Steve Mason's shutout streak is over. His winning streak, however, is alive and well — and so are the Columbus Blue Jackets.

Mason allowed a goal for the first time in four games, but made 23 saves to extend his -- and his team's -- winning streak to four. Kristian Huselius had two goals and Rick Nash scored on a penalty shot and added three assists in a 6-1 victory over the Colorado Avalanche on Friday night.

Darcy Tucker's goal at 17:20 of the first period ended Mason's shutout streak at 199 minutes, 19 seconds. But the NHL's Rookie of the Month for December was flawless the rest of the way as Columbus won for the second time this season at the Pepsi Center — a building in which the Blue Jackets had been 1-12-1 before this season.

"Probably should've had it," Mason said of Tucker's goal after allowing two goals or fewer for the 10th time in his last 11 starts. "It went through a couple of guys, and I didn't get the greatest push across."

The Jackets didn't let the demise of the streak bother them.

"In some sense, it was kind of nice, a huge weight is off everyone's shoulders," Nash said. "He's been amazing."

Huselius tied the game 2:28 into the second period by finishing off a perfect pass from Nash. The Columbus captain then scored the go-ahead goal at 12:33 when he beat Peter Budaj on a penalty shot that was awarded after he was hooked from behind by Brett Clark as he started on a breakaway.

Avs coach Tony Granato, whose team had won three in a row, said his team fell apart after Nash's goal.

"I thought the first 20 minutes went really well — we got the start we were looking for," he said. "After the penalty shot and capitalized on that, we stopped skating. They didn't stop."

The Jackets, meanwhile, kept picking up their game.

"We needed to change the way we were playing after the first period. We weren't prepared for the competitive level of the game at the start. But we adjusted. I thought we really went after it and played our game in the second and third periods," coach Ken Hitchcock said.



Huselius made it 3-1 at 16:10, finishing off a tic-tac-toe passing play by dunking Nash's feed behind a helpless Budaj. Mike Commodore, Jakub Voracek and R.J. Umberger added third-period goals that sent the Avs off the ice at the final buzzer to a chorus of boos.

"They played well. They competed, which we didn't do," said Colorado forward Ian Laperriere, who set up Tucker's goal. "We stopped moving our feet. We just watched them play. They played as a team, worked hard for 60 minutes. That's what we need to do."

The Blue Jackets have never made the playoffs since entering the NHL in 2001. They're now 3-0 on a six-game road trip and have the postseason squarely in their sights.

"We have to keep going," Nash said. "This has been a tough place for us to come in and win, and we've done it twice now. Going into L.A. and going into Anaheim — those were two tough buildings. Hopefully, we can do it again tomorrow night."

Thrashers 4, Canucks 3 (SO) | Video

Atlanta got the new year off to a positive start when Erik Christensen scored in the fourth round of the shootout and Kari Lehtonen stopped Daniel Sedin to give the Thrashers their first win in six tries against a Western Conference team.

Atlanta's Slava Kozlov and Vancouver's Pavol Demitra scored in the first three rounds of the shootout to force an extra round. Christensen beat Canucks goalie Jason LaBarbera on his chance and Lehtonen made that stand up by stopping Sedin, handing Vancouver its fourth loss in five shootouts.

Christensen, who has struggled to score during games, is one of the NHL's best at shootouts — though he doesn't know why.

"I don't know what it is with a shootout," Christensen said. "I'm always calm, which is different than during the game."

Atlanta snapped a four-game losing streak

"This is a game we can build on," Lehtonen said. "We played well in the third (period). It's too bad they were able to tie the game."

The Thrashers climbed out of last in the Southeast Division, and certainly didn't look like a cellar-dweller against the Canucks.

"There are no easy games in this league," Vancouver coach Alain Vigneault said. "We had lots of good chances, but weren't able to put them away."

Kozlov broke a 2-2 tie when he banged in a power-play rebound 3:46 into the third period. Vancouver tied it with 8:44 left when Daniel Sedin fought off Marty Reasoner in front and tipped twin brother Henrik's shot past Lehtonen for his 19th goal.

It was the third tie of the night in a game that saw neither team lead by more than one goal.

