Marian Gaborik posted the NHL's first five-goal game in 11 years, lifting the Minnesota Wild to a 6-3 win over the New York Rangers on Thursday night.
Gaborik's outburst was the biggest in the league since Sergei Fedorov scored five for Detroit on Dec. 26, 1996, in an overtime game against Washington. Pittsburgh's Mario Lemieux was the last to net five in regulation, pulling off the feat on March 26, 1996.
Gaborik had a goal in the first period, two on power plays in the second and found the net twice more in the third to set the team record for tallies in a game. No Wild player had ever had four goals in a game.
With an assist on Pierre-Marc Bouchard's goal, Gaborik tied his career high with six points.
Michal Rozsival, Martin Straka and Nigel Dawes scored for New York, who fell to 2-5-1 in their last eight.
Penguins 5, Bruins 4, SO
In Boston, Sidney Crosby scored a goal, assisted on two by Evgeni Malkin and dropped the gloves for the first time in the NHL to spur Pittsburgh past Boston.
The 20-year-old Penguins captain helped set up Malkin's first of the game 55 seconds in, scored his 16th of the season at 8 minutes, 26 seconds, and then assisted on Malkin's 13th as Pittsburgh jumped to a 3-0 lead.
Crosby fought Andrew Ference in the second period.
Colby Armstrong had three assists in helping the Penguins take a 4-0 lead they could not hold. Journeyman Ty Conklin, making his first start for Pittsburgh, stopped both shots in the shootout and helped his new club win for the second time in five games.
The Bruins rallied on late second-period goals by Sturm and P.J. Axelsson and got even when Petteri Nokelainen and Dennis Wideman scored in the third.
Blues 3, Red Wings 2
In St. Louis, Missouri, Keith Tkachuk and Lee Stempniak scored power-play goals in the third period and Manny Legace made 34 saves to help St. Louis snap their four-game slide and end Detroit's 12-game point streak.
The Red Wings were 10-0-2 since losing 3-2 at Nashville on Nov. 22.
Brad Boyes scored his 20th goal for St. Louis and Paul Kariya and Andy McDonald each had two assists.
Valtteri Filppula and Mikael Samuelsson scored for Detroit. Henrik Zetterberg picked up an assist on Filppula's goal, giving him 50 points (25 goals, 25 assists). Zetterberg has nine points in five games.
Thrashers 3, Senators 2
In Atlanta, Georgia, Todd White's power-play goal 47 seconds into the third period broke a tie and helped Atlanta snap Ottawa's winning streak at six.
White converted from in close, beating goalie Martin Gerber, who had 42 saves. The Thrashers tied a franchise record with 45 shots.
The Senators took a 2-1 lead with three minutes left in the second period on a goal by Daniel Alfredsson.
The Thrashers tied it 46 seconds later when Ilya Kovalchuk put a rebound of Ken Klee's shot past Gerber. It was the NHL-leading 28th goal for Kovalchuk, who has scored four times in three games.
Canadiens 5, Capitals 2
In Washington, Guilliaume Latendresse scored two goals in his return from a benching for Montreal.
Latendresse, scratched by coach Guy Carbonneau for the Canadiens' 3-2 loss to Florida on Tuesday, notched the fourth two-goal game of his NHL career -- the second this month.
The Canadiens took a 4-1 lead on Sergei Kostitsyn's first NHL goal. Alexander Semin's fourth of the season and second in two games made it 4-2.
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