Scott Stevens set up the first two goals and the suddenly potent New Jersey Devils extended their unbeaten streak to 10 games with a 4-1 victory over the Buffalo Sabres on Wednesday night.
Scott Gomez, Jay Pandolfo, Brian Gionta and John Madden scored for the defending Stanley Cup champions, who have nine goals in their last two games.
The unbeaten streak is the longest for the Devils since they won a team-record 13 straight in the 2000-2001 season.
PHOTO: AFP
Red Wings 5, Blue Jackets 1
In Detroit, Brett Hull scored two goals and Detroit extended its unbeaten streak to five games.
Kris Draper, Tomas Holmstrom and Steve Thomas also scored for the Red Wings, 4-0-1-0 during the streak. Goalie Manny Legace stopped 37 of 38 shots.
Geoff Sanderson scored for the Blue Jackets, 0-3-2-0 in their last five games.
With 724 career goals, Hull moved within seven of Marcel Dionne for third place on the NHL's all-time scoring list.
Wayne Gretzky is first with 894, and Gordie Howe is second with 801.
Islanders 4, Panthers 1
In Sunrise, Florida, rookie Trent Hunter scored twice and New York stretched its unbeaten streak against Florida to seven games (4-0-3).
Mattias Timander and Shawn Bates also scored for the Islanders, who won on the road for only the second time this season (2-4-2).
Rookie Nathan Horton scored a power-play goal for Florida, which has lost two straight for the first time under interim coach Rick Dudley.
The Panthers are 2-3 since general manager Dudley replaced Mike Keenan on Nov. 9.
Rick DiPietro made 26 saves for the Islanders.
Roberto Luongo stopped 28 shots against his former team, including a penalty shot by Michael Peca.
Thrashers 5, Bruins 4
In Atlanta, Ilya Kovalchuk scored his NHL-high 14th goal 3:42 into overtime to give Atlanta the win after Boston squandered three leads.
The Thrashers fell behind 2-0, 3-2 and 4-3 before Kovalchuk provided their only lead of the night with a power-play goal in the extra period.
Kovalchuk drew a penalty on Nick Boynton, getting pulled down at center ice, and Atlanta called a timeout to set up a play in the Boston zone. Slava Kozlov won the faceoff, and Frantisek Kaberle relayed the puck to Kovalchuk, who beat Felix Potvin with a slap shot off the far post.
Atlanta ended the Bruins' four-game winning streak with another comeback victory.
The Thrashers have overcome two-goal deficits to earn at least a point six times this season.
Mighty Ducks 3, Stars 3
In Dallas, Andy McDonald scored twice, including a one-hopper from the red line with 11:41 left in regulation that rallied Anaheim into a tie and stretched Dallas' winless streak to seven games.
Jason Arnott broke a second-period tie, and Jon Klemm added his first goal for Dallas 58 seconds later to give the Stars a 3-1 lead. Klemm, making his debut with the Stars, scored his first goal of the season at 5:39 to make it 3-1.
Anaheim closed within 3-2 at 16:51 of the second period on Petr Sykora's wrist shot that beat Marty Turco through the pads.
Turco had 30 saves for Dallas, and Martin Gerber stopped 26 shots for Anaheim.
Coyotes 5, Blues 4
In Phoenix, Brian Savage and Shane Doan each had two goals and an assist, leading Phoenix over St. Louis.
Savage scored the first and last goals of the game for the Coyotes, who snapped an NHL record-tying, five consecutive-overtime streak just when it appeared they were headed for a sixth.
A sumo star was born in Japan on Sunday when 24-year-old Takerufuji became the first wrestler in 110 years to win a top-division tournament on his debut, triumphing at the 15-day Spring Grand Sumo Tournament in Osaka despite injuring his ankle on the penultimate day. Takerufuji, whose injury had left him in a wheelchair outside the ring, shoved out the higher-ranked Gonoyama at the Edion Arena Osaka to the delight of the crowd, giving him an unassailable record of 13 wins and two losses to claim the Emperor’s Cup. “I did it just through willpower. I didn’t really know what was going
The US’ Ilia Malinin on Saturday produced six scintillating quadruple jumps, including a quadruple Axel, in the men’s free skate to capture his first figure skating world title. The 19-year-old nicknamed the “Quad god,” who is the only skater to land a quadruple Axel in competition, dazzled with an array of breathtakingly executed jumps starting with his quad Axel and including a quadruple Lutz in combination with a triple flip and a quadruple toe loop in combination with a triple toe. He added an unexpected triple-triple combination at the end to earn a world-record 227.79 in the free program for a championship
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