National Hockey League news: February 27, 2008

February 27, 2008

There were 8 games played in the National Hockey League on February 26, 2008, but most of the news of the day comes from many trades happening before the trade deadline.

Trades
New Jersey traded Cam Janssen to St. Louis for defenseman Bryce Salvador.

The Buffalo Sabres traded defenseman Brian Campbell to San Jose for right winger Steve Bernier and a first-round pick in the 2008 entry draft.

The Toronto Maple Leafs traded Wade Belak to the Florida Panthers for a fifth-round pick in the 2008 entry draft.

Tampa Bay traded forward Brad Richards and goalie Johan Holmqvist to the Dallas Stars for Mike Smith, Jussi Jokinen, Jeff Halpern, and a fourth-round pick in the 2009 entry draft.

The Lightning also traded Jan Hlavac to the Nashville Predators for a seventh-round pick in the 2008 entry draft.

Montreal traded goaltender Cristobal Huet to the Capitals on Tuesday for a second-round pick in the 2009 entry draft.

The Chicago Blackhawks traded Tuomo Ruutu to Carolina for left wing Andrew Ladd.

The Blackhawks also traded Martin Lapointe to Ottawa for a sixth-round pick in the 2008 entry draft.

The Florida Panthers traded defenseman Ruslan Salei to the Avalanche for Karlis Skrastins and a third-round pick in the 2008 entry draft.

The Washington Capitals traded prospect Ted Ruth to the Columbus Blue Jackets for Sergei Fedorov.

The Blue Jackets traded defenseman Adam Foote to the Colorado Avalanche for a pair of draft picks.

The Pittsburgh Penguins traded Colby Armstrong, Erik Christensen, and prospect Angelo Esposito to the Thrashers for Marian Hossa, Pascal Dupuis, and a pair of draft picks.

Toronto traded defenseman Hal Gill to the Penguins for a pair of draft picks.

The Leafs also traded forward Chad Kilger to the Florida Panthers for a third-round pick in the 2008 entry draft.

The Vancouver Canucks traded forward Matt Cooke to the Washington Capitals for Matt Pettinger.

The Islanders traded forward Chris Simon to the Minnesota Wild for a sixth-round pick in the 2008 entry draft.

The Islanders also traded defenseman Marc-Andre Bergeron to the Anaheim Ducks for a third-round pick in the 2008 entry draft.

The Sharks traded defenseman Rob Davison to the Islanders for a seventh-round pick in the 2008 entry draft.

The Los Angeles Kings traded defenseman Brad Stuart to the Detroit Red Wings for a pair of picks in the 2008 entry draft.

The Kings also traded goaltender Jean-Sebastien Aubin to Anaheim for a seventh-round draft pick.

The St. Louis Blues traded defenseman Christian Backman to the Rangers for a fourth-round pick in the 2008 entry draft.

The Coyotes traded goalie David LeNeveu, forward Fredrik Sjostrom, and forward Josh Gratton to the Rangers for forward Marcel Hossa, goalie Al Montoya, and a draft pick.

Atlanta Thrashers traded center Alexandre Giroux to the Capitals for center Joe Motzko.

The Anaheim Ducks traded Brandon Bochenski to the Nashville Predators for future considerations.

Pittsburgh Penguins @ New York Islanders
Evgeni Malkin scored the first goal for Pittsburgh. Jeff Taffe scored on a 5-on-3 power play to give the Penguins a two goal lead after 1 period. Frans Nielsen put the Islanders on the scoreboard at 10:26 in the second period. Jordan Staal gave the Penguins a two goal lead again after scoring a goal 12:55 into the third period. Connor James gave Pittsburgh their largest lead of the game with a power play goal, his first career NHL goal. Ruslan Fedotenko scored a power play goal for the Islanders with 1:17 left in the game. It wasn't enough to overcome a 3 goal deficit though, and the Penguins break a two game losing streak. Ty Conklin made 50 saves and picked up his 17th win of the season.

