Power Play Pays for Canucks, 4-3

Brendan Morrison scored a power-play goal at 2:53 of overtime to give the Vancouver Canucks a 4-3 victory over the Calgary Flames on Saturday night in Vancouver, Canada.

With the Canucks on their 10th power play, Morrison scored from the side of the net after Flame goalie Miikka Kiprusoff got caught out of position chasing an errant slap shot from Vancouver defenseman Sami Salo.

The win was the first of the season for the Canucks against Calgary in five tries and pulled them to within four points of the Northwest Division-leading Flames.

The Flames scored twice in a 44-second span early in the third period to take a two-goal lead. The Canucks stormed back with two goals in the final eight minutes to send the game into overtime.

Anson Carter’s power-play goal with 7:31 remaining cut Calgary’s lead to one, and Salo, with his second of the night, tied it with 30 seconds to play and the Canucks holding a two-man advantage.

Carolina 3, New York Islanders 0 -- Martin Gerber made 30 saves for his sixth career shutout, and Carolina scored three goals in a 6:14 span in the second period in Uniondale, N.Y.

Boston 6, Tampa Bay 3 -- Defenseman Milan Jurcina scored the first two goals of his NHL career and Patrice Bergeron had the go-ahead goal in Boston. The Bruins are 16-0-5 in their last 21 home games against the Lightning, their last loss on April 9, 1994. Boston is 17-1-6 overall at home against Tampa Bay.

Atlanta 4, Pittsburgh 3 -- Marc Savard broke a tie with a power-play goal with 3:25 to play in Pittsburgh, and Ilya Kovalchuk had two more goals to help the Thrashers beat the Penguins for the second straight night.

Kovalchuk pushed his NHL-leading goal total to 32 a night after he had three goals in Atlanta’s 6-4 home victory over the Penguins. Jim Slater also scored for Atlanta.

New York Rangers 4, Florida 0 -- Henrik Lundqvist made a career-high 38 saves at home in his second shutout -- both against Florida -- and fellow Ranger rookie Petr Prucha scored his 20th goal. New York ended a three-game losing streak.

Colorado 3, Columbus 2 -- Alex Tanguay and Marek Svatos scored shootout goals in Denver.

Tanguay and Svatos also accounted for both Colorado goals in regulation, and the Avalanche won its fourth straight.

Montreal 4, Ottawa 1 -- Radek Bonk and Mathieu Dandenault ended lengthy goal droughts in Montreal, and the Canadiens scored four times in the first period.

Bonk hadn’t scored in 44 games, and Dandenault ended a 46-game drought.

Saku Koivu and Francis Bouillon also scored in the first period as the Canadiens chased goalie Ray Emery, who faced 11 shots. Cristobal Huet made 40 saves for the Canadiens.

Toronto 3, Edmonton 2 -- Backup goalie Mikael Tellqvist made 36 saves and Chad Kilger scored the winning goal early in the third period on the road for Toronto.

Matt Stajan and Darcy Tucker also scored for Toronto, and defenseman Bryan McCabe added two assists to push his team-leading point total to 49. The Maple Leafs have won seven of their last eight games and eight of 12 in Edmonton.

New Jersey 3, Buffalo 2 -- Brian Rafalski had a goal and an assist, and Martin Brodeur made 26 saves on the road for New Jersey.

Jamie Langenbrunner and Scott Gomez also scored for the Devils, who have won three straight for the first time since November.