Antti Niemi on Monday night stopped 30 shots in relief as the Dallas Stars scored four straight goals to beat the Minnesota Wild 6-3.
Vernon Fiddler scored twice for Dallas, who have won five of seven and are 8-2-2 in their past 12 games. Jordie Benn, Tyler Seguin, Antoine Roussel and Cody Eakin also had goals.
Jared Spurgeon, Charlie Coyle and Nino Niederreiter scored for Minnesota, who lost their second in a row after getting points in nine straight.
Photo: AFP
Trailing 2-0, and with Niemi having replaced Kari Lehtonen in the first period, Dallas scored three times in four-and-a-half minutes late in the second to take the lead.
PREDATORS 5, CANADIENS 1
In Nashville, Tennessee, Pekka Rinne made 35 saves for Nashville and Shea Weber had a goal and two assists.
Roman Josi and Calle Jarnkrok each added a goal and an assist. Colin Wilson scored into an empty net and had two assists as Nashville won their second straight, something the Predators had not done since Nov. 14 and Nov. 17.
Alex Galchenyuk scored a power-play goal for Montreal, who lost their fourth straight.
Montreal coach Michel Therrien changed goalies, inserting Mike Condon for Dustin Tokarski after Ryan Ellis’ goal in the third period put Nashville up 3-0 on 14 shots.
PENGUINS 5, BLUE JACKETS 2
In Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Evgeni Malkin and Phil Kessel each scored two goals as Pittsburgh ended a five-game losing streak.
David Warsofsky got his first goal in nearly two years as the Penguins gave coach Mike Sullivan his first victory following an 0-4 start.
Matt Murray stopped 22 shots for his first NHL win. The Penguins played without captain Sidney Crosby, who missed his first game of the season with a lower-body injury.
Alexander Wenneberg’s third goal gave Columbus an early lead, but Pittsburgh responded with four in the second to match the total it put up in Sullivan’s first four games combined. Boone Jenner added his 13th for the Blue Jackets.
CAPITALS 2, HURRICANES 1
In Raleigh, North Carolina, Jason Chimera and Michael Latta scored as Washington beat Carolina for their sixth straight win.
Phillipp Grubauer made 31 saves for the Eastern Conference-leading Capitals. They improved to 12-3-1 on the road and enter the holiday break with their second six-game winning streak of the season.
Kris Versteeg scored with 17 minutes, 42 seconds remaining and Cam Ward made 19 stops for Carolina, who had earned points in six of eight games while scoring 28 goals in that span.
Versteeg got the Hurricanes within one goal when he took a puck off the back boards and tucked it inside the left post from between his legs.
MAPLE LEAFS 7, AVALANCHE 4
In Denver, Colorado, Tyler Bozak scored three times in the third period as Toronto broke loose for four goals in the final 20 minutes.
Leo Komarov had two goals and an assist for the Maple Leafs, and James van Riemsdyk added a goal and two assists. Joffrey Lupul scored one of three power-play goals that helped Toronto stop Colorado’s five-game winning streak.
Defenseman Jake Gardiner had four assists for the Maple Leafs, who are 4-0-2 in their past six games.
Jack Skille scored twice for Colorado. Semyon Varlamov allowed six goals on 21 shots.
OILERS 3, JETS 1
In Edmonton, Alberta, Cam Talbot made 44 saves and Teddy Purcell had two goals and an assist as Edmonton earned their seventh consecutive home win.
Justin Schultz also scored for the Oilers, who snapped a three-game skid.
Bryan Little had the goal for the Jets, who have lost three of four.
ISLANDERS 5, DUCKS 2
In New York, John Tavares had two primary assists 43 seconds apart in the first period to lead the Islanders to the victory.
Tavares’ assists on New York’s second and third goals were his first since a 3-1 win against Philadelphia on Nov. 25, a stretch of 12 games. During that span, he scored three goals.
New York snapped their three-game losing streak and improved to 19-11-5. The Islanders also passed the idle New York Rangers for second place in the Metropolitan Division.
Cal Clutterbuck, Travis Hamonic, Brock Nelson, Josh Bailey and Matt Martin scored for the Islanders.
Anaheim dropped to 12-15-5 with their third loss in five games. Carl Hagelin and Josh Manson scored for the NHL’s lowest-scoring team.
FLYERS 4, BLUES 3
In Philadelphia, Evgeny Medvedev scored on a wrist shot with 3 minutes, 13 seconds left, helping Philadelphia rally for the win.
Wayne Simmonds had a pair of goals and Chris VandeVelde also scored for Philadelphia, who enter a five-day Christmas break with eight wins in their past 12 games.
Robby Fabbri, Kevin Shattenkirk and Magnus Paajarvi scored for St Louis, who had won three straight.
Medvedev received a nice backhand pass from Ryan White and fired the puck high past Jake Allen on his blocker side.
Philadelphia came back from a 3-0 deficit to sweep the two-game season series with St Louis.
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