Ottawa Rally Downs L.A.

Sean Hill’s bizarre goal on a 120-foot slap shot from his own blueline capped a three-goal third period as the Ottawa Senators came from behind to defeat the Los Angeles Kings 5-4 Thursday night.

Hill, a defenseman whose only other goal this season was a game-winner scored from near center ice in Tampa Bay, inexplicably slapped the puck as he crossed his own blue line with 3:21 remaining in regulation time.

The low shot skipped past Byron Dafoe in the Kings’ net to give the surprising Senators a three-game winning streak and first place in the Northeast Division.

Senators 5, Kings 4

Los Angeles 3 1 0 - 4 Ottawa 1 1 3 - 5

First period-1, Ottawa, Tormanen 3 (Musil), 5:10. 2, Los Angeles, Tocchet 6, 8:46. 3, Los Angeles, Tocchet 7 (McSorley, Gretzky), 13:06 (pp). 4, Los Angeles, Tsygurov 1 (Yachmenev, Perreault), 18:03 (pp).

Second period-5, Ottawa, McCleary 1 (Hill), 17:13 (sh). 6, Los Angeles, Granato 5 (Yachmenev, Perreault), 17:50.

Third period-7, Ottawa, Neckar 1 (Bonk, Quinn), 2:57 (pp). 8, Ottawa, Straka 2 (Alfredsson, Huffman), 8:18 (pp). 9, Ottawa, Hill 2 (Beaupre), 16:39.

Shots on goal-Los Angeles 12-10-4-26. Ottawa 9-8-12-29.Power-play opp.-Los Angeles 2 of 7; Ottawa 2 of 6.Goalies-Los Angeles, Dafoe 3-2-3 (29 shots-24 saves). Ottawa, Beaupre 5-3-0 (26-22).A-10,575 (10,575).

Penguins 7, Islanders 5

Uniondale, N.Y.

Mario Lemieux’s hat trick gave him 500 career NHL goals as Pittsburgh rallied to beat New York.

Lemieux became the 20th player to reach the 500 plateau at 17:12 of the third period on a low right circle wrist shot that beat a screened Tommy Soderstrom. It was also the 32nd three-goal game for Lemieux, who became the second-fastest player behind Wayne Gretzky in league history to reach the 500-goal mark.

Pittsburgh 2 1 4 - 7 N.Y. Islanders 0 4 1 - 5

First period-1, Pittsburgh, Francis 4 (Smolinski, Jagr), 4:57. 2, Pittsburgh, Lemieux 4 (Maciver, Jagr), 18:04 (pp).

Second period-3, New York, Semak 2 (Palffy, McInnis), 1:24. 4, New York, Palffy 2 (Beers, Green), 12:43 (pp). 5, New York, Palffy 3 (King, Semak), 17:01. 6, Pittsburgh, Sandstrom 7 (Mironov, Naslund), 18:18. 7, New York, Green 3 (Bertuzzi), 18:28.

Third period-8, Pittsburgh, Lemieux 5 (Naslund, Maciver), :19. 9, Pittsburgh, Sandstrom 8 (Lemieux), 10:36. 10, Pittsburgh, Jagr 7 (Smolinski, Francis), 12:03 (pp). 11, New York, Clark 1 (Lachance, Green), 14:47. 12, Pittsburgh, Lemieux 6 (Sandstrom, Naslund), 17:12.

Shots on goal-Pittsburgh 10-6-14-30. New York 9-9-7-25.Power-play opp.-Pittsburgh 2 of 4; New York 1 of 6.Goalies-Pittsburgh, Barrasso 3-1-1 (25 shots-20 saves). New York, Soderstrom 1-4-1 (30-23).A-8,384 (16,297).

Capitals 4, Bruins 2

Boston

Jim Carey made 31 saves and Keith Jones had three assists to give Washington a victory over Boston to send the Bruins to their first loss in their new home.

Jones combined with Joe Juneau and Brendan Witt on two goals to stop Washington’s two-game losing streak.

Washington 2 1 1 - 4 Boston 2 0 0 - 2

First period-1, Boston, McLaren 1 (Bourque), :27. 2, Boston, Donato 2 (Leach), 3:45. 3, Washington, Jones 3 (Juneau, Witt), 4:28. 4, Washington, Peake 4 (Cote, Jones), 14:01 (pp).

