NHL Scores & More: Penguins Win 7th Straight, Depleted Caps Surprise Bruins

The Nashville Predators have quietly climbed in the standings, and continue to do so, as they defeated a division opponent, the Chicago Blackhawks, 3-1. The win jumps Nashville over Chicago in the Central and moves them up to fifth in the Western Conference -- one point behind the St. Louis Blues.

This was the first game without Jonathan Toews for Chicago, so they had to juggle the lines to adjust. To start, Dave Bolland took over Toews spot on the first line, and centered Viktor Stalberg and Patrick Kane. However, once the Predators started to take control of the game and tacked on two goals from Craig Smith and Mike Fisher, it was tough for the Blackhawks to match the pace. The Blackhawks tried re-shuffling the lines, putting Kane, who has only scored four points in his last 10 games, at center at the onset of the second period, but it didn't do much to help bolster quality chances.

At 7:20, Bolland scored on the power play to bring the deficit to one goal, but the way the Preds play, being down by one goal can feel like a three-goal deficit. As desperation set in for Chicago, they earned a few more power play opportunities, but Pekka Rinne continued to stand tall, along with help from his defense, who blocked a total of 24 shots this game.

The Blackhawks lost any chance of rallying to tie after being whistled for a too many men penalty and Colin Wilson put the icing on the lead with 13 seconds to go with an empty-netter, pushing the Preds to a 3-1 victory.

With the stretch of wins the Predators have been riding, Nashville might want to hold on to some of those players they were thinking about selling at the deadline. They might be buyers at this point.

The matchup of the Pittsburgh Penguins and St. Louis Blues could very well be a sneak peek at the Stanley Cup Finals if a few things go right for each club, and for the most part the game lived up to the billing.

With St. Louis looking to pick up a win on home ice after a hard-fought loss to Detroit the previous evening, the Penguins tried to use fresh legs to their advantage, pushing hard against Ken Hitchcock's defense, but both Brian Elliott and Marc-Andre Fleury were playing like All Stars a few days early, stopping every shot they faced in the opening period.

With Vladimir Sobotka in the penalty box on a high sticking call, the Pittsburgh power play struck when James Neal took a low angle shot that took a bounce and hopped over Elliott's pad to reach the back of the net.

The Penguins extended their lead midway through the period when Steve Sullivan managed a play that looked more like lacrosse than NHL hockey, seeing a shot come in from Derek Engelland at the blue line and getting his stick into the perfect position to tip the puck in midair for the goal.

All was not lost for Ken Hitchock and the Blues, however. Taking advantage of a turnover at center ice, Chris Stewart led a rush back into the Penguins end before setting up Patrik Berglund, who deked in and around Fleury for the goal.

The goal energized the Blues, and the energy paid off when Berglund broke in on another rush short handed, this time being hauled down by Kris Letang. Awarded a penalty shot, Berglund used a similar move to his first goal, shrugging his shoulders a bit and cutting in before beating Fleury through the legs.

Still tied at two late in the third period, the game suddenly took a frightening turn when St. Louis' Barret Jackman went deep into his own zone to retrieve a loose puck and was crushed at the glass by Pittsburgh agitator Matt Cooke. The frequent offender struck Jackman directly to the head and appeared to lead with his elbow, sending the defenseman to the ice in a heap. The referees converged, issuing a boarding call to Cooke and preventing Jackman's teammates from extracting a more physical retaliation.

Given Cooke's history, and the fact that he was suspended four games just under a year ago for a very similar hit on Columbus defenseman Fedor Tyutin, it seems likely that Cooke will receive scrutiny from Brendan Shanahan and the NHL department of player safety. On the flip side, there are some who believe Jackman actually jumped into the boards to dramatize the play, perhaps with help from Cooke's reputation.

In any event, the Cooke penalty carried into overtime, but Blues were unable to convert. That was mostly thanks to the stellar play of Fleury, who moved quickly and aggressively to trap and save the puck as much as possible rather than giving up dangerous rebounds, while Elliot turned aside the few attempts he faced, having ended regulation with 37 saves on 39 shots.

With no resolution in overtime, the game would head to a shootout, and the story was the goaltending once again, with Fleury finally shutting down Patrik Berglund, and Elliot turning away Kris Letang.

Fleury made an impressive low glove save on Kevin Shattenkirk, while Evgeni Malkin showed why he currently leads the NHL in scoring with a lightning fast wrist shot to put the Penguins ahead.

