Blue Jackets 3, Bruins 1

Stuck in a four-game losing streak, Columbus rested its All-Star goalie and let backup Curtis McElhinney have another shot at Boston.

McElhinney answered with 34 saves as Columbus ended its own skid and stopped Boston's five-game winning streak with a victory over the Bruins on Saturday night.

"It feels good. Obviously, you want to be the catalyst that comes in and responds to a situation and I felt like I gave the guys an opportunity to win tonight," said McElhinney, who was also in net for the Blue Jackets in a 6-2 rout of the Bruins on Dec. 27 in Columbus.

Boston hadn't lost a game in regulation since, going 9-0-3 and winning five straight until stalling Saturday night at home.

Matt Calvert scored the go-ahead goal with 3:03 left in the third and added an empty-netter in the final minute as Columbus responded from a 2-1 loss at the New York Rangers the night before by finishing strong in Boston.

"It was nice to see them get that second one there to put us ahead and, obviously, the third gave us the distance," said McElhinney, who got the start as Sergei Bobrovsky rested in the second night of the back-to-back games.

Ryan Johansen had a goal and an assist for the Blue Jackets, extending his point streak to 13 straight games, and Calvert battled through a stomach bug while ending an eight-game stretch without a goal.

Despite the illness and a shot to the head in the second period, Columbus coach Todd Richards saidCalvert never stopped hustling.

"That's what you want to see from the guys that are working," Richards said.

McElhinney didn't allow anything past him after Carl Soderberg's goal 11:34 into the first period tied the game at 1.

The tie stood as McElhinney and Boston goalie Tuukka Rask exchanged saves through the second and third periods until Calvert broke the stalemate by backhanding in a rebound off a slap shot by Brandon Dubinsky. Dubinsky got the Bruins to bite on a fake and had a full windup for a shot that got through Rask's pads and hovered just outside the goal line before Calvert got his stick on it.

Boston pulled Rask for the extra skater and Calvert capitalized with a shot from just inside the center line with 38 seconds remaining.

Rask, who finished with 28 saves, was still fuming over Calvert's first goal and stormed straight to the tunnel after the final buzzer. Boston had allowed just six goals during the five-game streak.

"It was night and day from the past whatever games we played well," Rask said. "We started a little slow and then we gained our game in the first period. Then, the second and third we were just back to the old habits."

Canadiens 6, Islanders 4

Tomas Plekanec scored two goals and added two assists to lead Montreal past the New York Islanders.

Metropolitan Division-leading New York had won four straight. Tampa Bay jumped over the Islanders for first place in the Eastern Conference by beating Colorado on Saturday.

P.K. Subban, Dale Weise, Alex Galchenyuk and David Desharnais also scored for Montreal (28-13-3), and Dustin Tokarski made 27 saves.

Kyle Okposo, Nikolay Kulemin, Anders Lee and John Tavares had goals for the Islanders (30-14-1). Former Canadiens goalie Jaroslav Halak, playing for the second straight night, stopped 27 shots.

Okposo has five goals in two games, including his four-goal outburst in a home win over Pittsburgh on Friday.

After Montreal's sixth goal, Halak was replaced by Chad Johnson, who faced just two shots.

Lightning 3, Avalanche 2 (SO)

Ryan Callahan scored in regulation and got the decisive goal in the shootout to lift Tampa Bay to a victory over the Colorado, moving the Lightning back into first place in the Eastern Conference.

Anton Stralman also scored in regulation and Ben Bishop finished with 40 saves as Tampa Bay moved one point ahead of the Metropolitan Division-leading New York Islanders atop the East.

Ryan O'Reilly and Nathan MacKinnon scored for the Avalanche, and Semyon Varlamov had 29 saves. MacKinnon's goal tied with 6.8 seconds remaining.

Nikita Kucherov put the Lightning ahead in the first round of the shootout and Matt Duchene tied it for Colorado in the second round.

Blues 3, Maple Leafs 0

Brian Elliott stopped 27 shots for his third shutout of the season and 28th of his career as St. Louis topped slumping Toronto.

