Hype for March 19, 2010

Roberto Luongo didn't have to worry about getting pulled this time.

The Vancouver goaltender made 32 saves as the Canucks edged the San Jose Sharks 3-2 on Thursday night.

With fewer than a dozen games remaining in what had long since become another lost season, the Toronto Maple Leafs stepped off the ice Thursday night well aware they were not playing for a division title, a playoff berth or anything more lofty than the promise of future employment.

"We're playing for each other," forward Phil Kessel said. "We want to win games. This year isn't over. We're going to play it out to the end, try to win as many games as we can."

The Leafs had done just that against the New Jersey Devils, pushing a team desperately jockeying for post-season position through overtime and into a shootout. Toronto prevailed, powered by goals from Kessel, Nikolai Kulemin and John Mitchell on the way to a 2-1 home victory.

Paul Kariya scored his 400th NHL goal to snap a third-period tie and the St. Louis Blues took advantage of uncharacteristically shaky Rangers goalie Henrik Lundqvist and beat New York 4-3 on Thursday night.

St. Louis scored four times on its first 14 shots and handed the ninth-place Rangers a key loss in their pursuit of an Eastern Conference playoff spot. New York is three points behind Boston with 11 games left.

The Philadelphia Flyers will be without starting goalie Michael Leighton for at least eight weeks because of a high ankle sprain.

Leighton was injured Tuesday night in a 4-3 shootout loss at Nashville.

With a lot of grit and a little luck, the Phoenix Coyotes earned a record-setting win Thursday night.

Radim Vrbata scored with 59.7 seconds left in the third period to force overtime, then added the winner in the third round of the shootout in the Coyotes' 4-3 comeback victory over the Florida Panthers.

The revenge-minded Boston Bruins got in some early shots. The Pittsburgh Penguins connected on the ones that counted.

Marc-Andre Fleury made 17 saves for Pittsburgh's first shutout of the season and the Penguins won 3-0 as the Bruins got little spark from their retaliation against Matt Cooke less than two minutes into the game Thursday night.

Shawn Thornton squared off with Cooke five seconds after the Penguin came on for his first shift. The anticipation of a fight had built since March 7, when Bruins centre Marc Savard was sidelined indefinitely after Cooke's blindside hit caused a Grade 2 concussion in Pittsburgh.

The NHL came down hard on James Wisniewski, handing the Anaheim Ducks defenceman an eight-game suspension Thursday for his hit on Chicago's Brent Seabrook.

It's the longest suspension league disciplinarian Colin Campbell has handed out this regular season and comes at a time when the NHL is under pressure to make the game safer.