Loss in Ottawa Stalls Penguins' Progress in East - New York Times

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Loss in Ottawa Stalls Penguins' Progress in East - New York Times Mar 25th 2012, 02:52 Daniel Alfredsson had two goals and two assists, and the Ottawa Senators dealt Pittsburgh its first regulation loss in 15 games, beating the visiting Penguins, 8-4, on Saturday night. Sidney Crosby scored his first goal in six games since making his second comeback of the season from concussion-like symptoms. Crosby, who made a spectacular pass to set up one of two goals for Matt Cooke, beat Craig Anderson with a shot into the top right corner at 11 minutes 43 seconds of the third period to draw Pittsburgh within 5-4. But Jason Spezza increased Ottawa's lead to 6-4 with his 31st goal on a breakaway, and Alfredsson added his second of the game at 17:05. The Penguins' Brad Thiessen, a rookie goaltender who entered the game with a 3-0 record, yielded all eight Senators goals, on 24 shots. Pittsburgh dropped three points behind the Eastern Conference-leading Rangers. The Penguins have eight games left; the Rangers have seven. LIGHTNING 4, ISLANDERS 3 Steven Stamkos scored twice to tie a Lightning record with 52 goals, a total that leads the league. Matt Moulson's 33rd goal put the Islanders ahead, 3-2, at 43 seconds of the third period, but Tampa Bay's Tom Pyatt scored to tie the game, and Tim Wallace's goal, with Stamkos assisting, closed out the scoring at 12:10. Frans Nielsen and Kyle Okposo had the Islanders' first two goals. SABRES 3, WILD 1 The Buffalo rookie Marcus Foligno scored a power-play goal at 1:45 of the third period, and the host Sabres continued a late-season surge into playoff contention. Buffalo improved to 6-0-2 in its past eight games, and 18-5-5 in its past 28. Ryan Miller stopped 24 shots as the Sabres (37-29-10) vaulted two points ahead of Washington and alone into eighth place in the Eastern Conference. The Sabres have six games left, one fewer than the Capitals. Steven Kampfer scored the lone goal for the Wild (31-33-10), who continue to fall out of playoff contention as part of an 11-26-7 slide since they had the N.H.L.'s best record on Dec. 10. FLYERS 4, CANADIENS 1 In Philadelphia, Danny Briere scored a pair of goals, Ilya Bryzgalov made 23 saves and the Flyers clinched a playoff berth. Three of Philadelphia's four goals came on the power play, upping the Flyers' league-leading total to 61. Bryzgalov improved his record this month to 10-1-1. STARS 4, FLAMES 1 Jamie Benn scored twice, Kari Lehtonen made 35 saves, and Dallas pulled four points ahead of Calgary in a matchup of Western Conference playoff contenders. The host Stars are in the middle of a six-team scramble along with the Flames for one of the final two playoff spots. RED WINGS 5, HURRICANES 4 Host Detroit came back from deficits of 2-0 and 4-1 to end a six-game losing streak. Drew Miller scored the game-winner with 8:25 left, and Henrik Zetterberg scored twice for the Red Wings. PREDATORS 3, JETS 1 Pekka Rinne made 24 saves to lead host Nashville, and Matt Halischuk, Gabriel Bourque and Shea Weber scored for the Predators. Tim Stapleton had the lone goal for Winnipeg. A version of this article appeared in print on March 25, 2012, on page SP10 of the New York edition with the headline: Loss in Ottawa Stalls Penguins' Progress in East. This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read the FAQ at fivefilters.org/content-only/faq.php#publishers. Five Filters recommends: Donate to Wikileaks.

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