Bruins, Thrashers skate to a tie

Mike Knuble scored a power-play goal with 5:14 left in the third period to lift the Boston Bruins to a 2-2 tie with the Atlanta Thrashers on Saturday night in Boston.

The Bruins remained unbeaten in regulation, improving to 13-0-2- 1.

Dany Heatley and Shawn McEachern scored power-play goals for 11th- place Atlanta, which remained nine points behind the eighth-place New York Islanders for the last Eastern Conference playoff spot.

Knuble took a pass from defenseman Nick Boynton in the slot, shifted and slipped a short shot by goaltender Pasi Nurminen.

SENATORS 3, PREDATORS 2: At Ottawa, Peter Bondra scored with 7:01 left to lift Ottawa over Nashville.

Ahead 2-0 through two periods on goals by Mike Fisher and Peter Schaefer, Ottawa blew its lead when Andreas Johansson and David Legwand scored to tie it 7:09 into the third.

Bondra, who assisted on Schaefer's power-play goal which gave the Senators a two-goal lead in the second, restored Ottawa's lead when he scored for the second straight game at 12:59.

Marian Hossa scored into an empty net as the Senators ended a two- game losing streak one night after combining with Philadelphia to set the NHL record for total penalty minutes in a game.

DEVILS 4, HURRICANES 1: At Raleigh, N.C., John Madden had a goal and an assist, and Martin Brodeur made 25 saves to help New Jersey beat Carolina.

Brian Rafalski, Patrik Elias and Jamie Langenbrunner also scored for the Devils. Paul Martin added two assists.

Erik Cole had a goal, and Kevin Weekes made 16 saves for Carolina.

New Jersey had won just once in five games, including an overtime defeat at Tampa Bay on Friday.

SABRES 5, MAPLE LEAFS 1: At Toronto, Miroslav Satan had a goal and two assists, and Derek Roy scored Buffalo's first two goals as the Sabres remained undefeated against Toronto this season.

Martin Biron made 32 saves for the Sabres, 3-0-1 against the Maple Leafs.

Darcy Tucker scored the lone goal for the Maple Leafs, who had won three straight.

Toronto goalie Ed Belfour, plagued recently by a sore back, allowed three goals in the first period. Buffalo outshot Toronto 17- 6 in the opening 20 minutes, reversing the Maple Leafs' recent trend of strong starts.

BLUES 4, ISLANDERS 2: At Uniondale, N.Y., former Islanders goalie Chris Osgood stopped 39 shots, and Keith Tkachuk scored his team- leading 27th goal late in the second period to lead St. Louis over New York.

Pavol Demitra, Mark Rycroft and Petr Cajanek also scored for the Blues, who are fighting to stay in contention for a Western Conference playoff spot. St. Louis has reached the postseason 24 straight years.

Osgood, traded away by the Islanders last March, improved to 23- 22-7 on the season. Jason Blake and Mark Parrish scored for the Islanders, who have one win in seven games (1-3-2-1) and are trying to hold off Buffalo for the final playoff spot in the East.

Rick DiPietro stopped 14 shots for the Islanders, just six points ahead of the Sabres.

CANUCKS 4, BLUE JACKETS 0: At Columbus, Ohio, Johan Hedberg stopped 32 shots for his second consecutive shutout and Markus Naslund had a goal and an assist to lead Vancouver over Columbus.

Todd Bertuzzi added two assists for the Canucks, who also had goals from Mattias Ohlund, Matt Cooke and Tyler Bouck.

Hedberg earned the ninth shutout of his career. He had 31 saves in his last start, a 2-0 win over St. Louis a week earlier.

Vancouver was playing back-to-back nights on the road, losing 3-1 at Detroit on Friday night.

PENGUINS 2, MIGHTY DUCKS 1: At Pittsburgh, Ric Jackman and Matt Bradley scored first-period goals and rookie Andy Chiodo stopped 26 shots as Pittsburgh snapped a 16-game home winless streak with a victory over Anaheim.

The Penguins, who also endured an 18-game winless streak overall, were 0-15-1 at home since defeating Chicago on Dec. 29.

Pittsburgh, which set an NHL record by losing 14 consecutive home games until tying the New York Islanders on Tuesday, barely avoided another dubious entry in the record book. The longest home winless streak in NHL history is 17 games, set by Ottawa (0-15-2) in 1995-96 and matched by Atlanta (0-15-2) in 1999-2000.

The Ducks, the defending Western Conference champions who began the night six points out of a playoff spot, missed a chance to tie the game when Landon Wilson drew a double minor 59 seconds into the third period. Anaheim managed just two shots on the power play.

LIGHTNING 5, PANTHERS 3: At Sunrise, Fla., Tampa Bay scored three first-period goals, then held off a late rally to defeat Florida.

CAPITALS 2, FLYERS 1: At Washington, power-play goals by Jeff Halpern and Anson Carter lifted Washington over Philadelphia.

Olaf Kolzig, one of the few remaining veterans after the Capitals fire sale, made 24 saves.

Michal Handzus scored Philadelphia's only goal -- a short-handed tally in the final minute to spoil Kolzig's shutout.

The Flyers behaved better after combining with Ottawa on Friday night to set an NHL record with a combined 419 penalty minutes. There were a few scuffles early on with the only real fight occurring in the game's final minute.

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