his fifth straight start in place of injured starter Mike Smith, the only goal against him a shot by Justin Williams that deflected off a Coyotes defenseman in the first period.
Rangers acquire Clowe from San Jose for picks
The New York Rangers have acquired forward Ryane Clowe from the San Jose Sharks for three draft picks.
The teams announced the deal Tuesday night. The Sharks get the Rangers' second-round pick and a third-round pick in the 2013 draft, and a conditional second-round pick in the 2014 draft.
If Clowe re-signs with the Rangers or the team wins two playoff rounds, the pick remains New York's 2014 second-round selection. If neither occurs, the pick becomes New York's fifth-round 2014 selection.
Clowe has 11 assists in 28 games and the rugged forward has long been considered the heart of the franchise. He was originally selected by San Jose in the sixth round of the 2001 draft and leaves the Sharks ninth on the team's career points list with 271.
He waived his no-trade clause to join a Rangers team that entered Tuesday holding the eighth and final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference.
Canucks acquire center Roy from Dallas
The Vancouver Canucks have acquired center Derek Roy from the Dallas Stars to add some much-needed depth at forward.
The Canucks sent defenseman Kevin Connauton and a second-round pick to Dallas. The team confirmed the trade on its website Tuesday.
Vancouver needs scoring with its second line hit hard by injuries. Mason Raymond recently joined Ryan Kesler and David Booth on the injured list with a sore shoulder.
Roy has four goals and 18 assists in 30 games with Dallas this season. He previously spent eight seasons with the Buffalo Sabres, scoring 161 goals with 266 assists in 549 games.
The Ottawa native will become an unrestricted free agent at the end of the season.
Connauton has seven goals, 18 assists and a minus-12 rating in 60 games with the AHL's Chicago Wolves this season.
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