Something had to give when the Ottawa Senators played host to the Los Angeles Kings.
When it was over Monday night, Ottawa had a 5-2 victory and its NHL record-tying 11-game home losing streak was over.The Kings, however, have now lost seven straight on the road and head for Pittsburgh, Buffalo, Toronto and Calgary before getting back to the Fabulous Forum.
In the only other NHL games played Monday night, it was Quebec 5, Washington 3 and the New York Rangers 2, Buffalo 0.
For teams coming in with so little momentum, the Kings and Senators created some sparks.
Ottawa goaltender Craig Billington was spectacular in stopping 39 shots and former Kings forward Bob Kudelski scored twice to set a career-high of 25 goals.
Wayne Gretzky's goal with five minutes to play spoiled Billington's bid for the first shutout in the franchise's brief one-year history.
"I don't think we're overly picky right now," Billington said of the missed shutout. "It was just nice to see us score some goals."
The Senators had been outscored 34-7 in losing their six previous games. The Kings (11-16-2) had lost eight of their previous 10.
"We got kicked in the teeth tonight and we deserved it," said Kings goaltender Kelly Hrudey, who faced 37 shots, including 19 in Ottawa's three-goal second period.
Los Angeles was coming off a 9-1 victory over St. Louis, but Hrudey discounted any notion of momentum lost.
"This game wasn't a really big setback," he said. "I don't think this is any more distressful. The way we're playing, they're all horrible."
The Kings didn't start horribly, testing Billington repeatedly in the game's opening 10 minutes.
Billington made superb stops on Mike Donnelly, Jimmy Carson and Tony Granato before Kudelski put in his own rebound to put the Senators ahead at 12:28. Billington then preserved Ottawa's slim lead with a glove save on Rob Blake's rising slap shot from the hash marks.
Rookie defenseman Dmitri Filimonov, with his first NHL goal, rookie Alexandre Daigle and Troy Mallette sealed the game for Ottawa in the second period. Kudelski added a power-play goal early in the third.
Gretzky padded his league-leading points totals to 57 with a short-handed goal at 14:51 and assisted on Alex Zhitnik's power-play goal with 55 seconds to play.
Nordiques 5, Capitals 3
Scott Young had two goals as Quebec (13-12-5) went over the .500 mark for the first time this season, going 7-1-4 in the last 12 games. Craig Berube and Todd Krygier scored 58 seconds apart in the second period to visiting Washington a 3-2 lead. Young started a three-goal burst in the second period with his second of the game. Joe Sakic scored 24 seconds later and Valeri Kamensky capped the scoring with 11 minutes left in the period.
Rangers 2, Sabres 0
Mike Richter made 28 saves for his second shutout of the season and sixth of his career as the Rangers improved to 9-0-3 in their last 12 home games. Richter is unbeaten in his last 18 games, one short of the franchise record set by Davey Kerr in 1939-40, the last time the Rangers won the Stanley Cup. Sergei Nemchinov scored 1:41 into the game and Adam Graves added an empty-net goal in the final seconds.