FanHouse MichaelFrolik

Predators 6, Oilers 5: Edmonton and Nashville entered Tuesday's game separated by only one point in the standings. Thanks to the Predators 6-5 overtime win, the two teams are now tied with 68 points at the bottom of the Western Conference playoff picture.

Jason Arnott scored the game-winner in overtime, as the two teams combined for five goals in the third period. Nashville has now won 11 of its past 16 games, including four in a row.

The Bruins and Capitals helped kick off the second half of the NHL season on Tuesday, and the top two teams in the Eastern Conference did not disappoint in Boston's 3-2 overtime win.

While it was an exciting game for much of the night, the best action came in the overtime period as goaltenders Tim Thomas and Jose Theodore exchanged incredible saves at each end of the ice. Following a Niklas Backstrom hooking penalty, David Krejci sent a pass through the slot only to have it bounce off Shaone Morrison's skate and find the back of the net behind Theodore for the game-winner.

Okay, so maybe the title is a bit of an overreaction. Still, that doesn't change the fact the New York Islanders are a terrible, terrible third period hockey team, and they proved it once again on Tuesday, giving up four goals in the final 20 minutes on their way to a 5-4 loss to the Rangers.

The Islanders actually entered the third with a 2-1 lead, only to watch the Rangers beat Joey MacDonald -- starting in place of Rick Dipietro -- four times on their final 12 shots. Petr Prucha, playing for the first time in eight games, tied the game just 49 seconds into the third period, while Michal Rozsival gave the Rangers their first lead of the night two minutes later. Markus Naslund and Nigel Dawes also tallied late goals for the Rangers, while Scott Gomez tapped in a tic-tac-toe pass from Nikolai Zherdev and Brandon Dubinsky in the second period, opening the scoring for the Rangers.

Mike Sillinger, Kyle Okposo, Blake Comeau and Mike Comrie scored for the Islanders.

Physical game between the crosstown rivals, resulting in a pair of fights in the first 10 minutes, and capped off with a crushing hit by Ryan Callahan on Trent Hunter early in the third. Callahan smashed the Islanders forward into the penalty box door, forcing it open, resulting in Hunter's midsection smashing off the boards. He was down for quite a while, and appeared to be in severe pain, resulting in a stretcher being brought on the ice. Hunter, however, managed to bring himself to his feet and skate off because, you know, he's a hockey player.

What a dreadful month of December for the Penguins. After their 2-0 loss to Tampa Bay on Tuesday night, the Penguins find themselves with a 4-6-1 record this month, and have dropped back-to-back home games to Toronto and Tampa Bay by a combined score of 9-3, while getting outshot 69-38 in the process. There's no way to sugarcoat it -- that sucks. Even worse, the Penguins haven't won two straight games since November 13-15. Ouch.

Tampa Bay picked up goals from Matt Pettinger and Paul Szczechura, while Mike Smith turned aside all 15 shots he faced. Though, he received a little help from the Penguins, when Petr Sykora honked a pair of shots wide of the goal when he had Smith beat, and then Evgeni Malkin inexplicably attempted to make a pass when he had a breakaway. Perhaps he's serious about that century mark with the assists, I don't know.

Though, the save of the night was when Malkin, shorthanded, had another breakaway in the third period -- in what was still a one-goal game -- and was stoned by Smith. Tampa Bay turned it around the other way and Szczechura redirected a pass from Jussi Jokinen passed Marc-Andre Fleury to ice the game.

It's important to realize it's only December and that the Penguins had a similar record a year ago today -- and, hey, that season turned out okay -- but that doesn't change the fact this is some really bad hockey right now.

It's been a rough stretch for the Minnesota Wild over the past two weeks, and it continued on Sunday as they dropped their fifth in a row -- and sixth in their past seven games -- as they fell to Anaheim, 4-2. During this current losing streak, Minnesota has scored only five goals, and is finding out that it's quite difficult to win every game 1-0.

After overcoming a 2-0 deficit thanks to a pair of goals by Marc-Andre Bergeron and Eric Belanger, the Wild allowed Brendan Morrison and Bobby Ryan to reclaim the lead for the Ducks. From that point on, J.S. Giguere shut the door for Anaheim, as he turned aside 26 shots in the win. The Ducks also received goals from Corey Perry and Ryan Getzlaf, as they won for the third time in their past four games.

Josh Harding received the start in goal for Minnesota, making 30 saves on 34 shots.

Florida Panthers goaltender Craig Anderson turned aside all 37 shots he faced, while Henrik Lundqvist failed to make it beyond the second period for the Rangers, as the Panthers used a three-goal outburst in the second to roll to a 4-0 win.

The Panthers received goals from Ville Peltonen, Stephen Weiss and Gregory Campbell in the second, as Weiss and Campbell scored just 12 seconds apart, leading to Rangers coach Tom Renney lifting his all-star netminder. Michael Frolik added some insurance in the third period for Florida, picking up his second goal of the season.

For Anderson, it's the fourth time this season he's stopped at least 37 shots in a game, as he pushes his season record to 4-1-3 and currently boasts a .948 save percentage, best in the NHL. He had to withstand a 17-shot barrage from the Rangers in the final period to preserve the shutout.

Anderson's performance was good enough for him to earn yet another start on Tuesday, when the Panthers take on Washington.

Marty Turco's awful season continued on Thursday night against Chicago, as the Dallas Stars goalie gave up five goals on 29 shots, as the Stars fell 6-3. After another dismal performance in the crease, Turco finds himself 42nd in the NHL (out of 43) with a 3.67 Goals Against Average, and 43rd with a .867 save percentage. It's difficult to get much worse than that.

Patrick Kane scored a pair of goals for the Blackhawks, giving him ten on the season, while they also received goals from Martin Havlat, Kris Versteeg, Ben Eager and Brian Campbell. Nikolai Khabibulin earned No. 1 start honors in the game, turning aside 31 shots.

With the win, Chicago improves to 9-4-5 on the season, and 8-2-4 since the firing of coach Denis Savard following the fourth game of the season.

The Stars, meanwhile, find themselves near the bottom of the NHL just one year after playing in the Western Conference Finals.