Ducks win despite Giguere's injury; Crosby stopped by Brodeur, Devils

Not even an injury to goalie Jean-Sebastien Giguere slowed down the Anaheim Ducks. Sidney Crosby looked unstoppable, too, until he met Martin Brodeur and New Jersey's tight defense. <br/><br/>After

Wednesday, December 27th 2006, 6:21 am

By: News On 6

Not even an injury to goalie Jean-Sebastien Giguere slowed down the Anaheim Ducks. Sidney Crosby looked unstoppable, too, until he met Martin Brodeur and New Jersey's tight defense.

After losing ailing players all day long, the Ducks scratched out a 4-3 victory Tuesday night in San Jose on Corey Perry's go-ahead goal midway through the third period.

Anaheim began the game without center Todd Marchant and defenseman Sean O'Donnell, and defenseman Francois Beauchemin left in the second period with an undisclosed injury. Moments later, Giguere strained his groin when his skate apparently got caught near the post on Steve Bernier's tying goal.

Giguere, the NHL leader with 23 wins, skated off gingerly before returning to watch the third period from behind the glass. He and coach Randy Carlyle wouldn't speculate on the extent of the injury.

Still, the Ducks (28-5-1-5) won on the road against their closest challengers in the Pacific Division. Anaheim, which has a franchise-record 62 points in 39 games, hasn't lost consecutive games in regulation during one of the greatest starts in league history.

``Coming back right after Christmas, guys had to dig down,'' star defenseman Chris Pronger said. ``We kept it simple, didn't try to get outside ourselves. We had to bear down.''

That's exactly what the Devils did against Crosby, ending a 10-game point streak for the NHL's leading scorer in a 3-0 win over the visiting Pittsburgh Penguins.

Brodeur made 26 saves for his 85th shutout, passing Glenn Hall for sole possession of third place on the career list. Crosby had only two shots, both in the third period.

``Brodeur is one of the best ever,'' Crosby said. ``We had only a few chances and couldn't take advantage. In a tight game like that, you have to take advantage of every opportunity. Every time we play these guys, it's tough.''

In other NHL games, it was: Chicago 2, Dallas 1; Buffalo 6, Washington 3; Carolina 4, Florida 2; Columbus 5, Boston 4 in OT; Atlanta 2, Tampa Bay 1; Toronto 4, Minnesota 3; the New York Islanders 2, the New York Rangers 0; Nashville 3, St. Louis 2 in a shootout; Vancouver 3, Calgary 1; and Los Angeles 4, Phoenix 3 in a shootout.

Travis Zajac scored early in the second period for New Jersey, and Jay Pandolfo and Brian Gionta added insurance goals late in the third. Brodeur earned his fifth shutout this season, sending Pittsburgh to its fourth consecutive defeat.

``We played pretty solid,'' Brodeur said. ``We didn't create tons of offense but we stuck to our game plan. We made sure (Evgeni) Malkin and Crosby weren't a big part of that game.''

The win was only the third in eight games for the Atlantic Division-leading Devils, who ended a three-game skid on home ice.

``Offensively, we didn't generate anything,'' Penguins coach Michel Therrien said. ``They don't give you much. You have to fight for your scoring chances.''

At San Jose, Calif., Travis Green, Chris Kunitz and Dustin Penner also scored for the Ducks. Giguere blamed the Shark Tank ice and the NHL's abbreviated post-Christmas travel schedule for his injury.

``It's just tough to play a game that was, especially in a building like this where the ice is horrendous, where it's humid and hot,'' Giguere said. ``It's just terrible ice, terrible and humid. At least if you have good quality ice, you might not have so many guys getting hurt.''

Michael Wall relieved Giguere, but had to make just four saves in 23 1/2 minutes in his second NHL appearance. Perry broke a tie by deflecting Samuel Pahlsson's long shot past Evgeni Nabokov.

Christian Ehrhoff and Patrick Marleau also scored for the Sharks, who have lost three of five on a six-game homestand. San Jose got a late two-man advantage when Pronger got a questionable penalty for putting the puck in the seats, but couldn't score on a lengthy power play.

``You've got to give them credit,'' Sharks coach Ron Wilson said. ``They really buckled down and defended well.''

Sabres 6, Capitals 3

Chris Drury had two goals and two assists, sparking host Buffalo's six-goal first period. Ales Kotalik had a goal and two assists for the NHL's top-scoring team. The Sabres needed only nine shots to build a 6-0 lead with 9:03 left in the first.

Hurricanes 4, Panthers 2

Rod Brind'Amour scored the go-ahead goal 50 seconds into the third period and host Carolina won its season-best fifth straight. Cam Ward made 25 saves.

Islanders 2, Rangers 0

Rick DiPietro stopped 28 shots for his third consecutive shutout at home, and the Islanders got goals from Arron Asham and Jason Blake to send the Rangers to their sixth straight loss following a five-game winning streak.

DiPietro extended his home shutout streak to 185:43 in his 10th career shutout and fourth this season. The Islanders improved to 3-0 against their crosstown rivals this month.

Blackhawks 2, Stars 1

Denis Arkhipov and Martin Lapointe each scored a power-play goal, and Nikolai Khabibulin made 20 saves. The Blackhawks defeated visiting Dallas for the second consecutive time this season following a 15-game winless streak (13-0-2) that dated to March 2002.

Blue Jackets 5, Bruins 4, OT

David Vyborny scored his second goal with 1:54 left in overtime and host Columbus rallied from a two-goal deficit.

The Blue Jackets were skating 6-on-3 when Sergei Fedorov tied the score at 4 with his second goal of the game with only 23 seconds left in regulation.

Thrashers 2, Lightning 1

Jim Slater scored with 8.1 seconds left and host Atlanta also got a goal from Slava Kozlov in its fourth straight victory.

Maple Leafs 4, Wild 3

Jeff O'Neill scored with 2:18 remaining for the Maple Leafs, who ended a three-game skid and won for only the fourth time in 14 games. Minnesota is winless in its last nine road games.

Predators 3, Blues 2, SO

Alexander Radulov converted his first NHL shootout attempt for host Nashville, and goalie Chris Mason stopped four shootout tries by St. Louis. Paul Kariya had a goal and an assist, and Scott Hartnell also scored for the Predators.

Canucks 3, Flames 1

Daniel Sedin scored twice and Vancouver snapped Calgary's franchise-record 10-game home winning streak. Trevor Linden also had a goal and Roberto Luongo made 26 saves.

Kings 4, Coyotes 3, SO

Sean Avery scored the tying goal with 38 seconds left in regulation, Anze Kopitar and Dustin Brown connected in the shootout, and host Los Angeles ended a four-game skid.