Hossa the hero as Atlanta defeat Devils in shootout

Marian Hossa delivered the decisive goal in a shootout as the Atlanta Thrashers edged the New Jersey Devils 5-4 on Tuesday in a matchup of division leaders.

The Thrashers ended a slump with three power-play goals, including two by Ilya Kovalchuk. Atlanta earned its fourth consecutive home win over New Jersey. The Atlantic Division leaders have lost two straight overall.

Slava Kozlov also scored for Southeast-leading Atlanta in the shootout and added three assists in regulation.

Kari Lehtonen blocked two shots to win the shootout duel with New Jersey's Martin Brodeur.

Sabres 7, Bruins 1

At Buffalo, New York, Daniel Briere netted his second career hat trick, and Jason Pominville and Thomas Vanek added a goal and an assist each to give Buffalo a victory.

Chris Drury and Paul Gaustad also scored for the Sabres, who snapped a season-high, three-game regulation losing streak by beating the Bruins for the sixth straight time at home.

Penguins 3, Panthers 0

At Pittsburgh, Marc-Andre Fleury stopped 32 shots, and Pittsburgh ended a nearly five-year home losing streak against Florida.

Michel Ouellet, Dominic Moore and Ryan Whitney scored for Pittsburgh, which won its fourth in a row and sixth in seventh games. Sidney Crosby extended his point streak to seven games with an assist.

Maple Leafs 4, Hurricanes 1

At Raleigh, North Carolina, Nik Antropov scored two goals in the third period to lead Toronto past Carolina.

Bates Battaglia also scored, Tomas Kaberle had an empty-net goal and an assist and Andrew Raycroft stopped 28 shots for the Maple Leafs, who kept the Hurricanes scoreless in the final two periods.

Red Wings 4, Islanders 3, OT

At Uniondale, New York, Henrik Zetterberg capped Detroit's big rally by scoring at 2:57 of overtime and giving Detroit a win over the New York Islanders.

Detroit, which hasn't been shut out this season, trailed 3-0 at the start of the third period but quickly erased that deficit and set the stage for Zetterberg's winner.

Tomas Holmstrom, Niklas Kronwall and Dan Cleary also scored for Detroit, which got 16 saves from Dominik Hasek.

Lightning 4, Flyers 3

At Philadelphia, Vincent Lecavalier scored in regulation and then added a goal in the shootout as Tampa Bay extended Philadelphia's franchise-worst home losing streak to 11.

Martin St. Louis, and Ruslan Fedotenko also scored for the Lightning, who have won six straight road games. Brad Richards scored the other goal in the 2-0 shootout.

Senators 3, Capitals 2

At Ottawa, Dany Heatley scored his 31st goal and Martin Gerber made 35 saves to lead Ottawa over Washington.

Heatley gave Ottawa its second two-goal lead 10:31 into the second, scoring on a power play less than a minute and a half after Washington cut the lead to 2-1 on Alexander Ovechkin's 4-on-4 goal. Ovechkin took over the league lead with his 32nd goal.

Wild 5, Blues 2

At St. Louis, Pierre-Marc Bouchard's second goal snapped a third-period tie, helping Minnesota beat St. Louis.

Pavol Demitra scored twice, including an empty-netter, to help the Wild win for the fifth time in six road games. Brian Rolston and Petteri Nummelin each had two assists for Minnesota, which before the current road success had a franchise-record 11-game winless slump.

Avalanche 4, Predators 3

At Denver, Andrew Brunette and Wojtek Wolski each had a goal and an assist, and Peter Budaj stopped 34 shots to help Colorado beat streaking Nashville.

Tyler Arnason had a goal, and Joe Sakic added two assists. Sakic has 29 points in 29 career games against Nashville.

Milan Hejduk scored 46 seconds into the third period to give Colorado a two-goal lead. The insurance came in handy as Nashville's Steve Sullivan scored with 39.2 seconds left after the Predators pulled goalie Tomas Vokoun.

Flames 4, Kings 1

At Calgary, Alberta, Craig Conroy scored twice against his former team in his first game with his new club, leading Calgary over LA.

The Flames acquired Conroy from the Kings on Monday in a trade for Jamie Lundmark and two draft picks. He brought fans to their feet when he knocked a rebound past goalie Sean Burke just 1:30 into the second period to give the Flames a 1-0 lead.

Conroy, who spent parts of four seasons in Calgary before signing with the Kings in 2004, rounded out the scoring at 15:16 of the third with his second goal of the night and eighth of the season.

Stars 3, Sharks 2, SO

At San Jose, California, Philippe Boucher scored the tying goal with 2.2 seconds left, and Mike Ribeiro added the winning shootout goal to his regulation score in Dallas' over San Jose.

Boucher's goal forced the Sharks' first overtime game since the season opener on Oct. 5 -- an NHL-record 49 games. San Jose hadn't participated in a shootout all season, and Vesa Toskala allowed three straight scores to the Stars, 18-3 in shootouts.

Blue Jackets 3, Canucks 2, SO

At Vancouver, British Columbia, Nikolai Zherdev scored the winning shootout goal with a wrist shot off Roberto Luongo's glove, lifting Columbus over Vancouver.

After Brendan Morrison and David Vyborny traded shootout goals, Ty Conklin stopped Josh Green in the third round, giving Zherdev the chance to win it.

Dan Fritsche and Anson Carter scored in regulation, Carter's goal was his 200th in the NHL.