Patrick Marleau, Milan Michalek and former Boston captain Joe Thornton scored in a 6:16 span of the third period to rally the San Jose Sharks to a 5-2 victory over the Boston Bruins in a matchup of the NHL's top two teams on Tuesday night.
The Eastern Conference-leading Bruins, on top of the NHL with 85 points, carried a 2-1 edge into the third period behind two first-period goals by Milan Lucic. Boston had been 26-0-2 when leading after 40 minutes.
Marleau tied the game with his 27th goal at 3:32, and Michalek and Thornton struck 2:20 apart. Rob Blake also scored for the West-leading Sharks, who have 81 points.
Blue Jackets 3, Avalanche 0
Dan LaCosta made 31 saves — including a toe stop on Marek Svatos with seconds remaining — for his first career shutout in his second NHL start.
LaCosta, who won his first start Saturday, played again because rookie Steve Mason is out due to mononucleosis and regular backup Wade Dubielewicz had the flu.
Andrew Murray, Jason Williams and Fredrik Modin scored third-period goals and Jan Hejda added two assists for Columbus, which swept the season series (4-0) from Colorado for the first time.
Kings 4, Islanders 3, SO
Jack Johnson scored the only goal of the shootout in the final round as Los Angeles beat the New York Islanders. Johnson faked a forehand and got Yann Danis to move before he slipped in a backhander net to give the Kings their fourth straight win.
Wayne Simmonds, Anze Kopitar and Alexander Frolov scored for the Kings. Jonathan Quick, who started his eight straight game, turned aside 22 shots.
The Islanders got regulation goals from Doug Weight, Tim Jackman and Andy Hilbert. Danis stopped 36 shots for the Islanders, who lost their third straight after a four-game winning streak.
Panthers 5, Maple Leafs 4, OT
Richard Zednik, exactly one year after he suffered a severe neck injury, scored his second goal at 1:02 of overtime to give Florida a 5-4 victory against Toronto.
The Panthers rallied from a three-goal deficit in the third period.
Brett McLean, Nathan Horton and Ville Peltonen also scored for Florida, which moved past Carolina into eighth place in the Eastern Conference. The Panthers improved to 10-3-3 since Jan. 1.
Niklas Hagman scored twice for Toronto, Jamal Mayers and Nik Antropov added goals, and Jason Blake, Dominic Moore and Pavel Kubina each had two assists.
Thrashers 3, Lightning 1
Kari Lehtonen made 40 saves to lead Atlanta past Tampa Bay.
Lehtonen made a lunging glove save along the goal-line on Tampa Bay rookie Steven Stamkos' penalty shot with about eight minutes to play in the third. The play was reviewed by replay and the ruling on the ice was upheld.
Colin Stuart, Slava Kozlov and Ilya Kovalchuk had the Atlanta goals. The Thrashers won for just the second time in the last eight games.
Gary Roberts scored for the Lightning, who have lost five of six.
Red Wings 5, Predators 3
Henrik Zetterberg and Pavel Datsyuk each had two goals and an assist for Detroit, which held off Nashville for its fifth straight victory.
Zetterberg has 18 points in his past 15 games. Datsyuk scored a power-play goal and added an empty-netter with 12 seconds left. Marian Hossa also had a power-play goal, and Brian Rafalski added three assists.
Joel Ward scored twice for Nashville, Radek Bonk had a power-play goal and an assist, and Ryan Suter had two assists. The Red Wings are the only franchise to put up at least 50 shots against Nashville, and they did it for the fourth time — holding a 51-21 edge.
Canucks 6, Blues 4
Mats Sundin scored twice and Jannik Hansen's rebound goal with 4:42 to go capped Vancouver's rally from a pair of two-goal deficits.
Andy McDonald had a goal and an assist in his first game back after missing 36 due to a broken left ankle for the Blues, who also got three assists from Patrik Berglund. St. Louis, which had been 6-1-3 in their previous 10 games, missed a chance to escape the Western Conference cellar for the first time since Dec. 13.
The Canucks have won three in a row after losing eight straight. The 37-year-old Sundin has four goals in three games, and six goals and 10 points in 12 games since signing with Vancouver in December.
