Penguins suffer third straight loss

New Jersey 2, Pittsburgh 1

New Jersey 2, Pittsburgh 1

Claude Lemieux set up goals by John Madden and Randy McKay to lead the New Jersey Devils to a 2-1 victory over Pittsburgh on Tuesday night, sending the Penguins to their third straight loss.

Martin Brodeur made 24 saves in winning an entertaining goaltending battle with Jean-Sebastien Aubin, who made 39 stops in filling in for the suspended Tom Barrasso.

Brodeur lost his shutout on a power-play goal by Jan Hrdina, his first of the season.

Capitals 4, Islanders 2

In Washington, James Black's go-ahead goal early in the third period led Washington to a victory over the New York Islanders.

The Islanders failed to convert a power-play chance after falling behind, and pulled Roberto Luongo with 34 seconds left in the game. Richard Zednik scored an empty-net goal with 15 seconds remaining.

Sergei Gonchar and Steve Konowalchuk also scored for the Capitals, who are 12-0-1 in their last 13 against the Islanders. Adam Oates had three assists.

Mariusz Czerkawski and Jamie Heward scored for New York, which has dropped three straight and five of six.

Flames 3, Canadiens 3

In Montreal, Martin Rucinsky scored twice in the second period as Montreal skated to a tie with Calgary.

The tie snapped a three-game losing streak for the injury-riddled Canadiens, while the Flames concluded a six-game road trip on which they went 2-2-1-1.

Derek Morris and Cory Stillman scored on Calgary's first two shots on Jeff Hackett and Valeri Bure made it 3-1 after Montreal's Dainius Zubrus scored early in the second period.

Rucinsky's 11th and 12th goals of the season sent the teams into the third period tied at 3-3.

Hurricanes 4, Blues 2

In St Louis, Jeff O'Neill scored twice and added an assist as Carolina ended St. Louis' seven-game home unbeaten streak.

Ron Francis had two assists for Carolina, giving him 1,056 for his career. He is now one assist away from tying Mark Messier for fourth place on the NHL career list.

Sean Hill had a goal and two assists for Carolina. Fellow defenseman Paul Coffey scored the other Carolina goal.

Except for O'Neill's empty-netter with four seconds left, all five other goals were scored on the power play.

The Blues outshot Carolina 30-17, but only managed goals from Al MacInnis and Pavol Demitra.