NHL Scores & More: Capitals Shut Out Panthers, Grab Southeast Lead

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Washington Capitals head coach Dale Hunter referred to Tuesday's game against the Florida Panthers as a "playoff" game. With a win needed to even claim a playoff spot in the Eastern Conference, the Caps delivered in a 4-0 win.

Last week, the Panthers defeated the Caps to take over the Southeast Division. Tuesday, it was the complete opposite as Washington leapfrogged Florida for first place.

"We don't want to kind of be a bubble team and just sit there," Vokoun said. "It's not going to be easy. Every game is going to be tough. We definitely want to win our division and that is what we set our goal as."

It was a vintage night in Washington as Alex Ovechkin scored twice and the Caps dominated a Southeast rival, but all that mattered to them was a much-needed victory.

"It is always better winning. We knew what was on the line tonight. We had to win some of these four-point games. They are playoff games and we're battling with Florida. That's our team that we're battling with other teams around us. These two points mean a lot."

Pekka Rinne's 11-game win streak came to an end Tuesday night as the Vancouver Canucks beat the Nashville Predators, 4-3, in the shootout. The Canucks are now just a point behind first place in the West, while Nashville's point keeps them tied for first in the Central with the Blues.

The Canucks entered the game planning to separate the Sedin twins so that Byron Bitz could get some quality time in his second career NHL game. However, not too much longer, the twins were reunited after the first two goals from Ryan Kesler on the power play and a response from Colin Wilson. With Bitz now playing with both Sedins, two goals near the end of the period, one from Bitz and another from Daniel Sedin were scored 23 seconds apart.

It seemed Vancouver was well in control, but much like in the second round of the playoffs last season when the Canucks and Preds met, Nashville didn't go away. Top scorers Sergei Kostitsyn and Mike Fisher answered back 1:12 apart to tie the game, 3-3.

Both teams battled through the third and overtime to the shootout, where they continued to battle for six rounds until Alexander Edler put one past Rinne. After Edler's marker, Roberto Luongo redeemed himself from his earlier mistakes and finally won a shootout for Vancouver with a stop on Wilson.

One of the weaknesses of the NHL's recent cycle of scheduling formats is exposed when teams like the Tampa Bay Lightning and Los Angeles Kings meet in the regular season. With meetings few and far between, and no playoff history to draw upon, the cross conference match is a cross-country affair where neither side has much to help fire them up beyond the points at stake in the standings.

For the Kings, at least, that motivation was enough.

Standing on their current strategy of creating a defensive shell around their goaltender and daring offenses to break through, the Kings provided Jonathan Quick with an early lead when Anze Kopitar tipped a Matt Greene point shot off of Dwayne Roloson and into the net. Moving the puck to carefully avoid high traffic areas and executing repeated dumps back into the Tampa zone, LA prevented the Lightning from finding an offensive rhythm until well into the second period when Teddy Purcell lead an odd-man rush past a stickless Rob Scuderi before finding Steven Stamkos for his league leading 35th goal.

Tampa had an opportunity to take a lead with Kyle Clifford in the penalty box for roughing, but Tampa failed to cash in on the opportunity, and a long pass from Scuderi sent Clifford onto a breakaway once he returned to the ice. One-on-one with Roloson, Clifford held his nerve and fired the puck through the five hole to give LA the lead, and the Kings milked the advantage until the dying minutes of the second period, when Dustin Penner one-timed a puck from the slot after a textbook feed from Mike Richards to give the visitors a 3-1 lead that they would protect through the final period, leaving them four points clear of the battle for eighth place in the West. and just two points back of San Jose for the Pacific Division lead.

David Perron scored two goals and netminder Brian Elliott stopped 28 of 29 shots against his former club to lead the St. Louis Blues over the slumping Ottawa Senators, 3-1, Tuesday night at Scotiabank Place.

With the victory, St. Louis moved to within three points of the Central Division and Western Conference-leading Detroit Red Wings, while the Blues also hold two very important games in hand. The Blue notes are one of the NHL's hottest clubs as they've gone 10-2-2 in their last 14. The key factor for St. Louis' success is their relentless defense. During the 14-game streak, the Blues have allowed just 20 goals.

Since Ken Hitchcock took over the St. Louis helm, the Blues have a stellar 25-7-7 mark in 39 contests.

For Ottawa, their frustrations continued as their recent slide reached seven games -- 0-6-1 -- a stretch in which the Senators have been outscored by a 23-9 margin.

While Elliott beat his ex-teammates, Craig Anderson continued to struggle. He yielded two goals on just four shots, and was yanked in favor of Alex Auld after just 3:49.

The first goal was off the stick of Chris Porter from the right wing wall that eluded Anderson for his fourth tally of the season after a failed Blues' clearing attempt to make it a 1-0 lead after only 1:37.

Perron doubled the St. Louis margin with a nifty move to reach around Anderson from in tight to make it a 2-0 lead and chase the goaltender from the crease.

With B.J. Crombeen in the penalty box, the Sens tied it early in the middle stanza. Sergei Gonchar's power play point drive deflected off of Daniel Alfredsson at the side of the Blues' net and past Elliott for the Swede's 18th of the year at the 56-second mark to cut the deficit to 2-1.

But less than six minutes later, Perron made Ottawa pay for another failed clearing attempt by chipping the puck over Auld and under the crossbar to restore the two-goal lead at 3-1. Perron now has six goals and 19 points in 27 contests since returning from a long bout with post-concussion syndrome.

Elliott came up big in the third period, making a nice stop on Kyle Turris on a partial breakaway to preserve the two-goal lead. Elliott improved his record to 16-5-2, while Anderson fell to 25-19-5.