Joey Crabb put Atlanta ahead at the 9-minute mark of the first period when he scored on a shorthanded breakaway. But Henrik Sedin tied it 86 seconds later, tapping in a rebound for a power-play goal.

Henrik Sedin got his second of the night 7:14 into the second period by jamming the puck past Lehtonen. The 2-1 lead lasted until 12:24, when Ilya Kovalchuk ripped Jason Williams' passout behind LaBarbera.

"We probably should have won the game before the shootout," Daniel Sedin said.

Coyotes 5, Islanders 4 | Video

The Islanders got the milestones. However, the Coyotes left Jobing.com Arena with two points as five players scored and Phoenix held off a late comeback.

Isles center Doug Weight became the 73rd player — and only the eighth American — to reach 1,000 career points when he set up Richard Park's goal at 16:54 of the third period. He added another assist when Park scored again with 28 seconds left, but the Islanders ran out of time.

"The highlight of the game was getting Weight his 1,000th point," Islanders coach Scott Gordon said. "We’re all happy for him. I’m sure he’s excited and relieved it’s over. It’s quite a milestone. When he got to the bench, I just congratulated him. It’s a select crowd that gets in there."

Weight's wife is from Phoenix, and there were about 30 family and friends in the crowd.

"It was unbelieveable for the team to stand up and give me a hand, and the crowd too," he said. "The U.S. has a lot of U.S. hockey fans -- and me being an American, it's nice to do it on this soil. It wwas a nice hand I got, and I appreciate it."

Earlier in the period, Josh Bailey, the Isles' first-round pick in the Entry Draft last June, snapped a shot past Mikael Tellqvist for his first NHL goal.

"We're thrilled he's able to get his first," Gordon said. "He deserved it tonight because he had several opportunities. He should have had it earlier. Josh skated well with and without the puck. That's why he had more chances tonight."

The Coyotes have become one of the NHL's best home teams, and they're becoming more confident with every victory at Jobing.com Arena — a nice feeling for a team that has always seemed to struggle to win at home.

"It seems like we just have a better mindset at home this season, Coyotes coach Wayne Gretzky said after his team improved to 13-5-2. "Players are obviously much more comfortable at home and playing really strong in this building. The atmosphere is really solid. It's enjoyable to come to the rink here."

Isles starting goaltender Rick DiPietro played only his fifth game of the season; he returned after missing three games with a groin injury following his return last Friday from knee surgery. DiPietro looked rusty, allowing five goals on 33 shots — though he didn’t get a lot of help from his defense, either.

Zybnek Michalek broke a 1-1 tie with 10 seconds left in the first period when he hammered a shot from the high slot through a screen and past DiPietro during a delayed penalty.

"I’ve been working hard the whole year," said Michalek, who leads the NHL in blocked shots with 135. "It's always good to get rewarded offensively too. Lately, I have been getting some opportunities on the power play and trying to take advantage of it."

Shane Doan made it 3-1 at 15:05 of the second period by wristing a shot between the legs of Tim Jackman and over DiPietro's catching glove.

Olli Jokinen added to the lead 3:10 into the third period when he grabbed a rebound, split the defense and easily beat DiPietro. Bailey's goal 31 seconds later made it 4-2, but Joakim Lindstrom picked up a misplayed puck at the blue line and beat DiPietro on a breakaway at 13:33.

Hurricanes 2, Blues 1 | Video

The Hurricanes' revival under Paul Maurice continues. Carolina won for the sixth time in nine games as Cam Ward made 30 saves to make goals by Eric Staal and Anton Babchuk stand up.

The 'Canes have points in 10 of 14 games since Maurice replaced Peter Laviolette behind the bench. Meanwhile, the Blues have lost seven in a row on the road and dropped to the bottom of the Western Conference.

Staal opened the scoring 5:26 into the game when he hammered a pass from Tuomo Ruutu past Chris Mason from point-blank range for his team-high 18th goal. Babchuk gave Carolina a 2-0 lead when he scored on a power-play wrist shot at 11:05 of the third period, but 51 seconds later, David Backes made it a one-goal game when he scored on a wraparound — the first goal allowed by Ward in a span of 41 shots on net.

