Bruins ease past NY Islanders for fifth victory in six games

Reuters, Boston

Glen Murray and Brian Rolston both had a goal and one assist to lead the streaking Boston Bruins to a 4-1 victory over the New York Islanders in National Hockey League action on Thursday.

The Islanders not only lost the game, but they may have once again lost the services of star forward Michael Peca, who appeared to re-injure his left-knee in the second period when he was tripped by P.J. Axelsson behind the Boston net.

Peca left the game and did not return and is listed as out day-to-day.

Boston (11-2-2-1) has won five of six games and leads the Eastern Conference with 25 points.

Bruins defenseman Don Sweeney became the 180th player to play in 1,000 career games and just the 35th to do it all with the same team.

Axelsson and Joe Thornton, and Brian Rolston scored Boston's other goals. Brad Isbister had the lone goal for the Islanders (5-11-1-0).

In Ottawa, Todd White scored in overtime to give the Ottawa Senators a 3-2 victory over the Florida Panthers.

Daniel Alfredsson and Jason Spezza scored the other goals for Ottawa (7-6-1-0), while Patrick Lalime made 24 saves.

Sandis Ozolinsh and Kristian Huselius scored for the Panthers, who lost in overtime for the third time this season.

In Columbus, Steve Rucchin scored with 31 seconds left in regulation time to give the Anaheim Mighty Ducks a 3-2 victory over the Blue Jackets.

Jason Krog had tied the game with 1:48 left and Rucchin followed with his game-winning goal to help Anaheim improve to 5- 1-1-1 in its last eight games.

Paul Kariya and Rucchin both had one goal and one assist while Matt Cullen added a pair of assists for the winners.

Geoff Sanderson and Tyler Wright scored the goals for Columbus (7-7-1-1).

In Nashville, Peter Forsberg had a goal and two assists to lead the Colorado Avalanche to a 3-1 win over the Predators.

Greg de Vries and Derrick Morris scored the other goals for Colorado (6-4-4-3), while David Aebischer made 23 saves in goal. Andreas Johansson scored the lone goal for Nashville (2-8-2-4).

In Minneapolis, Johan Hedberg made 30 saves to help the Pittsburgh Penguins salvage a 1-1 tie with the Minnesota Wild. Marc Bergevin scored the lone goal for the Penguins (7-4-3-1).

Richard Park scored for Minnesota (10-5-3-0), which had lost four of its previous six games. Manny Fernandez made 23 saves in goal for the Wild.

In Calgary, Dan Blackburn made 34 saves to lead the New York Rangers to a 2-1 victory over the Flames.

Mikael Samuelsson scored the game-winning goal for the Rangers at 11:22 of the second period as New York moved to within one game of the .500 mark at 8-9-2-0.

Jarome Iginla scored the lone goal for Calgary (5-6-3-3).

In Vancouver, Markus Naslund scored a pair of goals to lead the Canucks to a 3-2 win over the Los Angeles Kings.

Naslund scored two power play goals 34 seconds apart in the second period to help Vancouver improve to 8-5-4-0.

Trevor Letowski scored the other Vancouver goal. Dan Cloutier made 19 saves in goal.

Alexander Frolov and Derek Armstrong scored the goals for Los Angeles (7-6-2-2).