Minnesota Wild @ Washington Capitals
Brooks Laich scored his first goal of the night early in the first period to give Washington an early 1-0 lead. Shaone Morrisonn gave the Capitals a two goal lead going into the first intermission. Branko Radivojevic cut Washington's lead in half with the only Minnesota goal of the night. Eric Fehr got it back for the Capitals a few minutes later. Laich scored his second goal of the night before the second period was over. There was no goals in the third period. Laich had a career high 4 points. Olie Kolzig made 25 saves in 26 shots for his 22nd win of the season. The Wild are now winless in their last 4 games. The Capitals snapped a 3 game losing streak.

New Jersey Devils @ Carolina Hurricanes
Brian Gionta broke a scoreless tie 1:50 into the second period to give New Jersey their only lead of the game. Sergei Samsonov put Carolina on the board and tied the score just over 4 minutes later. The score would stay 1-1 until 1:36 into the 4-on-4 overtime, when Samsonov scored his second of the night, off his own rebound. The Devils snap a 5 game winning streak, and the Hurricanes pick up their third straight win. Cam Ward made 23 saves for Carolina, earning his 28th win.

Ottawa Senators @ Boston Bruins
Shawn Thornton gave the Bruins a 1 goal lead 5:24 into the first period. David Krejci doubled the Boston lead with 2:37 left in the first. Zdeno Chara picked up his 13th goal of the season when he scored 2:15 into the second period on Boston's first power play. Chara also scored on an empty net with 1:27 left in the game while Boston was short handed. The Senators get blanked in their second game straight. Boston wins their 4th straight. Tim Thomas made 22 saves, and gets his third shutout of the season.

Atlanta Thrashers @ Montreal Canadiens
Maxim Lapierre scored 12:47 into the first to give Montreal their first lead of the game. Ilya Kovalchuk scored his 41st goal of the season to make it a 1-1 tie after two periods. In the first half of the third period, Montreal lit the lamp 4 times. First, Christopher Higgins scored two back-to-back, the latter being a power play goal. Andrei Markov gave Montreal a 3 goal lead 8:17 into the period. Then, Sergei Kostitsyn scored his 7th goal of the year at 9:04. Carey Price made 26 saves for Montreal. Higgins had an assist to go with his back-to-back goals.

Dallas Stars @ St. Louis Blues
Keith Tkachuk scored first for the Blues on a power play to give them an early 1-0. The lead would hold until the third period, when a pair of goals by Loui Eriksson and a power play goal by Jere Lehtinen put Dallas up by two. St. Louis, who outshot the Stars 28-21 through the game, only had two shots in the final period to Dallas's 7. Marty Turco gave up the first shot he saw, but stopped 27 shots after that to pick up his 29th win of the season.

Colorado Avalanche @ Calgary Flames
Ryan Smyth scored to put the Avalanche at an early 1-0 lead. Dustin Boyd tied the score for Calgary 15:35 into the first period. Robyn Regehr put Calgary in the lead with a power play goal in the second period. Milan Hejduk retied the score 13:33 through the third period to send the game to overtime. Paul Stastny scored the game winning power play goal 3:02 into overtime to give the Avalanche their second win in 8 games, and snap Calgary's 4 game winning streak. Jose Theodore made 29 saves and picked up the victory for Colorado.

Detroit Red Wings @ Edmonton Oilers
Tom Gilbert broke a scoreless tie in the second period to give Edmonton the first lead of the game. They would increase their lead to 2-0 early in the third when Geoff Sanderson scored his third goal of the season. Jonathan Ericsson scored his first career NHL goal on a Detroit power play to cut Edmonton's lead in half less than 4 minutes later. Pavel Datsyuk made it a tie game 12:18 into the third period. Valtteri Filppula gave Detroit their first lead of the game with 2:16 left in regulation, but Fernando Pisani scored for Edmonton with 29 seconds left in regulation. Robert Nilsson scored the only shootout goal for Edmonton, giving the Oilers their second straight victory and the Red Wings their 9th loss in 10 games. Mathieu Garon made 40 saves, earning his 21st win of the season for Edmonton.