Ray Whitney and Rod Brind'Amour scored two goals apiece, Cam Ward made 40 saves and the Carolina Hurricanes beat Atlanta again, knocking out Thrashers goalie Kari Lehtonen on the way to a 5-2 victory on Wednesday night.
The Thrashers outshot the Hurricanes 42-18 but were turned away time after time by Ward, the unlikely star of Carolina's run to the Stanley Cup championship last season.
Whitney's second goal gave Carolina a 4-1 lead and prompted Thrashers coach Bob Hartley to yank Lehtonen with 4:51 left in the second period. He stopped only nine of 13 shots.
Johan Hedberg went the rest of the way in the Atlanta nets and was barely tested, facing just five shots while Ward was sprawling all over the ice at the other end.
Marian Hossa had his NHL-leading 11th goal on a power play but could have a much bigger game if not for Ward, who turned aside 15 other shots by Atlanta's top scorer. Hossa, who scored his 500th career point, had nearly as many shots himself as the Hurricanes.
Carolina has won all three meetings between the Southeast Division rivals this season. The first two were much closer, with Carolina winning 4-3 on a goal in the last second of regulation, then prevailing 5-4 in overtime.
Avalanche 5, Blue Jackets 3
At Columbus, Ohio, Jose Theodore made 19 of his 41 saves in the third period to help Colorado hold on.
Wojtek Wolski, Brett McLean, Joe Sakic, Mark Rycroft and Brad Richardson scored for Colorado, which has won five of its last seven. The Avalanche are 18-1-2 overall against Columbus.
Sergei Fedorov, Fredrik Modin and David Vyborny scored for Columbus, which has won once in their last seven behind a struggling offense that entered tied for the league low with 19 goals.
Pascal Leclaire made 17 stops for Columbus.
Maple Leafs 4, Lightning 2
At Tampa, Florida, Ian White scored a tiebreaking power-play goal midway through the third period to help the Maple Leafs get the win.
White picked up a loose puck off a deflected pass by Matt Stajan and scored from in close to give Toronto a 3-2 lead with 8:17 left. He hadn't scored a goal in 22 games.
Hal Gill got the Maple Leafs even at 2 at 1:51 of the third. The goal snapped a 26-game scoring drought and gave him 100 career points. Alexei Ponikarovsky had an empty-net goal with 1:20 to play.
Tomas Kaberle scored his fifth goal in three games for Toronto.
Brad Richards and Vincent Lecavalier had the Lightning goals. Lecavalier has scored a goal in five straight games.
Red Wings 3, Flames 2
At Detroit, Johan Franzen and Tomas Holmstrom scored 79 seconds apart in the first period for the Red Wings.
Dominik Hasek made 13 saves and Brett Lebda also scored for Detroit, which won its fourth straight.
Dion Phaneuf and Andrew Ference got the goals for Calgary, which lost its third in a row. Miikka Kiprusoff stopped 31 shots for the Flames.
Holmstrom has three goals and two assists in his last three games.
Stars 4, Blues 1
At Dallas, Eric Lindros scored two goals, Mike Modano added a goal and an assist and the Stars beat St. Louis to get off to the best start in franchise history.
Marty Turco stopped 23 shots and Jussi Jokinen had a goal and an assist for Dallas (10-2). The Stars' previous best 12-game mark was 9-2-1 in 1996-97 and 1982-83.
With the game tied at 1, Modano scored at 7:13 of the second period, skating hard to the net and converting Jokinen's centering pass for his eighth goal of the season and 493rd of his career.
Keith Tkachuk scored and Curtis Sanford stopped 27 shots for the Blues (3-5-3).
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