Undefeated Lightning edges past Capitals
Reuters, Tampa Bay
The surprising Tampa Bay Lightning, who has missed the playoffs six years running, remain unbeaten seven games into the season after grabbing a 3-2 win over the Washington Capitals on Friday.
The Lightning, the NHL's only undefeated team, has five wins and two ties.
Chris Dingman and Dave Andreychuk, a veteran of more than 20 NHL seasons, beat Caps netminder Olie Kolzig at 10:29 and 11:20 of the opening period to get Tampa Bay started.
Fredrik Modin made it 3-0 early in the second before Jaromir Jagr got one back for Washington midway through the period. It was the sixth goal of the season for Jagr, a five times NHL scoring champion.
Kip Miller closed out the scoring for the Caps with just seven seconds to play. Nikolai Khabibulin, who has started every game for Tampa, made 25 saves to notch another victory.
In Buffalo, Sergei Brylin snapped a 1-1 deadlock with a goal one minute into the third period as the New Jersey Devils defeated the Sabres 2-1 to join Tampa Bay as the only Eastern Conference teams to win five times this season.
All New Jersey's wins have been by a single goal.
Ken Daneyko opened the scoring for the Devils late in the opening period -- his first tally in three and a half years -- with Buffalo's Stu Barnes bringing it level 5:56 into the second frame.
Martin Brodeur notched the victory to improve to 5-1-0. Martin Biron was the hard-luck loser in the Buffalo goal.
In New York, the slide of the Rangers continued as it fell behind early and never recovered in a 6-2 loss to the Los Angeles Kings.
The Rangers is now winless in five games.
Adam Deadmarsh recorded the first goal five minutes into the game, then added two more in the final period for his second career hat-trick.
Bryan Smolinski made it 2-0 at the 10:54 mark and when Alexander Frolov beat Mike Richter less than 15 seconds later, that was all for the Rangers netminder. Dan Blackburn finished up in the New York goal.
Los Angeles led 4-0 before Matthew Barnaby put the Rangers on the board midway through the second period.
New York fans were not amused, chanting "re-fund" as the Kings pulled away.
In Columbus, the San Jose Sharks rallied with four third- period goals to overcome the Blue Jackets 5-4.
After Teemu Selanne knotted it at 4-4 with his second goal of the game and sixth of the season at the 12:31 mark of the third, Vincent Damphousse won it with his second of the night at 14:15.
Newly-signed Sharks netminder Evgeni Nabakov, who will get US$7.15 million over two years, watched as backup Miikka Kiprusoff had another shaky outing. Marc Denis took the loss in the Columbus net.
In Detroit, Sergei Fedorov hit three goals in succession in just over seven minutes of the second period to send the Red Wings to a lopsided 7-3 win over the Pittsburgh Penguins.
It was the fifth three-goal game of Fedorov's career.
Luc Robitaille added two more for Detroit, which is now 40-13- 12 all-time against the Penguins at Joe Louis Arena.
The Penguins got off on the right foot when Alexei Kovalev opened the scoring, his first of two goals on the night, with an assist from Mario Lemieux.
Lemieux, in his first visit to Detroit since he came out of retirement in late December 1997, picked up a second assist later.
He now has 57 points in just 25 career games against the Wings.