Joel Ward’s hat trick leads Capitals rout

Capitals 7, Flyers 0

Joel Ward had his first career hat trick and Nicklas Backstrom scored two goals to help the Washington Capitals rout the Philadelphia Flyers 7-0.

Jason Chimera and Troy Brouwer also had goals for the Capitals, who snapped a two-game losing streak and improved to 6-7-0.

Braden Holtby made 30 saves to post his eighth career shutout.

The struggling Flyers fell to 3-9-0.

Lightning 3, Hurricanes 0

Ben Bishop recorded his second shutout in as many games against Carolina while Steven Stamkos and Victor Hedman scored as Tampa Bay continued their mastery of the Hurricanes at PNC Arena with a 3-0 victory.

The Lightning have started 9-4, beating their former Southeast Division rival for the eighth time in the last nine visits to Raleigh. Bishop stopped 31 shots en route to his fourth career shutout.

Meanwhile, the Hurricanes (4-6-3) continue to struggle on offence, losing their fourth straight after starting the season 4-2-3. During the skid the Canes have been outscored 13-4.

Penguins 4, Blue Jackets 2

The Pittsburgh Penguins registered three goals in less than five minutes in the second period to roll to a 4-2 victory over Metropolitan Division opponents the Columbus Blue Jackets.

The two teams will face-off again on Saturday in Columbus.

The Penguins got on the board first at 7:11 of the first, just six seconds into their first power-play opportunity of the night.

Chris Kunitz’s early goal pushed his scoring streak to three.

Sidney Crosby picked up the secondary assist to extend his lead in the NHL scoring race and his scoring streak against Columbus to six consecutive games.

Marc-Andre Fleury made 37 saves to earn his league-leading 10th victory.

Blues 4, Panthers 0

The St Louis Blues routed the Florida Panthers for the second time this season, with a 4-0 win.

The Blues beat the Panthers 7-0 last month. In that game, Jaroslav Halak got the shutout and improved his career record against Florida to 8-1, posting a 0.75 goals-against-average in his past four games against Florida.

On Friday, the Blues rested Halak and still won with backup goaltender Brian Elliott, who helped St Louis (8-1-2) earn at least one point for their sixth straight game.

The Panthers lost their fourth successive game to fall to 3-8-2.

Wild 4, Canadiens 3

Jason Pominville scored his second goal of the game late in the third period lifting the Minnesota Wild to a 4-3 win over the Montreal Canadiens.

Pominville, who now has five goals in the past three games, scored in the second and third periods and added an assist as Minnesota (7-4-3) improved to 5-1-2 at home. Nino Neiderreiter and Justin Fontaine also scored for the Wild.

Brendan Gallagher scored his sixth goal of the season for the Canadiens (8-6-0), while PK Subban and Brian Gionta both scored in the third period to erase a 3-1 Wild lead.

Montreal controlled the play for long stretches, but saw a two-game winning streak snapped, thanks in large part to 28 saves by Minnesota goalie Josh Harding.

Islanders 5, Senators 4 (SO)

Frans Nielsen’s shootout goal gave the New York Islanders a 5-4 victory over the Ottawa Senators at the Canadian Tire Centre.

Evgeni Nabokov preserved the win with a great leg stop off Bobby Ryan.

The win snapped the Islanders’ two-game losing streak. While they did get a point, the loss extended the Senators’ own losing streak to four games.

Goaltending was the story of the game, as Robin Lehner faced 57 shots in the Senators net while Nabokov was tested just 31 times.

John Tavares, Matt Martin, Pierre-Marc Bouchard and Nielsen had the Islanders goals. Kyle Okposo added a pair of assists.

Erik Condra, Mika Zibanejad, Bobby Ryan and Clarke MacArthur scored for the Senators, while Erik Karlsson chipped in with two assists.

Avalanche 3, Stars 2 (OT)

Paul Stastny scored twice, including the game-winner with 1:24 remaining in overtime as the Colorado Avalanche recorded a 3-2 win over the Dallas Stars.

Semyon Varlamov made 27 saves for Colorado.

Stastny had opened the scoring for the Avalanche at 8:22 of the opening period and he also ended the game with a 24-foot snap that got the better of Dallas goaltender Kari Lehtonen to clinch the overtime victory.

Dallas scored the equaliser with 3:29 left in regulation when Tyler Seguin flicked a 30-foot wrister to Varlamov’s left to make it 3-3.

Two seconds after the Seguin goal, Gabriel Landeskog and Dallas’ Alex Chiasson dropped the gloves near center ice, Landeskog being assessed a minor penalty for roughing and the Stars went on the power play with 3:27 left in regulation.

Dallas captain Jamie Benn tried to give the Stars their first lead of the night with 2:27 remaining but Varlamov denied him with a glove save at the far post to preserve the tie.

Varlamov also denied close-range chances by Dallas’ Shawn Horcoff and Antoine Roussel late in regulation.

Red Wings 4, Flames 3

The Detroit Red Wings fired a season-low 22 shots on goal and the most harmless one turned out to be the back-breaker.

Joakim Andersson’s shot from the corner bounced off the toe of Tomas Tatar’s skate for a crucial goal as the Red Wings scratched out a 4-3 victory over the Calgary Flames.

Pavel Datsyuk, Henrik Zetterberg and Justin Abdelkader also scored for the Wings (8-4-2).

Chris Butler, Sean Monahan and Curtis Glencross scored the goals for the Flames (5-6-2), who have now lost six of their past eight games.