PITTSBURGH — The New York Islanders defeated the Pittsburgh Penguins 4-3 on the strength of three third-period goals in the first meeting between the teams since their Eastern Conference Quarter final series last spring. The Islanders (4-3-3) scored the winning goal at 18:20 of the third period when a blocked Kris Letang shot led to an odd-man break the other way. While Penguins (7-3-0) goaltender Jeff Zatkoff made a spectacular save initially, the Penguins never recovered to get into good defensive position and Josh Bailey took advantage, knocking in a rebound. Blue Jackets 5, Maple Leafs 2: Brandon Dubinsky's short-handed goal with just over seven and a half minutes remaining, a 3-on-4 goal, led the Blue Jackets to a 5-2 win over the Toronto Maple Leafs. Marian Gaborik, Ryan Johansen, Nick Foligno and rookie Ryan Murray also scored for the Blue Jackets, who have won three straight games after a four-game road losing streak. Dubinsky's goal was only the third 3-on-4 goal scored in Blue Jackets' franchise history, the first since the 2005-06 season. Columbus improved to 5-5-0 while Toronto dropped to 7-4-0. Sabres 3, Panthers 1: Sabres captain Steve Ott scored with just over seven minutes remaining in the third period to lead Buffalo to a rare 3-1 win over the Florida Panthers. The Sabres (2-9-1) entered Friday with the worst record in the NHL at 1-9-1 with their only previous win coming in a shootout. On the winning goal, defenseman Christian Enrhoff put a slap shot on net while Ott, creating traffic in front, got the tip to make it 2-1. Cody Hodgson added an empty-net goal with 46 seconds left. The Panthers dropped to 3-7-1. Ducks 2, Senators 1: In the first start of his NHL career 24-year-old goalie Frederik Andersen was brilliant in leading the Anaheim Ducks to a 2-1 victory over the Ottawa Senators. Andersen stopped 26 shots in a duel with the Senators' Craig Anderson, who performed some acrobatics of his own while also making 26 saves. One of Andersen's biggest stops came against former Ducks winger Bobby Ryan with about eight minutes left in the third period. Ryan directed a shot that was headed for the bottom corner of the net before Andersen kicked out his left skate and turned it away. The win improved Anaheim's record to 8-3-0 while the Senators slipped to 4-4-2. Canucks 3, Blues 2 (OT): The Vancouver Canucks, playing their fifth game in seven days, overcame a rusty St Louis Blues 3-2 in overtime after Ryan Kesler's second goal of the game came with 15 seconds left. The power play goal came after the Blues' Patrik Berglund was called for hooking with 33 seconds left in overtime. The Blues, who hadn't played in a week, rallied from a 2-0 deficit to force overtime. Backup goalie Eddie Lack, playing his third NHL game, had to stop only eight St Louis shots through the first 30 minutes of the game as the Blues had trouble getting going after their unusually long layoff. Vancouver improved to 8-4-1 while St Louis dropped to 5-1-2. Avalanche 4, Hurricanes 2: Matt Duchene scored twice and added an assist while Erik Johnson and Alex Tanguay also scored goals as the Colorado Avalanche matched the best start in franchise history with a 4-2 win over the Carolina Hurricanes. Semyon Varlamov stopped 28 shots to help Colorado improve to 9-1. The 18 points in 10 games equals the start by the 1995 Quebec Nordiques and 2000-01 Avalanche. Drayson Brown and Andrej Sekera scored goals for the Hurricanes, who dropped their second straight. The injury-riddled Hurricanes suffered another blow on Friday when forward Radek Dvorak left the game after two periods with a lower body problem. Dvorak's injury comes a night after first choice goalie Cam Ward was lost to a lower body injury in the Hurricanes' loss to Minnesota. — Reuters