Second period-5, Washington, Witt 1 (Jones, Juneau), 16:12.

Third period-6, Washington, Konowalchuk 1 (Bondra, Cote), :40.

Shots on goal-Washington 9-6-6-21. Boston 16-9-8-33.Power-play opp.-Washington 1 of 4; Boston 0 of 5.Goalies-Washington, Carey 5-1-0 (33 shots-31 saves). Boston, Lacher 1-2-2 (21-17).A-17,137 (17,565).

Maple Leafs 2, Blackhawks 1

Chicago

Benoit Hogue and Todd Gill scored first-period power-play goals and Toronto held on to defeat Chicago.

The Maple Leafs, whose first three wins came against teams with a combined 1-15-7 record, beat an above-.500 team for the first time.

Toronto 2 0 0 - 2 Chicago 0 0 1 - 1

First period-1, Toronto, Hogue 1 (Nedved), 13:27 (pp). 2, Toronto, Gill 1 (Ellett, Gilmour), 19:49 (pp).

Second period-None.

Third period-3, Chicago, Roenick 5 (Savard, Amonte), 18:40 (pp).

Shots on goal-Toronto 10-9-8-27. Chicago 3-6-10-19.Power-play opp.-Toronto 2 of 5; Chicago 1 of 5.Goalies-Toronto, Potvin 3-4-0 (19 shots-18 saves). Chicago, Belfour 5-3-0 (19-17), Hackett (0:00 third, 8-8).A-17,914 (20,500).

Rangers 4, Lightning 4

St. Petersburg, Fla.

Mark Messier scored with 53 seconds remaining in regulation to give New York a tie with Tampa Bay.

Messier fought off defenseman Roman Hamrlik to score off an assist from Adam Graves and complete a two-goal comeback in the final 9 minutes.

New York 0 1 3 0 - 4 Tampa Bay 1 2 1 0 - 4

First Period-1, Tampa Bay, Bellows 1 (Bradley, Houlder), 9:45 (pp).

Second Period-2, Tampa Bay, Selivanov 4 (Burr), 1:01. 3, Tampa Bay, Bellows 2 (Hamrlik, Bradley), 5:26 (pp). 4, New York, Kocur 1 (Nemchinov, Langdon), 13:22.

Third Period-5, New York, Leetch 3, 6:23. 6, Tampa Bay, Selivanov 5 (Cullen, Hamrlik), 10:24 (pp). 7, New York, Messier 3 (Robitaille, Leetch), 11:03. 8, New York, Messier 4 (Graves), 19:09.

Overtime-None.

Shots on goal-New York 9-18-18-1-46. Tampa Bay 6-15-10-1-32.Power-play Opp.s-New York 0 of 7; Tampa Bay 3 of 7.Goalies-New York, Healy 3-0-1 (32 shots-28 saves). Tampa Bay, Puppa 2-1-3 (46-42).A-19,417 (28,000).

Stars 5, Mighty Ducks 2

Dallas

Todd Harvey broke a 1-1 tie with a power-play goal early in the second period and Jamie Langenbrunner and Jere Lehtinen notched their first NHL goals to power Dallas past Anaheim.

Goalie Darcy Wakaluk continued to sparkle in goal for Dallas, turning aside 32 shots.

Anaheim 1 0 1 - 2 Dallas 1 3 1 - 5

First period-1, Dallas, Lehtinen 1 (Klatt, Gilchrist), 8:19. 2, Anaheim, Dollas 1 (Van Allen, Valk), 15:58.

Second period-3, Dallas, Harvey 2 (Modano, Gagner), 1:07 (pp). 4, Dallas, Modano 6 (Borschevsky, Ludwig), 12:20. 5, Dallas, Klatt 3 (Lehtinen), 14:15.

Third period-6, Anaheim, Kariya 7 (Krygier, Karpov), 11:42. 7, Dallas, Lagenbrunner 1 (Kennedy), 13:59.

Shots on goal-Anaheim 15-4-15-34. Dallas 12-12-14-38.Power-play opp.-Anaheim 0 of 3; Dallas 1 of 4.Goalies-Anaheim, Shtalenkov 1-2-0 (38 shots-33 saves). Dallas, Wakaluk 3-1-2 (34-32).A-13,671 (16,924).