NHL roundup \ Wednesday’s other games

Capitals 5, Sabres 2

WASHINGTON — Nicklas Backstrom had two goals, Alex Ovechkin added a goal and two assists and the Capitals beat the Sabres in a battle of division leaders. Mike Green had a goal and an assist, and Brendan Morrison also scored for the Southeast-leading Capitals, who have won nine of 12 games. Washington improved to 11-2-3 at Verizon Center. Paul Gaustad and Tim Connolly scored for the Northeast-leading Sabres.

Wild 3, Oilers 1

ST. PAUL, Minn. — Nicklas Backstrom continued his mastery of the Oilers, stopping 30 shots. Backstrom’s effort included blanking Patrick O’Sullivan on a third-period breakaway and Sheldon Souray on a short-handed rush late in the game. Backstrom improved to 14-1 in his career against Edmonton. Andrew Brunette, Owen Nolan and Guillaume Latendresse scored for the Wild, who snapped a two-game losing streak. Robert Nilsson scored the only goal for the Oilers, losers of five in a row.

Islanders 3, Maple Leafs 1

UNIONDALE, N.Y. — Trent Hunter and John Tavares scored 90 seconds apart in the second period, and Dwayne Roloson made 26 saves in the Islanders’ victory. Blake Comeau was awarded a goal with 34.9 seconds left after being taken down on a breakaway with an empty net. The Islanders salvaged the final game of a four-game homestand and snapped an overall four-game losing streak at Nassau Coliseum. Niklas Hagman scored in third period for Toronto.

Rangers 4, Panthers 1

NEW YORK — Vinny Prospal broke out of a 14-game scoring drought with a pair of goals, and the Rangers stretched their winning streak to four games. The Rangers, who earned three straight road wins before returning home, picked up their first victory at Madison Square Garden since Nov. 23 by snapping an 0-4-1 skid there. Captain Chris Drury wiped out the Panthers’ early 1-0 lead and then assisted when Marian Gaborik scored his NHL-leading 26th goal on a short-handed breakaway in the third period to make it 4-1 during a delayed penalty.

Canadiens 5, Hurricanes 1

RALEIGH, N.C. — Glen Metropolit scored two power-play goals after Andrei Markov had his third in three games, and the Canadiens routed the Hurricanes. Jaroslav Halak made 46 saves for the Canadiens, who led 4-1 in the first period. Andrei Kostitsyn, Sergei Kostitsyn and Glen Metropolit added goals while Tomas Plekanec and Scott Gomez had three assists apiece. Montreal, which entered with the NHL’s second-best power-play unit, scored three times with the man advantage and is 8 for 13 on the power play through the first three games of a season-high seven-game trip. Brandon Sutter scored for Carolina, which pulled starting goalie Cam Ward after he allowed three goals on seven shots in 91‚Ñ2 minutes. The NHL’s worst team has lost two straight, is 2-5-1 in its last eight and is the only team that hasn’t cracked double digits in victories.

Flyers 5, Lightning 2

TAMPA, Fla. — Blair Betts and Mike Richards both scored two goals to lead Philadelphia. Betts, who had just one goal in his previous 16 games this season, scored on an in-close redirection with 9:59 to play to give the Flyers a 3-2 lead. Richards extended the Philadelphia advantage to 4-2 at 17:22 of the third. Simon Gagne had a late empty-net goal for Philadelphia, which stopped a four-game losing skid and also picked up its fourth win in the last 18 games.

Bruins 6, Thrashers 4

BOSTON — Marc Savard, Daniel Paille and Vladimir Sobotka scored during a 1:08 span of the first period, Savard added two assists and the Bruins held on. The Bruins, on an 0-for-13 power-play drought coming in, scored three power-play goals, two of them in 5-on-3 situations. Savard had all three of his points on the power play. Boston had leads of 3-0 and 5-2, but a two-goal rally by Atlanta, the second goal by Ilya Kovalchuk with 4:52 left, made it close. Patrice Bergeron hit the empty net with 3.5 seconds left. The win, the Bruins’ second straight since losing four in a row, was Boston’s eighth in a row over the Thrashers.

Blackhawks 3, Red Wings 0

DETROIT — Antti Niemi made 33 saves for his fourth shutout of the season and his career, and Patrick Kane had a goal and an assist to lift Chicago. Patrick Sharp and Jonathan Toews also scored for Chicago, which also shut out Detroit 3-0 on Sunday night in Chicago behind Cristobal Huet. Jimmy Howard stopped 28 shots for Detroit, which has gone 2 hours, 21 minutes without a goal.

Associated Press