Blue Jackets Wait Till End to Defeat Sharks

Rick Nash scored his NHL-leading 24th goal with 2.1 seconds left in overtime to give the Columbus Blue Jackets their first win ever in San Jose, 3-2 over the Sharks on Thursday night.

Moments after Columbus goalie Marc Denis stopped Wayne Primeau on a breakaway, Nash fired a hard shot past Evgeni Nabokov for a power-play goal. Nash also had an early assist in the Blue Jackets’ first victory in seven games at the Shark Tank.

Scott Thornton forced overtime by scoring his second goal of the night with 57 seconds left in regulation for the Sharks, whose franchise-record home unbeaten streak ended at 11 games.

Ottawa 7, Toronto 1 -- Bryan Smolinski scored and also assisted on two of Ottawa’s five first-period goals at Toronto as the Senators won their sixth in a row.

Wade Redden scored twice for the Senators, who moved within five points of Toronto for first place in the Northeast Division.

The Maple Leafs were missing seven of their best players, including captain Mats Sundin, goalie Ed Belfour, forwards Alexander Mogilny and Owen Nolan and defenseman Tomas Kaberle.

Tampa Bay 4, Montreal 1 -- Martin St. Louis had two goals and two assists at Montreal for his first career four-point game.

Canadien goalie Jose Theodore, who hadn’t given up more than one goal through regulation in his seven previous starts, lost for the first time in his last six starts.

Carolina 3, New York Rangers 2 -- Josef Vasicek scored twice in Carolina’s three-goal second period at Raleigh, N.C.

Carolina, the NHL’s lowest-scoring team, got three goals in a game for the first time since beating Edmonton, 3-2, on Dec. 9.

New York Islanders 3, Edmonton 2 -- Justin Papineau scored a power-play goal early in the third period and another with 1:18 left at Uniondale, N.Y. The Islanders ended their winless streak at three (0-2-1).

Florida 4, Philadelphia 3 -- Florida rookie Nathan Horton became the youngest player in NHL history to score on a penalty shot.

Valeri Bure scored the game-winner for the Panthers with 2:04 left in overtime at Philadelphia. Horton, who is 18 years, 224 days old, tied the score, 2-2, with his penalty shot at 3:38 of the second period. Horton was 38 days younger than Toronto’s Jack Hamilton, who set the record in 1944.

Nashville 4, Colorado 3 -- Jason York scored at 1:12 in overtime, and backup goaltender Chris Mason stopped 31 shots at Nashville for his first career victory.

Dallas 2, Atlanta 1 -- Steve Ott and Scott Young had goals, and Jason Arnott had two assists at Dallas for the Stars, who beat the Thrashers for the eighth time in a row.

Boston 3, Pittsburgh 1 -- Patrice Bergeron scored the tiebreaking goal with 2:52 remaining at Boston to help the Bruins extend their unbeaten streak to four games.

Chicago 3, Calgary 1 -- Steve Sullivan broke a tie with a power-play goal 2:34 into the third period at Chicago. Bryan Berard added an empty-net goal with 26 seconds left.