Jason Blake, New York's ninth shooter of an extended shootout, nearly lost the puck but recovered to steer a shot past Jocelyn Thibault and give the Islanders a 3-2 victory over the Pittsburgh Penguins in Pittsburgh on Monday night.
As Blake came down the slot, the puck seemed to slide off his stick momentarily, but he got it back and beat Thibault by faking a backhander only to slide the puck inside the near post.
Islanders goalie Rick DiPietro stopped the Penguins' final six shooters, including Mark Recchi, Ziggy Palffy and John LeClair, to give New York its second shootout victory in two attempts. The Penguins lost the second of their three shootouts, even though rookies Erik Christensen and Sidney Crosby kept the shootout going by scoring after getting Pittsburgh's only goals in regulation.
Alexei Yashin and Shawn Bates scored in the second period to give the Islanders a 2-0 lead, but Crosby and Christensen tied it for the Penguins in the third period.
LIGHTNING 5, FLYERS 2: At Tampa, Fla., Vinny Prospal had three goals and an assist to help the Lightning snap a six-game losing streak with a win over Philadelphia. Martin Cibak extended the Lightning's lead to 4-2 on a breakaway with 7:55 to play. Prospal completed the hat trick with an empty-net goal with 37.3 seconds left.
OILERS 5, AVALANCHE 2: At Denver, Chris Pronger scored his first goal for Edmonton to help Oilers goalie Mike Morrison win his first career start, a 5-2 victory over the Colorado Avalanche on Monday night. Pronger, the star defenseman who was traded away by St. Louis after spending nine seasons with the Blues, struggled in his new setting, held to nine assists and no goals over the first 19 games for Edmonton.
FLAMES 3, WILD 2: At Calgary, Jarome Iginla scored a power-play goal with 1:07 left to give the Calgary Flames their seventh straight victory, 3-2 over the Minnesota Wild.
Iginla also set up third-period goals by Dion Phaneuf and Daymond Langkow as the Flames battled back from a 2-0 deficit to improve to 11-7-2.