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Nashville Predators pounce on Capitals

The Florida Panthers' Steve Montador, right, fights with the Dallas Stars' Bill Guerin during the first period in Dallas on Wednesday. The Stars won 4-3. PHOTO: AP

Marek Zidlicky and Scott Sullivan scored two goals apiece to lead the Nashville Predators to a 5-2 win over the Washington Capitals on Wednesday night.

Zidlicky had two power-play goals in the first period and assisted on Sullivan's second-period score. Sullivan had a power-play goal in the third period. Scott Hartnell added an empty-netter.

Nashville (17-4-3) has won four straight and six of seven. Washington (9-15-2) has lost six of seven.

Predators goalie Chris Mason made 30 saves, and has three wins and a shootout loss in four starts this season.

Washington rookie Alex Ovechkin notched the Capitals' first goal on a power play in the second period. Ben Clymer added a goal in the third.

Flames 4, Devils 1

In East Rutherford, New Jersey, Jarome Iginla scored two goals and had an assist to lead Calgary.

Dion Phaneuf and Daymond Langkow also scored, and Phillipe Sauve made 31 saves for the Flames who had three power-play goals.

Alexander Mogilny scored for the Devils, who dropped their second straight game.

Calgary took charge with three unanswered goals in the second period.

The Devils could not dent Sauve even with four power plays in the third period. New Jersey went 1-for-10 with a man advantage and outshot Calgary 32-15.

Blackhawks 2, Rangers 1, OT

At Chicago, Tyler Arnason scored a power-play goal 1:20 into overtime to lift Chicago over New York.

With Martin Rucinsky serving a double minor for high-sticking, Arnason drove to the net and fired a shot between the legs of goalie Henrik Lundqvist.

Chicago counterpart Nikolai Khabibulin stopped 30 shots, including many prime, close-in chances in the second and third periods. Lundqvist finished with 17 saves.

New York's Petr Prucha and Chicago's Jaroslav Spacek had the only goals in regulation, scoring 18 seconds apart midway through the second period.

Stars 4, Panthers 3

At Dallas, Jere Lehtinen scored twice, including the tiebreaker with 15.8 seconds left, and Dallas handed Florida its 10th straight road loss.

Defensemen Martin Skoula and Trevor Daley added first-period goals for the Stars, who've won four straight and 12 of 14.

Juraj Kolnik, Nathan Horton and former Stars forward Joe Nieuwendyk had second-period goals for the Panthers, who haven't won on the road since Oct. 25 at Pittsburgh.

Florida coach Jacques Martin burned a timeout after Daley's goal and sent in Jamie McLennan after Roberto Luongo stopped only eight of 11 shots.

Avalanche 4, Bruins 1

At Denver, Vitaly Kolesnik stopped 20 shots in his NHL debut, and Alex Tanguay had a goal for the third straight game and added two assists to lift Colorado over struggling Boston.

Milan Hejduk, Brett McLean and John-Michael Liles also scored for Colorado, which won for the fourth time in six games.

Marco Sturm scored his third goal in four games since being traded from San Jose with Wayne Primeau and Brad Stuart for Boston captain Joe Thornton. The Bruins just didn't have many other good scoring chances and gave up too many at the other end to lose for the 11th time in 14 games.

They are 2-2 since dealing Thornton last week.

Pittsburgh Penguins owner-player and 10-time NHL all-star Mario Lemieux was hospitalized on Wednesday for observation of an irregular heartbeat, general manager Craig Patrick said.

Lemieux will be monitored overnight in the undisclosed hospital and didn't play against the Minnesota Wild last night.

The team said his playing status will be day-to-day after that.

According to Patrick, Lemieux reported having an irregular heartbeat after practice.

"We thought the best precaution was to have him enter the hospital for observation," Patrick said.

The 40-year-old Lemieux recently missed two games because of what the team described as the stomach flu.

It was not immediately known if an illness which Lemieux said had lingered for days was related to his latest problem.
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