RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) -Patrik Elias scored the go-ahead goal in the second period, and Martin Brodeur made 20 saves in the New Jersey Devils’ 4-1 win over the Carolina Hurricanes on Thursday night.
Travis Zajac, Brian Gionta and Sergei Brylin also scored for New Jersey. Langenbrunner and Zach Parise each had two assists for the Atlantic Division-leading Devils, who have won seven of nine.
Brodeur allowed two goals or less for the seventh time in his last eight games.
Keith Aucoin scored his first NHL goal for the Hurricanes, who have lost three straight at home.
Flyers 6, Rangers 2
NEW YORK (AP) – Scott Hartnell scored three consecutive goals and Antero Niittymaki won his fourth straight start for Philadelphia.
New York grabbed a 2-0 lead in the first period on a rare pair of goals from hard-hitting forward Ryan Hollweg but that was gone midway through the second period.
Simon Gagne pushed the Philadelphia lead to 6-2, scoring a power-play goal with 5 minutes left. It was his first game back in the Flyers lineup since Nov. 7 when he was forced out for the second time with post-concussion symptoms. He sat out 30 games total.
Stefan Ruzicka scored his first of the season, Mike Knuble added a goal and Mike Richards had three assists for the Flyers, who have won six of seven.
The Rangers are 0-4-1 in their last five and have been outscored 20-10 in the skid.
Panthers 3, Thrashers 2, SO
ATLANTA (AP) – After Ilya Kovalchuk fired wide of the net on the final round of the shootout, Olli Jokinen beat goalie Kari Lehtonen on the stick side to seal it for Florida.
Kovalchuk scored his NHL-leading 36th goal in rgulation.
Florida’s Nathan Horton also scored in the shootout, while Slava Kozlov was the only Atlanta player to get one past Tomas Vokoun.
Atlanta’s Bobby Holik had the only goal through the first two periods, but things really picked up in the third.
Rotislav Olesz tied it at 6:38. Kovalchuk put the Thrashers ahead 10:51 left amd the Panthers tied it again on Kamil Kreps’ goal with 7:06 left.
Penguins 4, Lightning 1
TAMPA, Fla. (AP) – Ty Conklin made 35 saves, Jordan Staal had two goals and an assist, and Pittsburgh won its eighth straight.
It’s the Penguins’ longest win streak since a 10-game stretch in January and February 1999. Pittsburgh also stopped a 12-game losing skid against Tampa Bay.
Conklin has won nine starts in a rows, while Staal snapped a seven-game goal-scoring drought. Ryan Malone and Evgeni Malkin had third-period goals for Pittsburgh.
Paul Ranger scored for the Lightning, who have lost 11 of 13. Karri Ramo had 24 saves.
Canadiens 5, Bruins 2
BOSTON (AP) – Alex Kovalev and Tomas Plekanec each had a goal and an assist to help Montreal improve to 5-0-2 over its last seven. The Canadiens beat Boston for the eighth straight time, and 15th of 18.
Cristobal Huet made 23 saves for the Canadiens, who are unbeaten in their last four road games.
After Plekanec opened the scoring, Maxim Lapierre scored 54 seconds later when he jammed home a rebound of Christopher Higgins’ shot that squirted through the pads of Bruins goalie Tim Thomas with 8:30 remaining.
Kovalev increased Montreal’s lead to 3-0 with 6:42 remaining in the second.
Wild 6, Red Wings 5, SO
DETROIT (AP) – Martin Gaborik scored on the final attempt in a shootout, lifting Minnesota over Detroit.
The NHL-leading Red Wings appeared to have the game in hand with 1:08 left in regulation, when they went ahead for the first time on Dan Cleary’s goal. But less than 20 seconds later, Eric Belanger grabbed a fluttering puck and poked it past Chris Osgood to force overtime.
In the shootout, Brian Rolston and Gaborik scored while Jiri Hudler was the only Red Wing to get a shot past Josh Harding.
Niklas Backstrom was pulled after giving up four goals on 19 shots, including Niklas Kronwall’s tying goal at 8:38 of the second period. Harding kept the Wild in the game, turning away a slew of shots, including two quality scoring chances Pavel Datsyuk had in the third and stopping him and Henrik Zetterberg in the shootout.
Zetterberg, Valtteri Filppula, Dallas Drake and Kronwall scored for Detroit, which had won four straight. Martin Skoula, Gaborik, Todd Fedoruk and Matt Foy had goals in regulation for the Wild.
Senators 3, Sabres 2, SO
OTTAWA (AP) – Dean McAmmond scored on Ottawa’s sixth shootout attempt and the Senators handed Buffalo its eighth straight loss.
McAmmond put a wrist shot past Jocelyn Thibault into the top left corner after each team scored once in the first five shootout rounds. Martin Gerber, who stopped 22 shots during the game, denied Jochen Hecht on Buffalo’s sixth attempt to give Ottawa its third straight win.
Daniel Alfredsson scored his fifth short-handed goal of the season late in the second to give Ottawa a 2-0 lead.
Shean Donovan opened the scoring 24 seconds into the second and Alfredsson scored Ottawa’s 10th short-handed goal of the season at 17:08.
Clarke MacArthur scored early in the third for Buffalo, which is in the midst of its longest skid in five years. Daniel Paille drew the Sabres even at 2 with his sixth goal 12:52 into the third period.
Blues 4, Stars 2
ST. LOUIS (AP) – Brad Boyes scored twice, Paul Kariya had a goal and two assists, and St. Louis Blues extended its points streak to six games.
The win gave the Blues a 22-14-5 mark at the season’s halfway point and kept St. Louis in eighth place in the Western Conference. A year ago, St. Louis was 13-21-7 at the midway point and in 15th place in the conference.
Goalie Manny Legace, who learned earlier in the day he had made his first All-Star team, stopped 24 shots. Legace has allowed only three goals in his last 319 minutes of action, stopping 119-of-123 shots.
Keith Tkachuk had the other goal for St. Louis, which has won three straight.
Mike Ribeiro, playing in his 400th game, had a goal and an assists for the Stars. Antti Miettinen had Dallas’ other goal.
Oilers 5, Coyotes 2
EDMONTON, Alberta (AP) – Robert Nilsson and Kyle Brodziak each had a goal and an assist to lead Edmonton.
Ethan Moreau, Sheldon Souray, and Denis Grebeshkov also scored for Edmonton, which improved to 3-0 on its crucial five-game homestand and as won four of its last five overall.
Keith Ballard and Nick Boynton scored for Phoenix, which snapped a five-game winning streak overall and a six-game streak on the road.
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