Ottawa Extends Winning Streak

Andreas Johansson scored at 12:47 of the third period Thursday night as the Ottawa Senators defeated the New Jersey Devils, 3-2, at Kanata, Canada, extending their winning streak to five games and their unbeaten streak to 10.

The five-game winning streak is a modern franchise record for the Senators, who rejoined the NHL in 1992 after a 58-year absence.

Alexei Yashin and Wade Redden also scored for the Senators, who are 8-0-2 in their last 10 and 23-13-5 overall--the first time Ottawa has been 10 games above .500 since rejoining the league.

“It feels good,” said defenseman Jason York, who had an assist to stretch his points streak to seven games. “I don’t think we were at our best but we showed some good heart to come back.”

The Senators moved into a tie with the Toronto Maple Leafs atop the Northeast Division, but have played one fewer game than the Maple Leafs.

Carolina 3, Florida 2--Glen Wesley scored with 41 seconds to play at Greensboro, N.C., ending the Panthers’ five-game unbeaten streak.

The teams appeared to be headed to overtime after rookie Peter Ratchuk scored his first NHL goal with six minutes left to tie the score at 2-2.

But Ron Francis, in his first three-point game with the Hurricanes, fed a streaking Wesley in the slot and the defenseman beat former Carolina goalie Sean Burke for the game-winning goal.

“What a great read, what courage to come down into the slot with a half-minute left,” Hurricane Coach Paul Maurice said. “That’s not exactly where you’re hoping your defense is going to be, but you like to see that confidence. In tight games, that’s the difference between winning and losing.”

All of Carolina’s goals were set up by Francis, who had his first assist in a month and first multipoint game since getting a goal and an assist on Nov. 29 against the Ducks.

Detroit 2, Nashville 1--Vyacheslav Kozlov’s goal 2:54 into overtime lifted the Red Wings at Detroit.

Kozlov took a pinpoint pass from Steve Yzerman near the right post and snapped a shot past goalie Tomas Vokoun for his ninth goal.

Kirk Maltby also scored for the Red Wings, who are 1-1-1 against the expansion Predators.

Edmonton 3, Vancouver 1--Boris Mironov scored the go-ahead goal in the second period at Vancouver as the Oilers continued to dominate the Canucks.

The Oilers ended a three-game winless streak and improved to 4-0 against the Canucks this season.

Bill Guerin’s speed set up Mironov’s goal, which put the Oilers up, 2-1, with 4:18 left in the second period.

Guerin outraced everyone to the puck deep in the Canucks’ end, turned around and passed to Mironov, whose shot slipped inside the crossbar.

NHL Notes

The Vancouver Canucks will either trade holdout star Pavel Bure by early next week or wait until the March 23 trading deadline to make a deal, General Manager Brian Burke said. Burke believes it will be easier to make a trade in March when playoff contenders will be more desperate to deal. Bure, who has scored 50 or more goals three times, has sat out the season after announcing he would never play again for the Canucks.