NHL-Highlights of Thursday's National Hockey League games

Oct 24 (The Sports Xchange) - Highlights of Thursday's National Hockey League games. - - - Bruins 2, Sharks 1 David Krejci deflected the game-winning goal past San Jose goaltender Antti Niemi with 0.8 seconds remaining, leading the Boston Bruins to a 2-1 victory over the Sharks, who were the league's last remaining unbeaten team in regulation. Jarome Iginla finally scored his first goal in a Boston uniform, and Tuukka Rask stopped 38 shots for the Bruins, who won their fourth consecutive game and first at home against the Sharks since Dec. 23, 2002. San Jose (8-1-1), who entered the game leading the league in points (17) and goals (39), appeared to be on the verge of stretching their streak of not losing in regulation to 10 games. Despite being outshot 39-17, the Bruins (7-2-0) put a stunning end to that. Milan Lucic carried the puck into the right corner before sending a pass back to the blue line to Adam McQuaid, whose desperation flick toward the crease deflected off Krejci's stick and through the legs of Niemi. - - - Lightning 6, Blackhawks 5 (overtime) Martin St. Louis scored the game-winning goal 1:16 into overtime to lift the Tampa Bay Lighting to a 6-5 victory over the Chicago Blackhawks. St. Louis' goal came after Chicago goaltender Nikolai Khabibulin failed to control a rebound that ended up on St. Louis' stick and he slammed home the winner. Steven Stamkos scored two goals and added two assists, including a goal with 2:29 remaining in regulation that put the Lightning ahead 5-4. Tampa Bay moved to 6-3-0 while Chicago fell to 6-1-3. - - - Canucks 3, Devils 2 (shootout) Mike Santorelli scored in the first round of the shootout to give the Vancouver Canucks a 3-2 victory over the New Jersey Devils. Daniel Sedin and Ryan Kesler scored in regulation for the Canucks while Patrik Elias and Eric Gelinas had goals for the Devils. Roberto Luongo made 28 saves for the Canucks, including 17 in the third period. The win pushed Vancouver to 7-4-1 on the year while the Devils dropped to 1-5-4. - - - Canadiens 4, Ducks 1 Tomas Plekanec had a goal and two assists and Carey Price made 31 saves to lead the Montreal Canadiens to a 4-1 win over the Anaheim Ducks. Michael Bournival and Brian Gionta each had a goal and an assist and Rene Bourque scored Montreal's second power-play goal of the game in the third. Gionta scored on a two-man advantage midway through the second to put Montreal up 3-0 after Bournival and Plekanec scored in the first. Patrick Maroon ruined Price's shutout bid at 8:58 of the third with his first goal of the season. Montreal improved to 6-4-0 while the Ducks dropped to 7-3-0. - - - Wild 3, Hurricanes 1 The Minnesota Wild took advantage of uncertainty in their opponents' net, scoring twice on Carolina Hurricanes backup goalie Justin Peters in a 3-1 victory. Nino Neiderreiter and Zach Parise scored first-period goals for Minnesota, who won their second consecutive game, cooling off the Hurricanes who entered with back-to-back road wins. The Hurricanes had an unexpected goalie change just over four minutes into the game as starter Cam Ward suffered a lower-body injury. Ward will be out three to four weeks, and the Hurricanes are recalling Mike Murphy from their AHL affiliate in Charlotte. The Wild are now 5-3-3 while the Hurricanes dropped to 4-3-3. - - - Predators 3, Jets 2 (overtime) In his first start since Pekka Rinne was diagnosed with a spontaneous bacterial infection in his surgically repaired hip, goalkeeper Carter Hutton kicked out 34 of 36 shots as Nashville posted a 3-2 overtime win over the Winnipeg Jets. Craig Smith's one-timer from the left faceoff circle at 4:43 of overtime was the winning tally as the Predators improved to 6-4-1. Playing just their third road match this season, the Jets dropped to 4-6-1 with their third straight loss. Rinne will miss a month with the infection with Hutton, who was signed as a free agent from Chicago on July 5, was playing in just his fourth NHL game. - - - Flyers 2, Rangers 1 Braydon Coburn scored the tiebreaking goal three and a half minutes into the third period to lift the Philadelphia Flyers to a 2-1 victory over the New York Rangers. Back on the ice following a season-high six-day break, the Flyers snapped a four-game losing streak with only their second win in nine games (2-7-0) to start the season. Matt Read also scored for Philadelphia and goaltender Steve Mason notched up 30 saves. Brad Richards had New York's goal who are now 2-6-0. - - - Stars 5, Flames 1 The Dallas Stars erupted with three goals within 1:01 in the second period on the way to a 5-1 win over the Calgary Flames. Captain Jamie Benn scored twice and rookie Alex Chiasson added two goals and an assist for Dallas, who also got a 28-save performance from goaltender Kari Lehtonen. Dallas improved to 4-5-0 while the Flames dropped to 4-4-2. - - - Capitals 4, Oilers 1 The Washington Capitals claimed a rare win in Edmonton, taking down the Oilers 4-1. The Capitals were 1-8 in their previous nine visits to Edmonton but were in control for most of the contest to improve to 5-5-0. The Oilers, back home after a six-game Eastern swing, were 1-13 over the last two years in their first game back in Edmonton after a road trip, and added another loss to the list. Edmonton (3-7-1) started strongly and a few times came close to scoring first but the Capitals jumped on top after a botched faceoff in Edmonton's end and were on their way. Oilers center Ryan Nugent-Hopkins won the draw, but Edmonton's Nail Yakupov and Jeff Petry let Washington's Marcus Johansson get to the puck first. A split second later, it was on Alex Ovechkin's stick, and a split second after that, it was behind Devan Dubnyk for the only goal of the first frame. - - - Kings 7, Coyotes 4 Los Angeles winger Dwight King scored a hat-trick as the Kings staved off a furious Phoenix Coyotes comeback to win 7-4. Center Anze Kopitar gave the Kings a quick lead when he scored his first goal of the season on a power play just 42 seconds into the game and his team mates continued the barrage, leading 4-0 into the first break. The Los Angeles barrage ended Phoenix goalkeeper Mike Smith's night as he was replaced by backup Thomas Griess. But the Coyotes (6-3-2) halved the margin in the middle period and tied things up early in the third. The Kings regained control, however, finishing with the final three goals to improve to 7-4-0. (Editing by Peter Rutherford)