NHL Scores & More: Minnesota, Ottawa Improve Playoff Standing

The Ottawa Senators and Minnesota Wild helped to solidify their playoff standing on Sunday, while Tampa Bay pulled a bit of an upset in New Jersey thanks to some suspect goalkeeping. Erik Karlsson continued his absolute tear, while the Wild-Sharks game was memorable for non-hockey reasons despite having seven goals in it.

Tampa Bay Lightning 4-3 New Jersey Devils

This was not Martin Brodeur's best outing of the season. After shutting out the Lightning in the first period, he allowed two goals in the second period and two in the third. His save percentage? 75 percent. Ouch. Raw Charge was happy with their team's effort.

For much of the game, it was a laid back sort of Sunday matinee game, as most would expect. There weren't a lot of shots overall -- the Devils had 22 shots while the Lightning only had 16 -- and it wasn't really a lot of end-to-end sort of action. But it was a good overall effort by the Lightning, and they managed to play for almost all 60 minutes.

Ottawa Senators 5-2 New York Islanders

Erik Karlsson leads all NHL defensemen in points by a mile, and he added to his tally with two more against the lowly Islanders. Silver Sevens is unsurprisingly impressed with their young star.

Another two points for him and he broke the club record for most points by a defenceman...with 18 games left in the season. He is tied with Phil Kessel for sixth in the NHL in points at 65. He did get caught pinching on the Islanders first goal, but he gets a hero anyway for breaking the record. The game was his fourth consecutive multi-point game in a week where he had 12 points in four games.

Minnesota Wild 4-3 San Jose Sharks

This game featured a very scary moment in the first period when Sharks coach Todd McLellan took a stick to the head in a freak accident. He collapsed and was removed from the bench area, but was ultimately fine and watched the end of the game. Hockey Wilderness was happy with the win, but not with some poor behavior by the home fans.

Burns would put the Sharks up again about nine minutes into the third, and then one of the strangest things I have experienced at the X happened. The fans booed Brent Burns. I am still confused as to what the guy did wrong. He protected his goalie, and scored a goal. He didn't beg out of Minnesota, and was, in fact, crushed by being traded away. The guy loves Minnesota, and loves Wild fans. And the Team of 18,000 booed him.

Add that to the fact that they also cheered when a ref was hurt, and I am at a loss for words. Some of the smartest, classiest fans in the league have shown anything but the past few games. Time for a visit to the hockey etiquette school?