Buffalo's Chris Drury scored on a rebound in overtime and Martin Biron became the first NHL goalie in eight years to win 12 consecutive starts, helping the Sabres ruin Michel Therrien's debut as the Pittsburgh Penguins' coach with a 4-3 victory on Friday.
Drury and Ales Kotalik each had a power-play goal and two assists as the Sabres won their fifth in a row and 13th in 15 games despite allowing Ziggy Palffy's tying goal with 2:17 left in regulation.
Biron stopped 24 shots. The Sabres' eight consecutive road wins are two short of the club record 10 in 1983-1984 that set an NHL record and has been matched twice. Biron's streak is the NHL's longest since New Jersey's Martin Brodeur won 12 in a row in 1997-1998.
Even with a new coach and a new defense-first system in place, the Penguins lost their ninth in 10 games and their 24th in 32 games, counting overtime.
Blackhawks 5, Blues 1
At Chicago, Mark Bell, Martin Lapointe and Andy Hilbert each had a goal and an assist, and Nikolai Khabibulin stopped 32 shots to lead Chicago over St. Louis.
Jim Dowd added a goal, and Pavel Vorobiev scored into an empty net with 1:37 left.
Among Khabibulin's saves was a blocker deflection of Doug Weight's penalty shot at 8:22 of the second period.
Dean McAmmond scored for the Blues, who have won just one of their last five games and two of nine.
St. Louis forward Keith Tkachuk left the game with a hand injury after skating two shifts in the second period and didn't return. Tkachuk's five-game goal streak and seven-game point run were snapped.
Sharks 4, Capitals 1
At San Jose, California, Joe Thornton had a goal and an assist in his sixth straight multipoint performance, and San Jose remained unbeaten in six games since his arrival.
Jonathan Cheechoo, Alyn McCauley and rookie Milan Michalek also scored for the Sharks, who returned from five days off with the same flair and passion they've shown ever since Thornton was acquired from Boston on Nov. 30.
Thornton set up Cheechoo's team-leading 13th goal and then scored one of his own in the first period, and the Sharks weathered Washington's strong third period to finish their ninth consecutive victory over the Capitals.
Thornton has 14 points in his six games in teal -- and so does Patrick Marleau, who also extended his scoring streak to six games.
Evgeni Nabokov stopped 25 shots to remain unbeaten in seven meetings with the Capitals. He lost his bid for his first shutout of the season on Ben Clymer's deflection goal with 12:12 to play.
Kings 4, Mighty Ducks 3, SO
At Anaheim, California, Petr Kanko scored the tying goal in his NHL debut and Los Angeles beat Anaheim in a shootout.
Derek Armstrong and Dustin Brown scored power-play goals in the first period for the Kings.
Pavol Demitra and Alexander Frolov scored the only goals in the shootout. Mathieu Garon made 42 saves and stopped Teemu Selanne and Scott Niedermayer in the NHL's new tiebreaker -- the first between the Southern California rivals
Joffrey Lupul had a goal and an assist for the Ducks, who also got goals from Todd Marchant and Petr Sykora. Jean-Sebastien Giguere stopped 34 shots, including a breakaway by Demitra with 33 seconds left in the third period.
Kanko was recalled from Manchester of the AHL on Friday and was inserted into the lineup in place of Luc Robitaille, who was benched.
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