Chris Phillips, Patrick Eaves and Peter Schaefer scored, and Dominik Hasek made 23 saves to lead the Ottawa Senators past the Washington Capitals 3-1 in the NHL on Wednesday.
Phillips scored his first goal of the season in the first period.
"It's huge," Phillips said. "Obviously, I'm the last guy with the big goose egg, and it seemed like it was getting talked about more and more. ... It's nice to not have a zero sitting there."
PHOTO: AP
Matt Pettinger scored for the Capitals, but the Senators (28-10) sealed the win with Schaefer's empty-net goal with 22 seconds left. Ottawa improved its NHL-best point total to 59.
"They're a good defensive team starting with their goaltender and then their strong [defensive] corps," Pettinger said. "There's no weaknesses there, it's so tough."
The Senators played without leading scorer Daniel Alfredsson, who missed his second straight game with a cracked rib, but his teammates picked up the slack.
Hurricanes 4, Thrashers 3
At Raleigh, North Carolina, Cory Stillman had two goals and two assists to run his point streak to nine games, and Carolina rallied from a two-goal deficit to beat Atlanta.
Erik Cole and Andrew Hutchinson also scored for the Hurricanes, who won at home for the first time in three games against Atlanta this season. The Thrashers won the first two by a combined score of 14-2, and it appeared they were headed for another easy victory with three consecutive goals.
Ilya Kovalchuk had two on the power play and Jim Slater got the other at even-strength to help Atlanta take a 3-1 lead.
Martin Gerber finished with 23 saves to help the Hurricanes increase their lead in the Southeast Division to nine points over Tampa Bay.
Stars 3, Canucks 1
At Dallas, Steve Ott, Jason Arnott and Mike Modano scored in the third period, and Dallas rallied to beat slumping Vancouver.
The Canucks carried a 1-0 lead into the third behind the goaltending of Alex Auld, who finished with 34 saves, and a power-play goal from Brendan Morrison in the second.
Marty Turco stopped 20 shots for the Stars. Vancouver has lost four straight and eight of nine.
Islanders 4, Panthers 3, OT
At Uniondale, New York, Wade Dubielewicz played only 2:24 but earned his second NHL victory when Mark Parrish scored in overtime, lifting New York over Florida and snapping the Islanders' five-game losing streak.
Dubielewicz, recalled after Rick DiPietro's knee injury last week, made his NHL season debut with 8.5 seconds left in regulation after Garth Snow left with an apparent leg injury.
Dubielewicz made three saves and became a winner when Parrish took Shawn Bates' pass and beat Roberto Luongo 2:15 into the extra session.
Oleg Kvasha had two goals and an assist, and Alexei Yashin tied the score for the Islanders with 8:55 left in regulation.
Joe Nieuwendyk got his fifth goal in five games. Juraj Kolnik and Joel Kwiatkowski also scored for the Panthers, 1-9 in the second half of back-to-back games.
Predators 4, Blues 3
At St. Louis, Vernon Fiddler scored the go-ahead goal and had the first two-goal game of his career, helping Nashville end a four-game losing streak with a victory over St. Louis.
Steve Sullivan scored his team-leading 18th goal and Paul Kariya got his 13th and added an assist for the Predators, who totaled seven goals during their slump and got shut out Tuesday night at Colorado. Tomas Vokoun made 18 saves in relief of backup Chris Mason, who allowed the Blues to score on their first two shots, made one save and then was yanked.
Ryan Johnson, Petr Cajanek and Doug Weight scored for the Blues, who fell to 5-16 at home and are tied with Columbus for last in the NHL with 25 points. The Blues had been trying to earn points in three consecutive games for the first time all season.
The Predators are 4-0 against St. Louis this season, and 10-1 against the Central Division.
The last thing Mathieu Garon wants to do is take credit for being named the NHL defensive player of the month for December.
The first-year Kings goalie knows it takes a team to build a defense, so much like the pucks he has consistently deflected this season, he quickly swatted away much of the personal praise directed his way after hearing about the honor.
"I'm the one who gets the final result but it's totally a team effort, defensively and offensively," Garon said. "Defensively we've been getting the job one and offensively we're scoring a lot of goals. That adds up to winning hockey."
Garon went 9-3 last month with a 2.40 goals-against average and a .924 save percentage. He started the season splitting goalie duties with Jason LaBarbera, but has started 21 of the past 26 games since Nov. 9. Overall, he's 18-8 with a 2.67 GAA.
Garon came to the Kings in June 2004 in a trade from Montreal, where he was a backup to Jose Theodore. The Kings had coveted Garon since junior hockey and jumped at the chance to acquire him when he became available.
"Our reports on him as far back as juniors were always positive and favorable," Kings general manager Dave Taylor said. "He's definitely someone we've kept a close eye on over the years."
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