Ryane Clowe snapped a run of 21 regular season games without a goal as the San Jose Sharks cooled off the streaking Colorado Avalanche with a 3-1 victory on Friday.
Clowe scored San Jose’s opener at 19:54 in the second period with his first goal since March 5 and San Jose (9-4-1) held on for a fourth straight win.
Dany Heatley gave the Sharks a 2-0 lead with his ninth score of the year at 3:59 in the third and Jamie McGinn got the final score at 10:04 in the third, just 30 seconds after Colorado’s Matt Duchene had made it 2-1 with a wrist shot.
Craig Anderson recorded 43 saves for Colorado (10-2-2), who had their four-game winning streak broken.
Anderson, who has started all 14 games for the Avalanche, stopped the first 31 shots he faced. Signed in the offseason after playing in Florida, he has been key to his team’s ascent to the top record in the Western Conference.
“He gave us a chance to win the game when we probably shouldn’t have been in it,” Colorado coach Joe Sacco told reporters. “Give San Jose credit. They played us like we were the first-place team in the Western Conference.”
San Jose out-shot Colorado 46-25 and avenged a 5-2 opening-night road loss.
PANTHERS 6, STARS 5
Steven Reinprecht scored a natural hat trick in a 5:11 span of the first period and Rostislav Olesz scored in the second round of a shootout to give the Florida Panthers a 6-5 victory over the Dallas Stars on Friday.
Dallas rallied to send the game to overtime and the shootout, where Olesz was the only successful shooter when his attempt caromed off the goal post and behind Alex Auld. A video review confirmed that the puck crossed the goal line.
Olesz and Jordan Leopold also scored in regulation for the Panthers. Nathan Horton assisted on all three of Reinprecht’s goals.
Reinprecht has five career hat tricks.
Brian Sutherby, Stephane Robidas, Mike Ribeiro, James Neal and Fabian Brunnstrom scored for the Stars in coach Marc Crawford’s 1,000th NHL game.
PENGUINS 4, BLUE JACKETS 3, SO
At Columbus, Ohio, Pittsburgh scored twice in the final 3 minutes of regulation to tie it and Sidney Crosby had the only goal in the shootout for a win over the hosts.
Brent Johnson stopped 29 shots before the shootout, then stymied Antoine Vermette, Rick Nash and Kristian Huselius in the tiebreaker.
The Penguins are a perfect 6-0 on the road, their best start ever away from home.
Ruslan Fedotenko and Alex Goligoski scored late goals in a 39-second span to tie it.
ISLANDERS 4, CAPITALS 3, OT
At Washington, Mark Streit scored 53 seconds into overtime to give New York its second straight victory and third of the season.
Frans Nielsen scored twice and Kyle Okposo added a goal to help end Washington’s winning streak at six.
In other NHL action, it was:
• Sabres 3, Maple Leafs 2, OT
• Ducks 7, Canucks 2
• Wild 3, Rangers 2
• Blackhawks 3, Canadiens 2
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