NHL Last Night: Claude Lemieux Returns

Cam Ward made 32 saves, Ray Whitney and Eric Staal scored and the Carolina Hurricanes beat the Pittsburgh Penguins 2-1 Tuesday night.

Ward, making his 13th consecutive start for Carolina, earned his 100th career victory for the Hurricanes, who won on consecutive nights after snapping a five-game losing streak.

League scoring leader Evgeni Malkin had a goal for Pittsburgh, the reigning Eastern Conference champion which fell into 10th place in the conference heading into the All-Star break.

The Hurricanes killed off four minutes of power-play time over the final 4:15 of the game after Tim Gleason was given a double-minor for high-sticking Malkin.

Ward stopped Malkin from point-blank range with 24.1 seconds to play.

Sharks 2, Canucks 1, OT
Joe Thornton set up Devin Setoguchi's tying goal in regulation and Patrick Marleau's overtime winner, and the San Jose Sharks celebrated Claude Lemieux's return to the NHL after a 5½-year absence.

Lemieux played a regular shift on the fourth line in his first NHL game since 2003 for the Sharks, who gave one of their most listless efforts of the season until the last minute of regulation. Evgeni Nabokov made 13 saves for San Jose, which will enter the All-Star break with at least a share of the overall league lead.

Roberto Luongo made 27 saves for the Canucks, who lost their sixth straight after surrendering Setoguchi's tying goal with 39.1 seconds left.

Thrashers 4, Canadiens 2
Rookie defenseman Zach Bogosian and Chris Thorburn each had a goal and an assist.

Tied for the NHL's second-lowest points total with 37 when the night began, Atlanta won its third straight to snap Montreal's two-game winning streak and spoil the return of Montreal goaltender Carey Price.

The Canadiens, who had won eight of 10 and were 11-2-1 in their previous 14, started with Jaroslav Valak in goal, but coach Guy Carbonneau pulled him after Rich Peverley scored 3:58 into the second and made it 3-0.

Bogosian, picked third in the 2008 draft, was out 28 games with a broken fibula. After coming back Dec. 31 at Carolina, Bogosian spent four games in the minors to improve his conditioning before returning to Atlanta last Friday.

Coyotes 6, Red Wings 3
Enver Lisin scored a pair of third-period goals and the Phoenix Coyotes beat the Detroit Red Wings 6-3 Tuesday night.

Derek Morris had a goal and an assist, and Keith Yandle, Ed Jovanovski and Olli Jokinen also scored for the Coyotes, who won for the fifth time in seven games.

Shane Doan had a pair of assists for Phoenix, which moved past Anaheim into sole possession of fifth place in the Western Conference entering the All-Star break.

Niklas Lidstrom had a pair of power-play goals and Mikael Samuelsson also scored on the power play for the Red Wings, who lost consecutive games in regulation for the first time this season.

Lidstrom tied Brian Leetch in eighth place for power-play goals by a defenseman with 111.

Rangers 4, Ducks 2
Markus Naslund scored on a power play and set up Scott Gomez's man-advantage goal in the third period that snapped a tie.

The Rangers, playing their first home game following a 3-1-1 trip, hopped back over the New Jersey Devils into first place in the Atlantic Division. New York is now off for a week for the NHL All-Star break.

Gomez also had an assist, Fredrik Sjostrom added a short-handed goal in the second period, and Henrik Lundqvist made 32 saves for his 24th win.

Anaheim, on a five-game trip that continues Wednesday on Long Island and concludes after the break, got goals from Corey Perry and rookie Bobby Ryan. Jonas Hiller stopped 26 shots, giving a break to Western Conference All-Star starter Jean-Sebastien Giguere.

Senators 3, Capitals 2
Brendan Bell scored Ottawa's third power-play goal of the game with 1:22 remaining.

Bell put a shot from the right side past Jose Theodore 18:38 into the third with five seconds remaining in a penalty to Washington's Alexander Semin.

Dany Heatley scored a pair of power-play goals in the first to stake the Senators to a 2-0 lead.

Brian Elliott started his fifth in a row for Ottawa, which has seven points in four games (3-0-1), including a 5-4 shootout loss to Montreal on Saturday.

Kings 5, Wild 2
Kyle Calder had a goal and an assist to help Los Angeles end a four-game losing streak.

The NHL's lowest-scoring team, the Kings were 0-for-26 on the power play during their skid until Anze Kopitar scored with the man advantage at 7:18 of the second period to put Los Angeles ahead 2-1. Dustin Brown stretched the lead to two 1:14 later.

Derek Armstrong also had a goal and Patrick O'Sullivan added an empty-netter for the Kings, who got 25 saves from Jonathan Quick.

Owen Nolan and Marek Zidlicky scored for the Wild.

Oilers 4, Blue Jackets 3
Ales Hemsky scored his second goal with 34.9 seconds left to play, giving the Edmonton Oilers a 4-3 win over the Columbus Blue Jackets on Tuesday night.

Hemsky added two assists, and Lubomir Visnovsky and Denis Grebeshkov also scored for the Oilers (24-19-3) who have won five of their last six to move back into a playoff position in the Western Conference.

Jared Boll, Marc Methot and Jason Williams scored for the Blue Jackets who have lost two of their last three.

Copyright AP - Associated Press
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