Nashville
Columbus 5
1

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) -- Nashville goaltender Tomas Vokoun believes the last-place Predators are better than their record. Lately, they've shown he is right.

David Legwand and Andreas Johansson each had two goals and an assist as the Predators inched closer to moving out of the cellar in the Western Conference with a 5-1 win over the Columbus Blue Jackets on Monday night.

"We're just playing better as a team and playing our system,'' said Vokoun, who started a franchise record 16th consecutive game and finished with 21 saves.

The Predators are 9-8-3-0 in their last 20 games after starting the season 2-10-4-4. They have lost 11 one-goal games.

"I'll tell you what, that experience brought the guys together,'' Predators coach Barry Trotz said. "Guys could have pointed fingers, but no one did.''

The Blue Jackets entered unbeaten in their last three (2-0-1) after a season-high five-game losing streak.

The Predators struck first on a power play at 6:15 of the first period. Adam Hall's blast from the right point caromed off the end boards to Johansson, who snapped a shot from the left circle past Marc Denis.

"We've been talking about keeping the tempo (on the power play) because we've been struggling a bit lately,'' Johansson said.

Ray Whitney had a chance to pull Columbus even with 5 seconds left in the period, but he couldn't handle a pass alone in front of Vokoun.

Legwand, the second overall pick in the 1998 entry draft and the Predators' leading scorer with 29 points, gave Nashville a 3-0 lead in the second period. Legwand banked a shot off Denis' left pad and into the net from behind the goal line.

Legwand scored his 10th -- three shy of his career high -- midway through the period, one-timing a centering pass from Vitali Yachmenev, who outmuscled Columbus defenseman Jaroslav Spacek to the puck in the left corner.

"We had only two scoring chances and scored on both of them,'' Trotz said of the second period. "They had about seven or eight.''

Mike Sillinger cut the lead to 3-1 late in the period, one-timing Whitney's centering pass from the right corner. Sillinger has seven points in the last four games.

Johansson scored his team-leading 16th goal of the season -- again on the power play against the league's top penalty-killing unit -- at 6:07 of the third period on a rush, firing a wrist shot through Denis.

Scott Hartnell, who has four goals in the last six games, made it 5-1 on a close-range deflection.

"We just missed a lot of assignments,'' Columbus coach Dave King said. "If you watch the chances and the goals, the number of individual mistakes made by players tonight is real high, and they were right in the back of the net.''

Game notes
Predators right wing Scott Walker, who has 15 points (7-8) in 19 games since returning from a rib injury that sidelined him for 17 games, strained his neck Saturday and didn't make the trip to Columbus. ... Columbus defenseman Scott Lachance missed his second consecutive game with a sprained ankle. ... Nashville center Denis Pederson strained his neck in the second period and did not return. ... Columbus finished 0-for-4 on the power play and are 4-for-58 over its last 11 games.

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Florida 4, Colorado 1

.....wie gesagt, ist mir scheiß egal wie sie gespielt haben, solange es nicht in der
Saison so ist!! Vorbereitung ist da um zu lernen, um auszuprobieren, etc., und nicht um zu glänzen!!

Los Angeles
Minnesota 3
2

ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) _ Rookie Joe Corvo scored his first career goal, and the injury-ravaged Los Angeles Kings held on for a 3-2 victory over the Minnesota Wild on Monday night to end a four-game losing streak.

Felix Potvin made 26 saves and Steve Kelly and Brad Chartrand scored for Los Angeles, which was missing six of its top forwards and has seven skaters on injured reserve. The Kings dressed six rookies.

Potvin bounced back from a rough stretch in which he lost three of four starts and allowed 14 goals. Backup Jamie Storr started the last two games.

Pascal Dupuis, who hit the post early in the first period, scored on his own rebound with 4:42 left to cut the lead to 3-2 and end a 15-game goal drought.

Sergei Zholtok also scored for Minnesota, which lost its second straight after a four-game unbeaten streak.

Though the All-Star break isn't for another three weeks, game No. 42 meant the beginning of the second half of the season for the surprising Wild, whose 50 points rank fifth in the NHL. Minnesota didn't get off to a great start on a season-long six-game homestand.