"It looked like they made a note to throw everything at the net and they definitely came out firing in that third period," said Ward, who is now four wins shy of 100 for his career. "But one of the things our team has really improved on is we’re not panicking when things like that happen to us, we didn’t force anything."


Backes felt the Blues didn't get generate much offense until the final period.

"I think for the first two periods, we didn't match their work ethic," he said. "We finally got rolling in the third. They take advantage of a couple of power-play opportunities, we don’t do a lot on the power play, and special teams — if you're not taking advantage of them, they'll kill you all the time.

Maurice said Ward has had to go through an adjustment period the last month of not facing as much rubber as he was seeing earlier in the season.

"He has to now get used to seeing (20) shots instead of the 30-40-shot games to where he’s just in a rhythm, on a roll," Maurice said. "He’s going to be sitting cold for awhile and do nothing and then all of the sudden there’s a big save. That’s what Martin Brodeur has done so well all those years. (Cam) made two or three really big saves there, and that was the difference."

Ward is now 3-0 against the Blues and has allowed just three goals in the three victories.

"We don’t see those guys very often, but when you do play them I’ve got some friends on the other team, so you try to play your best," he said.

Flyers 5, Ducks 4 (OT) | Video

The largest crowd in Honda Center history got all the excitement they could have asked for but not the victory most of them wanted when Mike Richards scored the only goal of the shootout, capping a night of comebacks for the Flyers.

"I think this was the most intense game that we’ve played in a while," Ducks coach Randy Carlyle said after his team lost for the sixth time in seven games. "It was a good hockey game. From our side, we’re taking a positive spin on it because we worked hard."

The crowd of 17,597, topping the previous record set against Los Angeles on March 21, 1995, saw Anaheim take leads of 3-1 and 4-3 in the second period. But the Ducks were unable to hang on, with Mike Knuble tying the game at 4-4 with 60 seconds left in the second period, just 14 seconds after Ryan Getzlaf had put the Ducks back in front with a power-play goal.

The scoreless third period featured five power plays — four awarded to Philadelphia — but no goals, as the Ducks' penalty killers shut down the Flyers' fourth-ranked power play.

Richards, shooting last in the second round of the shootout, beat Jean-Sebastien Giguere up high. Martin Biron, who had stopped Corey Perry and Bobby Ryan in the first two rounds, then watched Getzlaf miss way wide for the victory, handing the Ducks their third consecutive home loss.

"We got behind the eight-ball early in the season, but we showed the type of resilience we have as a team," Richards said after the Flyers tied the New York Rangers for first place in the Atlantic Division with 49 points. "We get behind early tonight, and it doesn't faze us."

The Flyers started the season 0-3-3 and have been as many as 12 points behind the Rangers.

"It's been a long hill to climb," coach John Stevens said. "It doesn't get any easier to stay there."

Philadelphia opened the scoring 13:53 into the game when Richards won a draw and fed Ossi Vaananen, who beat Giguere inside the far post with a slap shot. Perry's wraparound with 35 seconds left in the period tied the score.

Rob Niedermayer put the Ducks ahead 32 seconds into the second period, beating Biron with a wrist shot from the right circle. Rookie Andrew Ebbett, playing on his 26th birthday, made it 3-1 at 6:16 with his first NHL goal, a power-play redirection of Chris Pronger's shot.

"I got my stick on it and tipped it in," said Ebbett, who was playing in his sixth NHL game. "It was pretty exciting and a good feeling to get that over with. Now I don't have to worry about that first one anymore."

But the cheers from that goal hadn't even died down before the Flyers cut the margin to one when Josh Gratton fired a loose puck past Giguere at 6:32.

Braydon Coburn got the Flyers even at 17:41 when he punched home a rebound for a power-play goal.

"You score four goals, you should win the hockey game," Carlyle said. "But we lost a point. We didn’t lose the hockey game. We’ll just move on. If we can bottle this intensity, this emotion, this energy and continue to play at this level, then we’ll make some great strides."

Stevens was pleased with his team's resilience.

"We got down, and it was really key that we got right back in the game," he said. "At the end of the day, we got two points from a good Western Conference team. I don't mind giving up one point."

Material from wire services and team online and broadcast media was used in this report.