Capitals Subdue Islanders

Andrei Nikolishin and Jeff Halpern scored on consecutive shots at the end of the second period and the Capitals defeated the New York Islanders, 3-2, Tuesday at Washington.

The victory increased the NHL’s longest head-to-head unbeaten streak to 21 games.

The Islanders haven’t defeated the Capitals since March 2, 1997, going 0-18-3 over the span.

Sergei Gonchar scored for the Capitals, who won for only the second time in seven games.

Gonchar leads NHL defensemen with 14 goals and 39 points.

Jason Blake and Michael Peca scored for the Islanders, who have given up 17 goals in their last four games.

New York played without defensemen Radek Martinek and Roman Hamrlik, who are scheduled for knee surgery today.

Martinek is out for the season and Hamrlik is expected to sit out three to six weeks.

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Colorado 4, Nashville 4--For the second consecutive home game, the host Predators rallied late to force overtime.

Cliff Ronning scored two third-period goals in a little more than a minute to give Nashville the tie.

On Saturday, the Predators tied Detroit in the final five minutes of regulation and won, 3-2, in overtime.

Ronning’s first goal against the Avalanche, with 8:37 remaining, tied the score, 3-3.

Colorado’s Eric Messier answered 12 seconds later into a wide-open net before Ronning struck again.

Greg Johnson and Mark Mowers scored for Nashville, and Martin Skoula, Ville Niemenen and Chris Drury scored for Colorado.

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New Jersey 2, St. Louis 1--The Devils won their second in a row behind goals by Sergei Brylin and Patrik Elias at East Rutherford, N.J.

Doug Weight scored for the Blues, who are 2-7-3-2 on the road since November.

St. Louis had 16 shots in the third period.