Despite outshooting Los Angeles 13-2 in the third period, the Wild were 1-for-7 on the power play. They only had one shot on goal over the last three minutes.

Zholtok's goal tied the game at 1 in the second period, a boost for Minnesota's 24th-ranked power play.

But Kelly, playing in his seventh game this year, scored 1{ minutes later.

It was a rough night for Potvin's counterpart, Manny Fernandez. Trailing 2-1, he sprained his left knee while lunging for a loose puck midway through the second period.

Fernandez stayed in the game for another minute after the team's trainer checked him out, but Dwayne Roloson, who took the loss, replaced him at the next stoppage of play and let Chartrand's short-handed shot trickle through his legs on a 2-on-1.< ^Notes:@ Corvo, the Kings' fourth pick in the 1997 draft, made his NHL debut on Dec. 14. He was appearing in his 12th game. ... Minnesota's best defenseman, Brad Bombardir, was scratched because of the flu. He's the sixth player to miss a game because of the illness this year for the Wild. Center Wes Walz, kept out of Saturday's loss to Calgary with the flu, returned to the lineup. ... In their last 19 games, the Kings are 9-0 when scoring three goals or more and 0-10-1 with two or less. ... Fernandez was credited for an assist, the first point of his career, on Zholtok's goal.

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Florida 4, Colorado 1

.....wie gesagt, ist mir scheiß egal wie sie gespielt haben, solange es nicht in der
Saison so ist!! Vorbereitung ist da um zu lernen, um auszuprobieren, etc., und nicht um zu glänzen!!

Ottawa 5, New York 2

NEW YORK (AP) _ Marian Hossa scored twice, and Magnus Arvedson snapped a third-period tie as the Ottawa Senators beat the New York Rangers 5-2 Monday night.

Hossa, with 27 goals, brought the NHL's top team into a 1-1 tie in the first period and then stretched Ottawa's lead to 4-2 at 5:25 of the third. Hossa is just one goal behind Vancouver's Markus Naslund for the league lead.

Arvedson's goal came just 2:37 into the final period to help the Senators jump over Dallas atop the league standings with 56 points.

Todd White and Petr Schastlivy also scored for Ottawa, 12-2-1-1 in its last 16 games.

Again the Senators looked every bit like a focused team despite waiting for pay checks that weren't delivered on Jan. 1. A finance plan is expected to be in place this week that will help the club meet its obligations, commissioner Gary Bettman said last week.

Ottawa is 2-0-0-1 in the new year.

Mark Messier and Bobby Holik had goals for the Rangers, the last place team in the Atlantic Division who trail Ottawa by 19 points in the standings despite a payroll that exceeds the Senators' by about $40 million.

Messier gave New York a 1-0 lead 6:20 in with his 13th goal and New York's ninth on the power play in eight games.

Hossa tied it 3:01 later by wristing a shot in off the right post. White gave Ottawa a 2-1 advantage at 4:54 of the second when Schastlivy fended off Messier with one hand and got the puck to White with just one hand on his stick. White scored his 15th goal this season.

The Rangers tied it with just 1:28 left in the second as Holik drove to the net after Matthew Barnaby's rebound. The puck went in off Holik's skate.

New York's Mike Dunham stopped 31 shots. Senators goalie Patrick Lalime only faced 19.< ^Notes:@ Bettman sat in the stands with players' union president Bob Goodenow. Players and owners have not yet begun negotiations on a new collective bargaining agreement. The current one expires following next season. ... Eric Lindros, who assisted on both New York goals, played in his 600th NHL game. Messier, second on the career list with 1,643 games, is third on the NHL points list with 1,824 (671 goals, 1,153 assists). ... Ottawa D Zdeno Chara had two assists. ... White, who assisted on Schastlivy's goal, was the NHL player of the month for December after he recorded 18 points in 15 games. ... New York left wings Ronald Petrovicky (ankle sprain) and Gordie Dwyer (hamstring strain) left the game in the second period.

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Florida 4, Colorado 1

.....wie gesagt, ist mir scheiß egal wie sie gespielt haben, solange es nicht in der
Saison so ist!! Vorbereitung ist da um zu lernen, um auszuprobieren, etc., und nicht um zu glänzen!!