Devils top Islanders, end skid
Damon Severson scored twice 1:26 apart in New Jersey’s three-goal second period, and the Devils ended a six-game skid with a 4-1 victory over the Islanders last night in New York.
Kyle Palmieri and Taylor Hall also scored for New Jersey, which was 0-3-3 since beating Detroit at home on Dec. 27. Keith Kinkaid, getting the start after Cory Schneider was a late scratch due to illness, stopped 25 shots.
Anders Lee scored and Jaroslav Halak made 38 saves as the Islanders snapped a three-game winning streak that started with a 5-4 shootout win over the Devils on Jan. 7.
New Jersey trailed less than two minutes in but got four straight goals starting with Palmieri’s score late in the first period.
Halak, who faced more than 35 shots on goal for his 10th straight start, made nice stops on in-close tries by Brian Boyle and Brian Gibbons with about 71⁄2 minutes left in the middle period to keep the score tied.
Rangers 5, Flyers 1 — Rick Nash scored twice while host New York notched five straight goals to roll over visiting Philadelphia.
Jordan Weal put Philadelphia up 1-0 before Nash, J.T. Miller, Paul Carey, Michael Grabner and Nash again combined to make it 5-1 by the end of the second period.
New York snapped a three-game skid and improve to 23-17-5. Henrik Lundqvist made 25 saves.
Blues 2, Maple Leafs 1 — Alexander Steen tied it with 57 seconds left and Vince Dunn scored 1:43 into overtime, lifting St. Louis over host Toronto.
Connor Brown put Toronto ahead on a short-handed breakaway midway through the third period, but Steen scored with goalie Carter Hutton pulled for an extra attacker by backhanding Alex Pieterangelo’s rebound past Frederik Andersen.
Dunn then snapped a low shot past Andersen after choosing to keep the puck on a 2-on-1. Andersen stopped 40 shots and Hutton had 30 saves. Stars 4, Red Wings 2 — Jason Spezza responded to being benched by scoring two tiebreaking goals on power plays, helping Dallas beat host Detroit.
The 33-year-old forward was a healthy scratch on Monday when Dallas beat the Bruins in overtime. He bounced back by ending his 14-game goal drought.
Dallas’ Radek Faksa and Martin Hanzal also scored. Ben Bishop stopped 13 shots for the Stars, who have won 6-of-8.
Predators 1, Golden Knights 0 — Juuse Saros made 43 saves for his third shutout of the season, Kevin Fiala scored eight minutes into the third period and host Nashville beat Vegas.
The Predators have won three straight. Nashville placed forward Viktor Arvidsson on injured reserve with a lower-body injury.
Sharks 3, Coyotes 2 — In Glendale, Ariz., Joe Pavelski scored the only goal of the shootout to lift San Jose over Arizona.
Pavelski scored on San Jose’s first attempt, and Sharks goalie Aaron Dell was perfect through three rounds in his first NHL shootout. Dell also had 30 saves.
Joe Thornton and Mikkel Boedker had regulation goals for San Jose.