The New York Rangers took over top spot in the Eastern Conference with a 3-0 win over the Islanders in New York on Monday.
The Rangers returned from a two-day break to defeat their cross-town rivals and win their fifth game in a row, moving a point ahead of Boston atop the East.
Rangers goaltender Henrik Lundqvist made 28 saves for the shutout, while his Islanders counterpart Evgeni Nabokov also stopped 28 shots in the losing effort.
Photo: AFP
Carl Hagelin put the Rangers (22-8-4) ahead early in the second period then made it 2-0 early in the third.
Marian Gaborik netted his league-leading 22nd goal of the season late in the third period to send the Islanders (11-17-6) to their third consecutive defeat.
Blues 5, Stars 3
St Louis’ Adam Cracknell justified his recall from the minors earlier in the day by scoring the go-ahead goal as the Blues beat the Dallas Stars 5-3 in St Louis, Missouri, on Monday.
St Louis, which won their sixth successive home game, scored two rare power-play goals and improved to 7-1-1 in their past nine. The Blues have thrived under coach Ken Hitchcock, who took over on Nov. 6 after Davis Payne was fired.
Chris Stewart scored twice for St Louis, including an empty-net goal with 50 seconds left. Evgeny Grachev, Chris Stewart and Jason Arnott also scored for the Blues, who had lost their previous five against Dallas.
Mike Ribeiro, Eric Nystrom and Michael Ryder scored for the Stars.
RED WINGS 4, PREDATORS 1
In Nashville, Tennessee, Valtteri Filppula scored a pair of goals to lead Detroit over Nashville.
Pavel Datsyuk and Danny Cleary also scored for the Red Wings, who netted twice in a span of 13 seconds during the second period.
Jonathon Blum scored for sole goal for the Predators, who slipped five points behind Detroit in the Central Division.
AVALANCHE 4, WILD 2
In St Paul, Minnesota, Jan Hejda scored the go-ahead goal in the third period as Colorado snapped a nine-game road losing skid by beating Minnesota.
The Avalanche won on the road for the first time since October and extended Minnesota’s winless streak to seven games.
Ryan O’Reilly, Gabriel Landeskog and T.J. Galiardi also scored for Colorado.
Pierre-Marc Bouchard and Cal Clutterbuck scored for the Wild.
CANUCKS 5, OILERS 3
In Vancouver, Andrew Ebbett scored twice to lead Vancouver over Edmonton.
Daniel Sedin, Alex Burrows and Ryan Kesler also scored for Vancouver, which moved ahead of Minnesota for the Northwest Division lead.
Jordan Eberle, Ryan Smyth and Corey Potter scored for the Oilers.
Vancouver outshot the Oilers 26-21 overall and dominated a weary-looking Edmonton team in the first period, limiting the Oilers to only two shots in the first 14 minutes, 30 seconds of the game.
KINGS 4, COYOTES 3
In Los Angeles, Willie Mitchell scored the tiebreaking goal early in the third period as the Los Angeles broke an offensive slump to edge Phoenix.
Rob Scuderi, Brad Richardson and captain Dustin Brown also scored for the Kings, who scored more than twice for the first time in 15 games.
Raffi Torres scored twice and Daymond Langkow added a third-period goal for the Coyotes.
In other NHL play, it was:
‧ Sabres 4, Capitals 2
‧ Blackhawks 4 Blue Jackets 1
‧ Hurricanes 4, Devils 2
‧ Ducks 3, Sharks 2
A sumo star was born in Japan on Sunday when 24-year-old Takerufuji became the first wrestler in 110 years to win a top-division tournament on his debut, triumphing at the 15-day Spring Grand Sumo Tournament in Osaka despite injuring his ankle on the penultimate day. Takerufuji, whose injury had left him in a wheelchair outside the ring, shoved out the higher-ranked Gonoyama at the Edion Arena Osaka to the delight of the crowd, giving him an unassailable record of 13 wins and two losses to claim the Emperor’s Cup. “I did it just through willpower. I didn’t really know what was going
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