Radek Faksa and Jason Spezza scored 46 seconds apart in the second period as the Dallas Stars beat the Nashville Predators 5-2 on Tuesday night.
Dallas won for the fifth time in six games to keep pace with St Louis for the Western Conference lead. Each team has 101 points with five games to play.
Jamie Benn scored two goals for Dallas, while Kari Lehtonen made 27 saves. Patrick Sharp and Benn scored into an empty net during the final two minutes.
Photo: Jerome Miron-USA TODAY
Nashville lost for the second straight night, hurting their chances of catching Chicago for third in the loaded Central Division.
Ryan Ellis and Viktor Arvidsson scored for the Predators, while Pekka Rinne made 20 saves.
BLUES 3, AVALANCHE 1
Brian Elliott made 20 saves, while Vladimir Tarasenko scored his 36th goal to power St Louis to their fifth straight victory.
David Backes and Troy Brouwer also scored for the Blues, who are tied with Dallas atop the Central Division.
Colorado have lost three of four and trail Minnesota by five points in the battle for the last wild-card in the Western Conference. Both teams have five games left.
Elliott and Jake Allen had combined for four consecutive shutouts for St Louis going into the game.
Colorado center Mikhail Grigorenko ended the run by scoring late in the first period, breaking the club-record scoreless string at more than 258 minutes.
Colorado goaltender Semyon Varlamov made 24 saves.
WILD 4, BLACKHAWKS 1
Jared Spurgeon, Erik Haula and Nino Niederreiter scored in the third period as Minnesota stretched their season-long winning streak to six games.
Marian Hossa had the goal for Chicago, the 499th of his career. The Blackhawks played without their two top defensemen, because of an illness for Brent Seabrook and then an ugly first-period match penalty on Duncan Keith for swinging his stick at Charlie Coyle, a potentially costly mistake that could draw a multigame suspension from the NHL.
Jarret Stoll scored with the first on-target shot of the night for the Wild, who swept the five-game season series from the Blackhawks.
In other games, it was:
‧ Canadiens 4, Red Wings 3
‧ Sharks 4, Canucks 1
‧ Devils 2, Bruins 1
‧ Penguins 5, Sabres 4, SO
‧ Islanders 2, Hurricanes 1, SO
‧ Maple Leafs 5, Panthers 2
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