WASHINGTON — Justin Williams scored two of Carolina's franchise-record three short-handed goals, and the Hurricanes moved into a first-place tie atop the Eastern Conference with a 4-3 victory over the Washington Capitals on Friday night.
Alexander Ovechkin had an assist to reach 99 points in his rookie season, but it wasn't enough to help the Capitals, whose late rally fell short.
Kevyn Adams added Carolina's other short-handed tally, and Eric Staal scored his 44th goal of the season during a second-period power play for the Hurricanes, who lead the Eastern Conference with 51 wins. Carolina is tied with Ottawa for first place with 108 points.
Williams and Adams scored 19 seconds apart during the same Capitals power play.
Ovechkin has 48 goals and 51 assists, and is one point from becoming the sixth NHL rookie to ever post 100.
FLYERS 4, SABRES 2: At Buffalo, N.Y., Simon Gagne had a goal and two assists, helping Philadelphia clinch a playoff spot. Robert Esche made 19 saves for the Flyers, who closed within three points of the first-place New York Rangers in the Atlantic Division.
R.J. Umberger, Eric Desjardins, and Mike Knuble also scored for the Flyers, who trail fourth-place Buffalo by five points in the Eastern Conference playoff chase.
Tim Connolly and Ales Kotalik scored for Buffalo and Ryan Miller made 30 saves as the Sabres failed in their bid to sweep the season series from Philadelphia. Buffalo won three of the four meetings, with this loss breaking a seven-game home unbeaten streak against the Flyers.
RED WINGS 6, BLUE JACKETS 5 (SO): At Detroit, Tomas Holmstrom scored the only goal of a five-round shootout to lift Detroit over Columbus. Brendan Shanahan had a goal and an assist, and Kris Draper, Mikael Samuelsson, Niklas Kronwall and Jason Williams also scored for Detroit. Robert Lang added two assists.
Rick Nash recorded his first career hat trick and Mark Hartigan and Dan Fritsche added a goal and an assist each for Columbus.
Just after the Blue Jackets pulled goalie Marc Denis for an extra attacker, Nash scored from the slot after an unsuccessful clearing attempt by Kronwall. His 29th goal tied it 5-5 and completed the hat trick with 32.1 seconds left in regulation.
Draper put the Red Wings ahead 5-4 at 9:05 of the third period after Nash tied it just under 5 minutes earlier.
PENGUINS 5, PANTHERS 1: At Sunrise, Fla., Sidney Crosby had a goal and three assists, Sebastien Caron made 36 saves, and Pittsburgh snapped a 12-game losing streak to Florida. Konstantin Koltsov, Ryan Whitney, Ryan Malone and John LeClair also scored for Pittsburgh, the NHL's worst team this season.
Jay Bouwmeester scored for Florida but Roberto Luongo stopped only 14 of 18 shots through two periods. That was enough to knock the Panthers out of the Eastern Conference playoff chase.
Crosby's 36th goal of the season gave Pittsburgh a 4-0 lead at 14:17 of the second.
OILERS 4, BLACKHAWKS 3 (OT): At Chicago, Ryan Smyth scored his second goal of the game during a power play at 3:18 of overtime, lifting Edmonton over Chicago. With Patrick Sharp off for slashing, Smyth took a pass from Ales Hemsky and beat Nikolai Khabibulin from the edge of the crease.
FLAMES 2, WILD 1: At Calgary, Alberta, Jamie Lundmark scored the tiebreaking goal with 5:20 left in the third period and Miikka Kiprusoff won his franchise-record 40th game in Calgary's victory that eliminated Minnesota from the Western Conference playoff chase.