OTHL -- WASHINGTON at. NY RANGERS 4-1 The Washington Capitals have recived a nice shoot in the arm since the arrival of Sidney Crosby. The Crosby era started with a win over Tampa Bay (3-1) and continued with a loss to Atlanta (5-2). Tonight the caps managed to get a 4-1 win over the slumping New York Rangers. And Sidney Crosby who left his first two games without a point, managed to score his first ever career goal in the second period tonight. Crosby's goal was assisted by Curtis Brown and Dimitri Afanasenkov. Crosby's goal put the Capitals up by three as Tim Connolly (2) and Niklas Hagman (4) scored one each in the second period. In the third period Matt Pettinger made it 4-0 with his first goal for the season. Eric Lindros (6) got a goal back for New York, but it was just a consulation goal as the Capitals improved to 6-9-2.
BOSTON at. PHILADELPHIA 5-2 The Flyers hosted fellow cup contender Boston Bruins tonight. And the Flyers fell well short of the mark tonight, as the Bruins dominated them all over the ice, outscoring them 5-2 and outshoot them 38 to 22. The Bruins got off to a great start as Martin St Louis (4) and Vincent LeCavalier (7) scored a goal each just 21 seconds apart in the first period. A period where the Flyers only managed to get away 3 shots on Sean Burke who started tonights game. The boos and a little yelling got the Flyers going in the second period, but it was still the Bruins that scored the goals. Joe Thornton (11) and Todd Bertuzzi (7) scored one, while Steve Yzerman got the Flyers of the mark with his 3rd for the season. So going into the third period, the visitors had a nice 4-1 lead. And three minutes into the third, it was a 5-1 game as Michal Handzus (4), the former Flyer scored. Mario Lemieux (11) scored for Philadelphia, but that was as close as the Flyers got tonight.
COLORADO at. PITTSBURGH 3-0 In Pittsburgh the Penguins streak of loses continued as Colorado came to town and left with a 3-0 victory. Pittsburgh played a solid game, but where unable to solve David Aebischer who made 31 saves on route to his shutout. Besode Aebischer the big name for Colorado today, was Eric Cole who had a hand in all three goals as he scored his 14th and assisted on goals from Mike Knuble (5) and Jeff Cowan (1). But the bad news did not end with the loss for Pittsburgh, they also lost number one center Robert Lang to an injury. However, Lang might not miss any games.
NEW JERSEY at. TORONTO 1-2 (ot) In Toronto the Leafs and the Devils played a thriller in four acts as the two teams battled for the points. The Leafs barraged Brodeur with 34 shots, but Belfour played a solid game making 32 saves. The Leafs got of the mark first as Shawn Horcoff (6) scored with four minutes to go in the first. The Devils replied with a powerplay goal in the third period, as Michael Ryader (7) tied up the game and sent it to overtime. An overtime that lasted just over two minutes before Peter Sykora (11) tiped home a slapshot from Jiri Fischer to win the game for the home team.
ANAHEIM at. VANCOUVER 1-6 The Ducks have played a bit better in the last couple of games, but tonight they ran into a brick wall as the Vancouver Canucks hosted the Ducks and beat them easy 6-1 after some impressive play from the entire Vancouver team. The Canucks got goals from Alex Tanguay (9,10), Michael Peca (4), Brendan Shanahan (8), Shane Doan (4) and Mike Comrie (5). The Ducks lone goal opened the scoring in the first period, and was scored by Denis Arkhipov (4). Dion Phaneuf, the Ducks talented defender picked up a point on the goal. But on the other end of the rink, Phaneuf and his buddies had a rough night as the pucks flew past them.
CHICAGO at. ATLANTA 3-3 Last game for the night saw Chicago and Atlanta duke it out in the Philips Arena. The two teams where evenly matched all trough the night, with both teams scoring 3 goals. And with Atlanta having the edge in shots, but with just one shot (30-29). Chicago scored three straight goals to go up 3-0 before Atlanta's offense woke up and tied the game with three unanswered goals. Alexander Ovechkin (1), Viktor Kozlov (4) and Todd Fedoruk (3) found the net for Chicago, while Ilja Kovalchuk (8), Danny Heatley (8) and Scott Hannan (2) scored for the home team.
PLAYER OF THE NIGHT: Eric Cole (Colorado), was involved in all three Colorado goals tonight. Scored one and assisted on the other two.