Hype for January 17, 2010

Ondrej Pavelec did his part, then Ilya Kovalchuk did his. In between, the Atlanta Thrashers sweated out some tense moments to keep pace in the Eastern Conference.

Kovalchuk scored the go-ahead goal midway through the third period less than a minute after Atlanta lost a two-goal lead, and the Thrashers held on to beat the Carolina Hurricanes 5-3 on Saturday night.

The St. Louis Blues pushed aside the scoring-challenged New York Rangers with another big third period for their season-high fourth straight victory.

Alex Steen and Roman Polak each had a goal and an assist, and Chris Mason made 21 saves to help the Blues beat the Rangers 4-1 on Saturday night.

Rick DiPietro's homecoming was just about perfect: He earned a win, got through a long game unscathed, and didn't shed any tears.

DiPietro followed Trent Hunter's goal in the eighth round of a shootout with a save against Buffalo's Patrick Kaleta, and the New York Islanders escaped with a 3-2 victory over the Sabres on Saturday night in the goalie's first home game in over a year.

Dave Tippett was searching for positives after watching his Phoenix Coyotes nearly squander a four-goal lead in the final 10 minutes against Minnesota on Saturday night.

"Let's take all the negatives and put them over there," Tippett said after Phoenix's 6-4 victory over the Wild. "I've been trying to do that since the game ended. Let's talk about the bright and sunny stuff."

Devin Setoguchi scored a pair of goals in a span of 1:38 to provide the punch San Jose has been lacking on its second line and the Sharks went on to beat the visiting Edmonton Oilers 4-2 Saturday.

Mired in a goal-scoring drought, Setoguchi went back to an old trick from junior hockey — he shaved his head — and it paid off once again.

Daniel Alfredsson scored the game-tying goal and added two assists in his return as the Ottawa Senators defeated the Montreal Canadiens 4-2 Saturday night at the Bell Centre.

The Senators' captain registered his 95th, 96th, and 97th points against the Northwest division rival Canadiens, a total amassed in just 73 career contests.

Unlike goalie Marc-Andre Fleury, many of his Pittsburgh Penguins teammates didn't have a legitimate reason for taking Saturday night off.

Fleury sat in civvies at Vancouver's General Motors Place with a broken left ring finger and watched the hometown Canucks tee off on his rookie replacements, John Curry and junior-aged Alex Pechurski.

Curry, making his season debut, might have thought he was in for a light night after facing just one shot in the game's opening eight minutes. But the Canucks went to work after NHL scoring leader Henrik Sedin caught Curry leaning off the post later in the first period.

Alex Burrows notched a short-handed goal before the buzzer and Vancouver unloaded for four goals in the second, chasing Curry in the process, en route to a 6-2 victory to snap a three-game losing skid.