NHL Last Night:New Coach, Old Story, Pens Lose

Frans Nielsen and Jeff Tambellini scored shootout goals, and Joey MacDonald turned aside Pittsburgh stars Evgeni Malkin and Sidney Crosby in the tiebreaker to lift the lowly New York Islanders to a 3-2 victory Monday.

Dan Bylsma's first game behind the Pittsburgh Penguins bench ended like so many under former coach Michel Therrien: with a loss.

Bylsma got the call that he would replace Therrien on Sunday, just before he was set to coach his Wilkes Barre-Scranton club in an AHL game. Pittsburgh fell to 1-7-2 on the road in 2009.

Chris Campoli and Frans Nielsen scored for New York, which owns the NHL's worst record (17-33-6). MacDonald stopped 35 shots before the tiebreaker.




Stars 3, Blue Jackets 2, SO

At Columbus, Ohio, James Neal scored the only goal in the shootout and Marty Turco had 41 saves to lead Dallas past Columbus.

Neal, 6-for-9 in shootouts this season, slipped the puck past Steve Mason on the glove side. Turco, tested all night, then made a blocker save on Blue Jackets captain Rick Nash to preserve the win.

Dallas' Brad Richards scored 27 seconds into the game, before most of the crowd of 15,006 had settled in. Loui Eriksson collected his 27th to tie it in the second period.

R.J. Umberger had both Blue Jackets goals in a span of 1:29 in the second period — the fastest goals ever by a Columbus player.




Blues 2, Rangers 1
At St. Louis, B.J. Crombeen scored the go-ahead goal on a rebound with 5:14 to play, lifting St. Louis over the New York Rangers.

Lauri Korpikoski had the lone goal for the Rangers, who have lost eight of nine while scoring two or fewer goals in all but one. New York is 0-6-1 in its last seven on the road, this time falling to a franchise whose rebuilding job is led by longtime Rangers broadcaster and former goalie John Davidson.

Chris Mason made 19 saves and Carlo Colaiacovo also scored for the Blues, 4-1-2 in their last seven games while trying to inch into playoff contention.

Henrik Lundqvist had 31 saves a day after brought off in the second period of a loss at Philadelphia.



Senators 2, Predators 0
At Nashville, Tennessee, Nick Foligno and Dany Heatley scored first-period goals, and Alex Auld made 24 saves to lead Ottawa past Nashville for its season-high fifth straight victory.

The shutout was the first of the season for Auld, and sixth of his career. After losing nine consecutive decisions, Auld has won two in a row.

Since replacing Craig Hartsburg as coach on Feb. 2, Cory Clouston has guided Ottawa to a 5-1-1 record.




Oilers 3, Coyotes 1
At Glendale, Arizona, Sheldon Souray scored a power-play goal with 14:27 remaining to lift Edmonton past struggling Phoenix.

Ales Hemsky had a goal and assist and Shawn Horcoff added an empty-netter with 23.5 seconds left for the Oilers, who beat Phoenix for the seventh straight time. Edmonton also moved past Columbus and Anaheim into seventh place in the Western Conference.

Ed Jovanovski scored a power-play goal for the Coyotes, who lost their sixth straight at home and ninth in 10 games since the All-Star break. Phoenix has fallen from fifth place in the Western Conference to tied for 13th with St. Louis during that span.

Copyright AP - Associated Press
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