Aaron Ward scored two goals -- including the go-ahead score late in the third period -- to lead the Carolina Hurricanes to a 4-3 victory over the Boston Bruins on Wednesday.
Ray Whitney and Oleg Tverdovsky added goals to help the Hurricanes return from the two-week Olympic break with yet another home win. The game also marked Carolina's third win against Boston this season, with all three coming by 4-3 scores.
Carolina, which leads the Eastern Conference with 84 points, improved to 25-5-1 at home this season. Marco Sturm, David Tanabe and Sergei Samsonov scored for the Bruins, who have won one of their past six games.
Devils 2, Flyers 1, SO
At East Rutherford, New Jersey, Viktor Kozlov scored in regulation and added the only goal in a shootout as New Jersey edged Philadelphia.
Kozlov beat Robert Esche with a high shot in the shootout, and New Jersey goalie Martin Brodeur stopped Philadelphia's Mike Richards and Petr Nedved and watched as Peter Forsberg shot wide on the Flyers' third attempt.
Senators 4, Penguins 3
At Pittsburgh, Daniel Alfredsson and Dany Heatley scored their 35th goals of the season and Ottawa built a four-goal lead before holding on to beat Pittsburgh.
Pittsburgh's John LeClair, Andre Roy and Jani Rita scored in an 8-minute span of the third. Rita, acquired from Edmonton last month, scored his first goal for Pittsburgh and set up another in a 33-second stretch.
Thrashers 4, Sabres 2
At Buffalo, New York, Kari Lehtonen made 34 saves, and Brad Larsen scored two goals in Atlanta's four victory in five games.
Vyacheslav Kozlov and Niclas Havelid also scored for Atlanta.
Chris Drury, and Maxim Afinogenov scored for Buffalo. The Sabres have lost three of their last four, including an overtime loss and shootout loss.
Blackhawks 3, Predators 0
At Chicago, Craig Anderson made 20 saves for his first shutout of the season and defenseman Dustin Byfuglien scored in his first NHL game to lead Chicago past Nashville.
Rene Bourque and Patrick Sharp also scored to help the Blackhawks snap a three-game losing streak and beat the Predators for the first time in six meetings this season.
Blues 4, Oilers 2
At Edmonton, Alberta, Curtis Sanford made 35 saves, and Scott Young scored two goals as St. Louis downed Edmonton. Keith Tkachuk and Jay McClement also scored for St. Louis, 6-1-1 in its last eight games and 17-31-9 overall.
Red Wings 2, Mighty Ducks 0
At Anaheim, California, Olympic champions Tomas Holmstrom and Henrik Zetterberg scored in a 46-second span in the first period and Chris Osgood made 24 saves for his second shutout of the season for Detroit.
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