Minnesota wins a wild one
Marian Gaborik and Josh Harding cooled off the NHL-leading Detroit Red Wings.
Gaborik scored on the final attempt in a shootout and Harding made 26 saves in relief, lifting the Minnesota Wild to a 6-5 win over Detroit on Thursday night in Detroit.
"If he (Harding) wouldn't have made the saves that he did, I know there's no way," said Wild coach Jacques Lemaire, who benched Niklas Backstrom after he gave up 4 goals in 1½ periods.
The Red Wings appeared to have the game in hand with 1:08 left in regulation, when they went ahead for the first time on Dan Cleary's goal.
But less than 20 seconds later, Eric Belanger grabbed a fluttering puck and lifted it past Chris Osgood to force overtime.
"We had the lead in the final minute and 99.9 percent of the time, we close out the game," Cleary said
In the shootout, Brian Rolston and Gaborik scored while Jiri Hudler was the only Red Wing to get a shot past Harding.
Blues 4, Stars 2: Brad Boyes scored twice, Paul Kariya had a goal and 2 assists, and St. Louis extended its points streak to six games with a victory over visiting Dallas.
The win gave the Blues a 22-14-5 mark at the season's halfway point and kept St. Louis in eighth place in the Western Conference. A year ago, St. Louis was 13-21-7 at the midway point and in 15th place in the conference.
Devils 4, Hurricanes 1: Patrik Elias scored the go-ahead goal in the second period, and Martin Brodeur made 20 saves in visiting New Jersey's win over Carolina. Brodeur allowed two goals or less for the seventh time in his last eight games.
Flyers 6, Rangers 2: Scott Hartnell scored 3 consecutive goals, and Antero Niittymaki won his fourth straight start for visiting Philadelphia in a win over New York.
New York grabbed a 2-0 lead in the first period on a rare pair of goals from hard-hitting forward Ryan Hollweg but that lead was gone midway through the second period.
Panthers 3, Thrashers 2 (SO): After Atlanta's Ilya Kovalchuk fired wide of the net on the final round of the shootout, Olli Jokinen beat goalie Kari Lehtonen on the stick side to seal a win for visiting Florida.
Penguins 4, Lightning 1: Ty Conklin made 35 saves, Jordan Staal had 2 goals and an assist, and visiting Pittsburgh won its eighth straight.
Canadiens 5, Bruins 2: Alex Kovalev and Tomas Plekanec each had a goal and an assist to help visiting Montreal improve to 5-0-2 over its last seven games. The Canadiens beat Boston for the eighth straight time, and 15th of 18.
Senators 3, Sabres 2 (SO): Dean McAmmond scored on Ottawa's sixth shootout attempt, and the host Senators handed Buffalo its eighth straight loss.
Oilers 5, Coyotes 2: Robert Nilsson and Kyle Brodziak each had a goal and an assist, and host Edmonton won its third straight game.