Jussi Jokinen’s scoring prowess now extends to the rest of the game, too.
Once known as a shootout specialist, Jokinen scored four goals, including a second-period hat trick in about 7 minutes, and helped the Dallas Stars end a four-game losing streak with a 6-1 win over the Colorado Avalanche on Friday night.
“It’s a big relief. It’s been a frustrating month for me and the whole team,” said Jokinen, who had only three goals his first 17 games. “We need some points to get rolling. It was a lot of fun.”
The last four-goal game by a Stars player was in March 2000 by Brett Hull, who this week became an interim co-general manager for the struggling team after GM Doug Armstrong was fired.
That was about the same time Jokinen said he last scored four goals in a game, while playing amateur hockey back home in Finland.
“Getting that first goal gave me a lot of confidence,” Jokinen said. “Things just got going.”
In other NHL games, it was: Atlanta 3, Carolina 0; New York Islanders 1, New Jersey 0; Buffalo 4, Montreal 1; Tampa Bay 5, Washington 2; St. Louis 3, Columbus 2 and Vancouver 6, Minnesota 2.
Before, Jokinen was known primarily for success in shootouts.
As a rookie two seasons ago, Jokinen scored in each of the Stars’ first nine shootouts – and led the league in the then-new format by scoring 10 times in the extra session. He is 16-for-27 in his career.
“I’m upset I didn’t have him on the ice more,” Stars coach Dave Tippett said
After scoring on Dallas’ first shot of the game, Jokinen had three of the Stars’ four goals in a span of 7:05 of the second period to make it 5-0.
Colorado hadn’t played since Sunday and looked nothing like the team that had a 7-1-1 stretch before that.
“We were brutal in all aspects of the game,” coach Joel Quenneville said. “We had no spark, no emotion.”
Dallas hadn’t won at home since a 3-1 victory over Anaheim on Oct. 20. The Stars were coming off a shootout loss against San Jose on Wednesday night, the day they reassigned their team president and a day after Armstrong was fired.
Sergei Zubov assisted on all four of Jokinen’s goals for his first four-assist game since 1997. The defenseman has 12 assists the past eight games.
Islanders 1, Devils 0
In Newark, N.J., Josef Vasicek’s short-handed goal in the second period prevented Devils goalie Martin Brodeur from reaching 500 wins.
Brodeur failed in his third try to become the second goaltender in NHL history to record 500 wins, behind Patrick Roy’s 551.
Islanders goaltender Rick DiPietro got his second shutout of the season and beat New Jersey for the third time. DiPietro stopped 26 shots, while Brodeur stopped 25. New York snapped a two-game losing streak and has won five of its past seven games.
New Jersey has dropped five of its past seven and has scored 11 goals in that span.
Sabres 4, Canadiens 1
In Buffalo, N.Y., Clarke MacArthur scored twice and Ryan Miller made 36 saves.
Daniel Paille and Drew Stafford also scored for the Sabres, who snapped a season-long tying three-game losing streak.
Michael Ryder scored for Montreal, which lost for the second time in three games.
Thrashers 3, Hurricanes 0
In Raleigh, N.C., Marian Hossa had two goals and an assist.
Johan Hedberg made 31 saves for his 11th career shutout, Todd White had two assists, and Ilya Kovalchuk added an empty-net goal in the final minute. Hossa had his second multi-goal game of the season, both against the Hurricanes.
Cam Ward stopped 22 shots for Carolina, which entered with a league-leading 69 goals but couldn’t generate many quality scoring chances against Hedberg and the Thrashers, 9-4 since GM Don Waddell replaced Bob Hartley as coach on Oct. 18.
Canucks 6, Wild 2
Six different players scored for Vancouver, which finally broke out at home.
Averaging a league-low 1.67 goals a game on home ice and coming off a 1-0 shootout loss to Edmonton on Wednesday, the Canucks jumped out to a 4-0 lead in the first 16:32, matching their goal total from the previous four home games combined.
Taylor Pyatt and Mattias Ohlund scored at even strength, and Markus Naslund and Daniel Sedin added power-play goals in the first period. Trevor Linden and Luc Bourdon also scored and Roberto Luongo made 20 saves for Vancouver.
Aaron Voros and Brent Burns scored for Minnesota.
Blues 3, Blue Jackets 2
In St. Louis, Paul Kariya scored in the first period and set up Brad Boyes’ go-ahead goal with 2:27 to go.
Jamal Mayers added an empty-netter in the final minute as the Blues broke through against Blue Jackets, who shut them out twice earlier in the season. St. Louis has won two straight after losing three in a row.
Curtis Glencross scored his second goal of the season and Rick Nash netted his 13th with 6.3 seconds to go for the Blue Jackets.
Lightning 5, Capitals 2
In Tampa, Fla., Vincent Lecavalier had a goal and two assists to extend his team record for consecutive multipoint games to seven and help Tampa Bay win its fifth straight.
Lecavalier has six goals and 13 assists during the streak.
Jan Hlavac, Brad Richards, Paul Ranger and Martin St. Louis also scored for the Lightning.
Brooks Laich and Alexander Ovechkin scored for Washington. The Capitals are 3-12-1 since starting the season by winning three straight games.
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