Franzen helps Wings past Predators

Johan Franzen's third-period goal broke a tie and sent the visiting Detroit Red Wings to a 6-3 victory over the Nashville Predators on Thursday night.

Niklas Kronwall, Chris Chelios, and Brian Rafalski each scored second-period goals for the Red Wings, and Pavel Datsyuk added an insurance tally late in the third. Dominik Hasek earned his 385th NHL victory, tying him for 10th place with Mike Vernon on the career list.

Alexander Radulov scored twice for Nashville, and Martin Erat had the other Predators goal.

Canadiens 4, Bruins 2: Alex Kovalev had 2 goals and an assist, and Carey Price made 34 saves to lift visiting Montreal to a victory over Boston and push the Canadiens back into first place in the Eastern Conference on Thursday night.

The Canadiens moved 1 point ahead of the idle New Jersey Devils in the race for the top seed in the East playoffs.

Senators 3, Blues 2: Jason Spezza scored his 31st goal and Martin Gerber stopped 24 shots to lead Ottawa over visiting St. Louis.

Antoine Vermette and Christoph Schubert also scored for Ottawa, fifth in the Eastern Conference with 89 points, 2 ahead of the New York Rangers.

Penguins 4, Lightning 2: Evgeni Malkin had a goal and an assist, and host Pittsburgh moved into a tie for first place in the Atlantic Division with a win over Tampa Bay.

Jarkko Ruutu, Jordan Staal and Petr Sykora also scored for the Penguins, who have won four of five and beat Tampa Bay at home for the first time since Nov. 2, 2002 -- a span of eight games.

Hurricanes 2, Panthers 1:ΠFormer Blackhawks forward Sergei Samsonov and Eric Staal scored in the shootout for visiting Carolina, which snapped Florida's team-record tying, seven-game winning streak.

Carolina won the shootout 2-0, sealing the victory when Staal's wrist shot trickled through Tomas Vokoun's pads.

Flames 2, Avalanche 1: Daymond Langkow and Craig Conroy scored first-period power-play goals to lead host Calgary past Colorado in a pivotal Northwest Division clash.

The Flames moved 2 points ahead of Colorado and into a tie for sixth place in the Western Conference with Vancouver.

Canucks 4, Oilers 1: Matt Pettinger's late second-period goal helped the Vancouver win its third in a row and cool off surging Edmonton.

Daniel Sedin, Taylor Pyatt and Trevor Linden scored the other Vancouver goals. Tom Gilbert had the lone goal for Edmonton.

The Canucks have won six of eight and moved into a sixth-place tie in the Western Conference.