T.J. Oshie went five hole on Fleury to respond, while James Neal was stopped on his go-ahead attempt to send the shootout to extra skaters.

Alex Pietrangelo got the puck poke-checked away from him on his first career shootout attempt, but Chris Kunitz was able to lead Elliot wide, out-waited him, and backhanded the puck home when the St. Louis goaltender dropped in anticipation of a stuff attempt.

The game should be remembered for outstanding goaltending, several dynamic goals, and the heroic efforts by Berglund to deliver a win for his team. But an odd, controversial play is the story of this one, and that's a shame.

Claude Giroux beat Scott Clemmensen for the only goal of the shootout, and goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky stopped all three Florida Panthers' shooters as the Philadelphia Flyers defeated the Cats, 3-2 Tuesday night at BankAtlantc Center in Sunrise, Florida.

After losing a shootout to the defending Stanley Cup champion Boston Bruins Sunday -- where Ilya Bryzgalov failed to stop any of the three Bruins' shooters -- Philadelphia had to be wary of heading to the skills competition to settle the outcome of the game. They had lost six consecutive decisions in contests that had gone the shootout route, but Florida has struggled just as much. The loss dropped their home record in shootouts to an abysmal 9-33.

With Tom Sestito in the penalty box for charging just over two minutes into the contest, Florida took advantage of their power play opportunity. Bobrovsky made saves on Stephen Weiss and Brian Campbell before Mikael Samuelsson was able to put the second rebound away for his third goal of the season to give the Cats a 1-0 lead at the 2:49 mark.

Philadelphia has seen their share of strange goals scored against them this year, but they would be the beneficiary of a weird bounce while on a man advantage of their own midway through the first period. With Erik Gudbranson in the sin bin, Brayden Schenn's shot deflected high in the air and came down directly onto the back of Clemensen. The puck glanced off the goaltender's back and trickled into the net as the cage was knocked off of its marsh pegs. After a lengthy review, it was deemed a good goal. Schenn's third of the season knotted the game at 1-1 at 10:35.

While Sestito had enabled the Panthers to score a power-play goal earlier in the period, he would be instrumental in getting a goal back for his team and giving them the lead. The big winger barreled into the Florida zone along the right wing side, then sent a backhander towards the Cats' net. Just before it reached Clemmensen, Jakub Voracek was able to get his stick on the puck and redirected it inside the short side post for his eighth goal of the season. The goal gave the Flyers a 2-1 lead at the first intermission.

As has been the case many times this season, Philadelphia suffocated their opponent for much of a period, but made one mistake and it ended up with the puck in the back of their net.

After allowing Florida just four shots over the first 15 minutes of the middle stanza, Voracek attempted to force a pass through the middle of the Panthers defensive coverage. Weiss intercepted the pass and banked a lead pass for a breaking Kris Versteeg along the right wing side, who went in on Bobrovsky on a partial breakaway. As Maxime Talbot dove across to break up the play, Versteeg maintained control of the puck and cut across the front of the net. He drew Bobrovsky out of the net by a good five feet as the netminder overplayed the shot, and Versteeg instead spun and sent a pass to the slot to an open Tomas Fleischmann, who whirled around and whipped a backhander into the vacated cage for his 16th goal of the season, and first in the last nine games. The tally tied the game at 2-2 with 4:20 remaining in the second period.

Following scoreless third period and overtime sessions, Giroux weaved his magic on Clemmensen as the only successful skater in the shootout. The crafty center faked the goalie with a move to the backhand side in which Clemmensen totally bit, while Giroux altered his path to the forehand and deposited the game-winning goal into the open net.

Meanwhile, Bobrovsky thwarted Versteeg, Weiss, and Mike Santorelli in the shootout. In addition to those three stops, Bobrovsky also made 23 saves in regulation and overtime to improve his record to 11-4-1.

Clemmensen made 35 saves on the night, but eventually took the loss to drop to 6-2-5 on the season.

The points gained by both teams were crucial heading into the All-Star break. Philly stayed three points behind the New York Rangers, who shut out the Winnipeg Jets, and kept the Flyers four points ahead of the blistering-hot Pittsburgh Penguins, who won their seventh in a row in St. Louis. By virtue of the one point picked up, Florida is tied with the Washington Capitals in the Southeast Division with 55 points.