Colin Wilson scored the tiebreaking goal on a tic-tac-toe play with 3 minutes, 27 seconds left, leading Nashville to a 3-1 victory over the New Jersey Devils on Saturday for the Predators’ fifth straight win.
Craig Smith added an insurance goal when he swatted a shot between Cory Schneider’s legs with 2 minutes 21 seconds left.
Matt Cullen gave Nashville a 1-0 lead in the first period before Steve Bernier’s power-play goal late in the second period tied it up for New Jersey.
Pekka Rinne stopped 21 shots for the Predators, who lead the NHL with 82 points and improved to 24-3-1 at home. Rinne, 14-1-1 in his last 16 games, leads the NHL with 33 wins.
The Devils lost their fourth straight.
RANGERS 5, COYOTES 1
Rick Nash scored his NHL-best 35th goal early in a four-goal third period, and New York gave coach Alain Vigneault his 500th career win.
Cam Talbot made 34 saves, including on Tobias Rieder’s third-period penalty shot, in the Rangers’ third straight win.
Vigneault became the 21st coach in league history to reach the milestone, coming in his second season with the Rangers.
Chris Kreider, Marc Staal and Lee Stempniak also scored for the Rangers and Kevin Hayes added a short-handed goal.
Antoine Vermette scored for the Coyotes, while Mike Smith made 28 saves in Arizona’s seventh straight home loss.
JETS 5, RED WINGS 4, SO
Drew Stafford scored the only shootout goal to lift Winnipeg past Detroit.
Stafford’s wrister got past Detroit’s Jimmy Howard in the fourth round of the tiebreaker and Michael Hutchinson stopped Stephen Weiss on the ensuing attempt to seal the win.
Howard, who missed 11 games with a partially torn groin muscle, made 34 saves for Detroit in his first start since Jan. 6. The Jets’ Hutchinson made 25 saves.
Ladd also had a regulation goal for Winnipeg, who improved to 14-6-4 against Eastern Conference teams this season. Pavel Datsyuk had two goals for Detroit.
The loss ended Detroit’s six-game home winning streak.
CANADIENS 2, MAPLE LEAFS 1, SO
Alex Galchenyuk and David Desharnais scored in the shootout to lift Montreal.
Brendan Gallagher scored in regulation and Carey Price made 28 saves for the Canadiens, who have earned points in five straight games.
Daniel Winnik scored for Toronto, who are 0-11-2 in their last 13 road games. Jonathan Bernier stopped 32 shots through regulation and extra-time.
The Leafs took a first-period lead for the first time in seven games when Winnik was left alone in the right circle and beat Price on 11 minutes, 19 seconds.
Toronto’s advantage lasted only 41 seconds, as the Canadiens tied it on a power play when Gallagher reached into the crease to put in Tomas Plekanec’s pass.
In other games it was:
‧ Wild 6, Hurricanes 3
‧ Senators 7, Oilers 2
‧ Islanders 6, Blue Jackets 3
‧ Kings 3, Capitals 1
‧ Flames 3, Canucks 2
‧ Avalanche 4, Stars 1
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