NHL-Highlights of Tuesday's National Hockey League games

March 25 (The Sports Xchange) - Highlights of Tuesday's National Hockey League games. - - - Blues 5, Maple Leafs 3 St. Louis right winger David Backes had a hat trick and T.J. Oshie had a goal and an assist as the Blues defeated the Toronto Maple Leafs to take over the lead in the President's Trophy race. The win moved St. Louis (49-16-7) one point ahead of the Boston Bruins. The Blues had their 4-1 lead trimmed to just one in the third before Backes' final goal sealed it. Alexander Steen also had his 31st goal of the season for St. Louis. Goaltender Jonathan Bernier, who was making his first start after missing five games with a groin injury, made 45 saves for Toronto (36-30-8), who lost their sixth straight and seventh in eight games. - - - Sharks 5, Oilers 2 Joe Pavelski scored a hat-trick to lead the San Jose Sharks past the Edmonton Oilers. San Jose scored three goals in the second period to pull away for good in improving its record to 47-18-9 on the season. The Sharks, in a dogfight with St. Louis for first place and home ice through the Western Conference playoffs, remained two points behind the Blues. Taylor Hall and David Perron scored for the Oliers (25-39-9). - - - Kings 5, Capitals 4 (shootout) The Kings stepped on the accelerator with three third-period goals and survived a late goal by Washington Capitals rookie Evgeny Kuznetsov to pull out a victory. Dwight King, Marian Gaborik and Dustin Brown scored in the third period for Los Angeles, and centers Anze Kopitar and Jeff Carter scored the only goals in the shootout. The Kings (42-25-6) solidified their hold on third place in the Pacific Division, while the shootout loss left the Capitals (34-27-12) within one point of a wild-card spot in the jumbled Eastern Conference standings. Alex Ovechkin scored twice for Washington to bring his NHL-leading total to 48. - - - Blackhawks 4, Stars 2 Marian Hossa scored into the empty net in the third period to seal the Chicago Blackhawks' win over the Dallas Stars. Hossa's 26th goal of the season helped the Blackhawks (42-16-15) remain three points ahead of the Colorado Avalanche for second place in the Central Division. Ryan Garbutt scored twice for the Stars (34-27-11), who are three points out of a playoff spot. - - - Avalanche 5, Predators 4 (SO) Gabriel Landeskog scored two goals and tacked on the game-winner in a shootout as Colorado rallied for a win over the Nashville Predators. The Avalanche (45-21-6) snapped a three-game losing streak, while Nashville (31-31-11) suffered their sixth straight home defeat. The Predators got two goals apiece from Roman Josi and Matt Cullen. - - - Coyotes 3, Penguins 2 Goaltender Thomas Greiss did solid work filling in for injured Mike Smith and left winger Mikkel Boedker scored the winning goal and added an assist as the Phoenix Coyotes beat the Pittsburgh Penguins. Greiss made 24 saves for the Coyotes (35-26-1), who moved three points clear of the Dallas Stars for the second and final wild-card spot in the Western Conference. Boedker put the Coyotes up 3-2 at 13:18 of the second period. Pittsburgh (46-21-5) played without center Evgeni Malkin, who will miss two to three weeks with a foot injury. - - - Islanders 5, Hurricanes 4 Colin McDonald scored two of the New York Islanders' four goals in the first 11 minutes in a victory over the Carolina Hurricanes. Offense was free flowing at times in the matchup between the two bottom teams in the Metropolitan Division. Matt Martin also had two goals and right winger Cal Clutterbuck added a goal for the Islanders (28-35-9), while Alexander Semin and Jeff Skinner scored goal numbers 22 and 27 respectively for Carolina (31-32-9). - - - Canadiens 2, Sabres 0 Goaltender Carey Price made 24 saves for his fifth shutout, and left winger Max Pacioretty scored his 100th regular season goal 10:53 into the third period to send the Canadiens to a win over the Buffalo Sabres on Tuesday night. Pacioretty's score was his 32nd of the season and Canadiens center Daniel Briere made it a two-goal lead as Montreal (41-26-7) moved into second place in the Atlantic Division with 89 points, two ahead of Tampa Bay. Buffalo (20-44-8) has one win in its last 10 games. - - - Blue Jackets 4, Red Wings 2 Ryan Johansen and Brandon Dubinsky scored power play goals and right winger Cam Atkinson added the winner early in the third period, leading the Blue Jackets to a victory over the Detroit Red Wings. Johansen also scored an empty-net goal with 5.4 seconds remaining to cap the scoring for Columbus (37-29-6) who is tied in the Eastern Conference at 80 points with Detroit, Washington and Toronto for spots 7-10. The Red Wings (33-25-14) got two more goals from center Gustav Nyquist, who has nine in his last six games. - - - Panthers 3, Senators 2 (SO) Vincent Trocheck and Brandon Pirri scored in the shootout as the Florida Panthers snapped a three-game losing streak, defeating the Ottawa Senators. Roberto Luongo, who made 39 saves through overtime, got the win for Florida (27-38-8). Senators backup goalie Robin Lehner, who made 37 saves, took the loss for Ottawa (29-29-14), which has lost seven of its past eight games. (Editing by Peter Rutherford; )