Marian Gaborik scored his fourth goal in four games as the Minnesota Wild beat Phoenix 3-1 on Wednesday night, handing goalie Ilya Bryzgalov his first loss in five games with the Coyotes.
Gaborik, who leads the Wild with nine goals, took advantage of Steven Reinprecht's turnover at the blue line to beat Bryzgalov on a breakaway in the second period.
James Sheppard and Stephane Veilleux also scored for the Wild.
Radim Vrbata scored his team-leading ninth goal for Phoenix.
Bryzgalov finished with 25 saves.
Blues 4, Sabres 3
At Buffalo, New York, Brad Boyes broke a tie with 58 seconds left, and Manny Legace made 20 saves in St. Louis' victory over Buffalo.
Mike Johnson and Paul Kariya each had a goal and assist, Martin Rucinsky also scored, and Boyes added an assist for St. Louis. The Blues have won three straight and seven of their last eight games.
Jason Pominville, Ales Kotalik and Andrej Sekera scored for Buffalo. The loss snapped the Sabres' winning streak at five.
The Sabres are winless in their last 11 games against St. Louis.
Islanders 3, Senators 2, SO
At Uniondale, New York, Mike Sillinger scored the go-ahead goal in the third period and then added the winner in the shootout to help New York snap an eight-game losing streak against Ottawa.
New York led 2-1 after the teams traded goals early in the third, but the Senators appeared set to continue their dominance over the Islanders when defenseman Andrej Meszaros scored his second of the game with 1:55 left in regulation.
Rick DiPietro sealed New York's first shootout win of the season when he gloved Dean McAmmond's drive in the sixth round of the tiebreaker. The Islanders got even at 1 in the shootout when captain Bill Guerin scored on their last regulation attempt.
In other games, it was: Devils 4, Stars 2; Panthers 2, Capitals 1, SO; Flyers 3, Hurricanes 1; Blackhawks 5, Lightning 1; Kings 3, Sharks 2, SO.
A recent bench-clearing hockey brawl involving eight-year-old boys has provoked an uproar in Canada, and may lead to charges against a coach accused of fueling the melee, police said on Wednesday.
"We were called to a local rink [in Guelph, Ontario] last Friday after the players all started fighting on the ice," Guelph Police Service Sergeant Cate Welsh said.
"Now, we're considering charges against a coach of one of the teams who was involved ... for allegedly spitting on the opposing team's coach," she said.
One assistant coach has already resigned amid a public outcry over the rumble, and the Ontario Minor Hockey Association suspended the coaching staffs of both teams until it concludes its own investigation.
Newspapers nationwide meanwhile described the violence as "obscene," "shocking," "borderline child abuse" and "a low point in Canadian sports."
Last Friday, boys barely 137cm tall with their skates on and weighing an average 27kg jumped from their respective benches to fight each other at the end of a match.
According to reports, their coaches purportedly encouraged them, going as far as opening the gates at their respective benches when some players started pushing each other around on the ice.
The Niagara Falls Thunder Novice AAA had just been defeated 8-1 by the Toronto-area Duffield Devils in a tournament in Guelph.
By police accounts, based on interviews with parents and arena staff, the game had been rough from the start, with players taking cheap shots at each other.
Then, when the final buzzer sounded, a "donnybrook," the likes of which has not been seen in the National Hockey League since the heady 1970s and 1980s, erupted with dozens of young boys skating onto the ice to join the melee.
Given their diminutive size and strength at that age, and protective gear, however, no one was injured.
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