Alexander Steen extended his scoring streak to a career-high nine games with a goal and an assist, and Kevin Shattenkirk and T.J. Oshie also had goals for St. Louis. The win was No. 685 for Blues coach Ken Hitchcock, who passed former Maple Leafs coach Pat Quinn and moved into sole possession of fifth place on the career victories list.

St. Louis is 4-0-1 during its seven-game homestand and has earned a point in eight straight games. The Blues, who have not lost to Toronto since Jan. 29, 2008 (6-0-2), are 11-3-2 against Eastern Conference teams, best in the NHL.

Red Wings 5, Predators 2

Tomas Tatar scored twice, and Henrik Zetterberg added a clever tally from behind the goal line to help Detroit snap Nashville's five-game winning streak.

Gustav Nyquist, Kyle Quincey and Tatar scored in the first period for Detroit, chasing Nashville goalie Carter Hutton from the game after only one save. Hutton was making his second start since the Predators lost Pekka Rinne to a knee injury.

The Red Wings are without their top goalie, too, but Petr Mrazek made 34 saves in place of an injured Jimmy Howard.

Detroit led 3-1 when Zetterberg surprised just about everyone with his power-play goal. The veteran forward flipped the puck toward the net from near the left corner, and it appeared to skip off goalie Marek Mazanec's mask or back and slipped into the far corner of the net.

Flyers 4, Sabres 3

Chris VandeVelde scored a third-period breakaway goal to help Philadelphia snap a six-game road losing streak and send Buffalo to its 10th straight regulation defeat.

R.J. Umberger and Mark Streit scored power-play goals, and Mike Raffl also scored for Philadelphia, which won its fourth straight against the Sabres.

Zemgus Girgensons scored two goals, and Tyler Ennis added one for Buffalo, which became the first team since the 2006 Pittsburgh Penguins to lose 10 consecutive games in regulation, according to STATS.

The skid is two shy of Buffalo's worst, set in 1991 and matched in 2002.

Oilers 3, Panthers 2 (SO)

Nail Yakupov scored the winning goal in the shootout to lift Edmonton past Florida.

Yakupov's shot got past Roberto Luongo in the first round, and Edmonton's Viktor Fasth was perfect in the shootout.

Matt Hendricks and Jordan Eberle scored in regulation for Edmonton. Fasth made 35 saves for his third win this season.

The Oilers won for the first time in four games and snapped a franchise record 14-game, road-losing streak. The Oilers, who have three road wins this season, earned their first since Nov. 9 at the New York Rangers.

Jonathan Huberdeau and Erik Gudbranson scored for Florida, and Luongo stopped 32 shots. He has lost three straight starts for the first time since the opening three games of the season.

Hurricanes 3, Senators 2

Nathan Gerbe and Justin Faulk each had a goal and an assist to lead Carolina.

Brad Malone also scored for the Hurricanes and Anton Khudobin made 30 saves.

Cody Ceci and Mark Stone scored for the Senators, who were unable to get any puck possession in the Carolina zone after pulling Craig Anderson for an extra attacker in the final 2 minutes.

Anderson finished with 25 saves.

Gerbe scored the winner with a little under 6 minutes to play in the third period when his shot from 15 feet inside the blue line appeared to hit something on the way to the net before getting past Anderson.

Stars 5, Capitals 4

Antoine Roussel and Jamie Benn scored 16 seconds apart in the third period, and Dallas recovered for the win after losing a 3-0 lead.

Roussel broke a 3-3 tie 3:14 into the third by tapping in the puck from left of the net. Benn added his goal at 3:30.

Tyler Seguin, Erik Cole and Jason Spezza each had a goal and an assist, and Jyrki Jokipakka added two assists for Dallas.

Alex Ovechkin's breakaway goal 21 seconds into the third period helped Washington rally from a three-goal deficit.

Nicklas Backstrom, Eric Fehr and Andre Burakovsky also scored for Washington.