Hype for January 07, 2010

Kyle Okposo's shooting luck finally turned in his favour.

Okposo scored on a 3-on-1 rush with 3:17 left, and the New York Islanders beat the Colorado Avalanche 3-2 on Wednesday night in the lone meeting between the teams this season.

Dany Heatley scored on a breakaway at 4:06 of overtime to give the San Jose Sharks a 2-1 victory over the St. Louis Blues on Wednesday night.

San Jose's Patrick Marleau tied it with a power-play goal with 7:09 left in regulation, and Evgeni Nabokov made 28 saves. Tied for the NHL lead with Chicago with 63 points, the Sharks have won nine of their last 10 games.

Sean Avery's edge, dry sense of humour and even his missing scoring touch came rushing back at once.

The timing was perfect, too, because he unleashed it all on the Dallas Stars, the team that dumped him last season.

Avery exacted his revenge by scoring a goal and setting up three others in the New York Rangers' 5-2 victory Wednesday night.

After enduring rough starts in their last five home games, the Buffalo Sabres rebounded with a record-setting performance.

Tyler Myers, Jochen Hecht and Clarke MacArthur scored in the first 2:11, and the Sabres held on for a 5-3 victory over the Tampa Bay Lightning on Wednesday night.

The Toronto Maple Leafs showed plenty of fight in the City of Brotherly Love on Wednesday night.

But it was their ineffectiveness with the gloves on that cost them a big two points against Philadelphia, which began the game alongside the Leafs in the bottom half of the NHL Eastern Conference standings.

The Flyers scored three power-play goals against the league's 30th-ranked penalty-kill in a 6-2 victory, just their second in a month at the Wachovia Center.

Everything pointed to the Calgary Flames extending their season-high winning streak to six games Wednesday night. But Eric Belanger would have nothing of it.

Belanger tallied twice as the Minnesota Wild snuffed the Flames 4-1, ending Calgary's recent run of success and halting a four-game losing skid of their own.