NHL: 4 stories from Wednesday night

For only the second time in the history of the National Hockey League a game was postponed because of a violent outside incident. The Toronto Maple Leafs at Ottawa Senators game was postponed Wednesday morning because of the shootings in downtown Ottawa in and around the parliament buildings. The Edmonton Oilers hosted the Washington Capitals in the only game involving a Canadian team in a light schedule of only three games.

Leafs, Senators postponed by shootings

The Maple Leafs carriedan exuberant feeling with them to Ottawa after a strong performance from all concerned in their 5-2 victory over the New York Islanders on Tuesday night. By late morning Wednesday in Ottawa the teams were informed that their game had been postponed. The Boston marathon bombing onApril 15, 2013 postponed the Boston Bruins-Ottawa Senatorsgame previously.No make-up date for the Leafs-Sens has been determined thus far.

Players and officials from the Leafs and the Senators and around the NHL reacted to the situation that unfolded withina few hundred yards of the Leafs' hotel.

Both the Leafs and the Senators are next scheduled to play home games Saturday against the Boston Bruins and the New Jersey Devils, respectively.

Oilersmaking winning a habit

On a one-game win streak as they hosted the Washington Capitals, the Edmonton Oilersdiscovered that winning again was twice as nice. After coming within one loss of setting a franchise record for their worst start ever, the Oilers defeated the Capitals, 3-2 thanks to second-period goals by Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Nikita Nikitin.

Justin Schultz opened the scoring in the first period for the Oilers as he scored in his second straight game. After the Capitals grabbed the lead on a power play goal by John Carlson and a second-period tally by Mike Green, Nugent-Hopkins evened things up just 20 seconds after Washington had taken the lead.

Later in the middle frame, Nikilin produced on the power play and Ben Scrivens held the Caps off the shoresheet the rest of the way. Scrivens made 32 saves in winning his third game of the season.

O Canada performed in U.S. arenas

Prior to the Philadelphia Flyers-Pittsburgh Penguins game at the CONSOL Energy Centerin Pittsburgh, the crowd was asked to join Jeff Jimersonto singO Canada in response to the tragic events in Ottawa.

Tied 2-2 after two periods, the Flyers had goals by Pittsburgh nativeR.J. Umberger and Matt Read, two minutes apart to open up an advantage. After Marcel Goc cut the deficiti to one with just under three minutes to play, Sean Couturier finished off the Flyers' second victory of the season with an empty-net goal, his third of the season. The 5-3 win for Philadelphia was their 12thin 15 starts, including playoffs, in Pittsburgh.

It was a good night for first goal scorers for the Flyers who had been shutout in their last start, 4-0 by Chicago. Watch below the first goal of the season by Pierre-Edouard Bellemare who gave the Flyers a 2-1 lead in the opening period.

Sabres not sharp enough to top Ducks

It figured to be a mismatch with the 1-5 Buffalo Sabres traveling to Anaheim to meet the 5-1 Ducks and Corey Perry made sure it was, scoring a hat trick to pace the Ducks' 4-1 victory.

Perry, with his sixth goal of the season in the first period and Ryan Kesler with his third goal in the second, gave the Ducks a 2-0 advantage after two periods.

Following Tyler Ennis'smarker for the Sabres, Perry topped off the evening with two more goals, his hat trick score into the empty-net. The Ennis goal snapped a Buffalo scoreless drought that extended to 192 minutes including shutout losses to Florida and Boston.

Perry's hat trick was the second of the season and gave him eight goals in seven games. Perry now has seventh career hat tricks.

Those ConnorMcDavidjerseys with the Sabres colours, already in circulation, are getting more and more popular as Buffalo fans dream about the chances of getting the hottest junior hockey prospect in the NHL draft next June.