Panthers floor Penguins 6-4
League unveils realignment plan
Chris Kunitz, Dustin Jeffrey, Paul Martin and James Neal scored for the Penguins. Mark Andre-Fleury made 12 saves for Pittsburgh and Sidney Crosby had two assists.
Kopecky, who has six goals in his last six games, scored his third of the game on an empty-netter from his own blue line that made the score 6-4 with one minute left.
Coyotes 4, Canucks 2
In Vancouver, British Columbia, Kyle Chipchura scored twice and Mike Smith made 29 saves to lead Phoenix to a victory over Vancouver.
Antoine Vermette and Mikkel Boedker each added a goal and an assist for Phoenix, which was coming off back-toback losses to Edmonton and Calgary over the weekend.
Jason Garrison and Henrik Sedin scored, and Cory Schneider made 18 saves for Vancouver.
Boedker scored in the second and then assisted on Vermette’s third-period goal SUNRISE, Florida, Feb 27, (Agencies): Tomas Kopecky recorded his first career hat trick and Tomas Fleischmann had the go-ahead score for his 100th career goal, lifting the Florida Panthers to a 6-4 win over the Pittsburgh Penguins on Tuesday night.
Brian Campbell and Marcel Goc also scored, and Fleischmann added two assists for the Panthers. Scott Clemmensen stopped all 15 shots he faced in the third after replacing Jose Theodore during the second intermission. Theodore stopped 15 of 19 shots through the first and second periods. that proved the winner, helping the Coyotes win on the road in regulation for the first time this season.
Bruns 4, Islanders 1 In Uniondale, New York, Brad Marchand scored the go-ahead goal in the second period and Boston beat New York for the 16th time in the last 20 meetings.
Adam McQuaid, David Krejci and Greg Campbell also scored for the Bruins (12-2-2), who won their fourth straight to bolster their best start since the 1976-77 season. All four victories have come on the road, where the Bruins are 8-1-1.
Casey Cizikas scored for the Islanders, who are a league-worst 2-8 at home.
Boston is 16-3-1 in its last 20 games against the Islanders, who remain in the basement of the Atlantic Division.
Sabres 2, Lightning 1 In Tampa, Florida, Tyler Myers scored a go-ahead goal early in third period, helping Ron Rolston win for the first time as Buffalo’s interim coach with a victory over Tampa Bay.
Myers made it 2-1 from the top of the left circle 52 seconds into the third after a Tampa Bay turnover. Rolston replaced longtime Buffalo coach Lindy Ruff on Feb. 20.
Ryan Miller made 30 saves and improved to 19-7-0 against the Lightning. The Sabres also got a goal from Cody Hodgson, while Thomas Vanek had two assists.
Capitals 3, Hurricanes 0 In Washington, Nicklas Backstrom scored in the first period and assisted on John Erskine’s goal in the second, leading Washington over Carolina.
John Carlson scored in the third and Braden Holtby, who signed a two-year contract extension Monday, made 33 saves to earn his fifth career shutout for the Capitals.
After a miserable start to the season, Washington has back-to-back wins by more than one goal for the first time this season. The victory moved the Capitals within four points of the Hurricanes, who led the NHL’s weakling division at the start of the day’s play.
Cam Ward kept it from turning into an ugly rout by making 37 saves for the Hurricanes.
Stars 5, Blue Jackets 4, OT In Columbus, Ohio, Loui Eriksson fought off two defenders to get his stick on a rebound and jammed it in 3:03 into overtime to give Dallas a victory over Columbus.
Cody Eakin had given the Stars a 4-3 lead with 6:24 left in regulation, but R.J. Umberger scored from the right hash with just 1:34 remaining to force overtime.
Eakin, Antoine Roussel and Derek Roy each had a goal and an assist. Brenden Morrow scored, and Stephane Robidas and Brenden Dillon each had two assists for the Stars, who had lost three of four.
Jets 4, Rangers 3 In New York, Olli Jokinen scored twice and Evander Kane had a goal and assist in the second period for surging Winnipeg, which closed a 4-1 road trip with a win over New York.
After a scoreless first period, Jokinen broke the deadlock 5:55 into the second off an assist from Kane, who then gave Winnipeg a 2-0 lead 1:07 later with his eighth goal of the season.
Kane added his second of the game and ninth of the season in the third period — in between a pair of Rangers tallies — as three goals were scored in a span of 1:13 that brought New York within 4-3.
Wild 2, Flames 1, OT In St Paul, Minnesota, Zach Parise scored 27 seconds into OT to lift Minnesota over Calgary.
With the Wild sputtering on offense once again, Jason Zucker scored for Minnesota with 4:19 left in regulation to send it to overtime.
Calgary’s Mark Giordano was then given a delay-of-game penalty with 43 seconds to go. The penalty carried over into the extra period, and Parise beat goalie Joey MacDonald for the 4-on-3 winner. Parise’s goal was only Minnesota’s fourth in its last 41 powerplay opportunities.
Sharks 3, Avalanche 2, SO In San Jose, California, Patrick Marleau scored in the fourth round of the shootout, Antti Niemi stopped three shots in the final session and the San Jose Sharks showed signs of coming out of a monthlong slump with a victory over the Avalanche.
Michal Handzus made the first shot and two Sharks missed before Marleau shook Semyon Varlamov, sneaking the puck between the goaltender’s legs for the winning score. Niemi turned aside 25 of 27 shots before the shootout and tossed aside John Mitchell’s attempt to send it to a fifth round.
Also: NEW YORK: The National Hockey League on Tuesday unveiled a proposed realignment plan based on geographic proximity and featuring a playoff format that would include wild card entrants.
The proposal calls for four groupings based primarily on geographic locations, divided into Atlantic, Central, Midwest and Pacific Divisions. The Eastern and Western Conference would keep their names.
The breakdown for the new divisions would have Carolina, Columbus, New Jersey, the New York Islanders, the New York Rangers, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh and Washington in the Atlantic.
Boston, Buffalo, Detroit, Montreal, Ottawa, Toronto, Florida and Tampa Bay would be in the Central Division.
Chicago, Colorado, Dallas, Minnesota, Nashville, St. Louis and Winnipeg would be in the Midwest.
Anaheim, Calgary, Edmonton, Vancouver, San Jose, Los Angeles and Phoenix would be in the Pacific.
Under the latest proposal, the top three clubs in each of the four divisions would qualify for the playoffs. The final four positions would go to the two teams in each conference with the next-best records.
The new plan would go into effect for the 2013-14 season. RICHMOND, British Columbia: A Vancouver junior hockey coach has been sentenced to 15 days in jail for tripping a player during a postgame handshake.
Martin Tremblay swept out the leg of an opposing player while the teams were going through the typical hockey ritual of lining up to shake hands after the game. Two players, a 10-year-old and a 13-yearold, fell to the ice. The move was caught on video and worked its way around the Internet.
The 48-year-old pleaded guilty to one count of assault in November.
Richmond provincial court Judge Patrick Chen sentenced Tremblay to jail, saying he wasn’t satisfied that time served in the community was enough to denounce or deter the man for his actions.