NHL Capsules

DALLAS - Radek Faksa and Jason Spezza scored 46 seconds apart in the second period, and 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, and Kari Lehtonen made 27 saves. Patrick Sharp and Benn scored into an empty net during the final two minutes.

Nashville lost for the second straight night, hurting its chances of catching Chicago for third in the loaded Central Division.

Ryan Ellis and Viktor Arvidsson scored for the Predators, and Pekka Rinne had 20 saves.

BLUES 3, AVALANCHE 1

ST. LOUIS (AP) — Brian Elliott made 20 saves and Vladimir Tarasenko scored his 36th goal to power St. Louis to its fifth straight victory.

David Backes and Troy Brouwer also scored for the Blues, who are tied with Dallas atop the Central Division.

Colorado has lost three of four and trails 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 coming into the night.

Colorado centre Mikhail Grigorenko ended the run by scoring late in the first period, snapping the franchise-record scoreless string at over 258 minutes.

Colorado goalie Semyon Varlamov made 24 saves.

WILD 4, BLACKHAWKS 1

ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — Jared Spurgeon, Erik Haula and Nino Niederreiter scored in the third period, and Minnesota stretched its season-long winning streak to six straight games.

Marian Hossa had the goal for Chicago, the 499th of his career. The Blackhawks played without their two top defencemen, 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.

CANADIENS 4, RED WINGS 3

MONTREAL (AP) — Max Pacioretty's second goal of the night lifted the Canadiens to the victory.

Paul Byron and Sven Andrighetto also scored for Montreal, which blew a two-goal lead and trailed 3-2 heading into the final period. Mike Condon had 39 saves.

The Canadiens (35-36-6) played the spoiler, with the Red Wings (38-28-11) remaining just out of the second Eastern Conference wild card and one point back of Boston for third in the Atlantic Division.

Gustav Nyquist, Anthony Mantha and Mike Green scored in the second for Detroit, which outshot Montreal 42-27.

The Red Wings and idle Flyers each have 87 points, but Detroit has five games left and Philadelphia has seven remaining.

DEVILS 2, BRUINS 1

NEWARK, N.J. (AP) — Reid Boucher scored a tiebreaking power-play goal early in the third period, Keith Kinkaid made 39 saves and New Jersey kept its faint playoff hopes alive.

Boucher also set up a power-play goal by Travis Zajac, helping the Devils stop a two-game losing streak and hand the Bruins their sixth loss in seven games.

Brad Marchand scored for the first time in nine games for the Bruins, who outshot New Jersey 40-15 but made the mistake of giving the Devils five power plays, two of which they converted.

Tuukka Rask made 13 stops for Boston, which is in danger of blowing a playoff spot with five games left in the regular season.

PENGUINS 5, SABRES 4, SO

PITTSBURGH (AP) — Sidney Crosby and Phil Kessel beat Chad Johnson in a shootout, and Pittsburgh inched closer to a 10th straight playoff berth.

Ben Lovejoy, Conor Sheary, Tom Kuhnhackl and Nick Bonino scored during a furious second-period as the Penguins climbed out of an early three-goal deficit. Rookie Matt Murray overcame a shaky start to finish with 26 saves, including a breakaway stop on Sabres rookie Jake Eichel in overtime.

Crosby assisted on Sheary's goal to give him an NHL-best 20 points this month. The Penguins remained three points clear of the Islanders for third in the crowded Metropolitan Division.

Ryan O'Reilly had a goal and an assist for the Sabres. Zach Bogosian, Matt Moulson, Zach Bogosian and Jake McCabe also scored for Buffalo, and Johnson made 42 saves.

ISLANDERS 2, HURRICANES 1, SO

NEW YORK (AP) — Kyle Okposo scored the only goal of the shootout and the Islanders rallied for the win.

Derek Ryan put the Hurricanes ahead late in the second period, but hit the post on his shootout attempt in Carolina's NHL-high 16th overtime loss. The Hurricanes have points in four straight games (2-0-2).

Thomas Greiss made 26 saves and Anders Lee scored his 13th goal of the season for New York, which won for the third time in four games.

Cam Ward had 30 saves for Carolina.

MAPLE LEAFS 5, PANTHERS 2

SUNRISE, Fla. (AP) — Nazem Kadri scored two of his three goals during second-period power plays, leading the Maple Leafs to the road victory.

Michael Grabner and Pierre-Alexandre Parenteau also scored for Toronto, and Connor Brown had three assists.

Jonathan Huberdeau and Greg McKegg scored for the Panthers.

Toronto's Jonathan Bernier made 32 saves. Roberto Luongo had 24 for Florida.