The Tampa Bay Lightning don't have much in common with the Dallas Stars when it comes to winning.
They looked very much alike Sunday as both teams earned overtime victories to bolster their first-place division leads.
Cory Sarich scored 3:45 into the extra session Sunday and Nikolai Khabibulin made 35 saves as the Lightning beat host Carolina 2-1 to increase their advantage over the Hurricanes in the Southeast Division to three points.
Tampa Bay has had just one winning season in its 11-year history, when the Lightning made the playoffs for the only time in 1996. They have finished as high as third in their division only once — last season when the Hurricanes won the title and made a surprising run to the Stanley Cup finals.
"You could see them building the last couple of years," Carolina captain Ron Francis said. "They've drafted some good young players and they've got a top-notch goaltender, which gives them a lot of confidence. People are thinking they are going to go away, but that's not the case. They're for real."
Dallas, which beat the visiting Columbus Blue Jackets 3-2 in overtime on Sunday, has lots of positive history — especially lately. The Stars won the Stanley Cup in 1999 and returned to the finals the following year.
Now they want to get back in the playoffs after missing them last season.
Scott Young scored with 1:04 left in regulation, then set up Pierre Turgeon's tip-in winner in the extra session that pushed the Stars' lead in the Pacific Division to seven points over Anaheim.
"I was just throwing it at the net," Young said. "We had some traffic in front and it went in off someone's pants or something."
Pavel Kubina tied it for the Lightning with 8:29 left in regulation, and Sarich's second career goal in 226 games improved the Lightning's mark against divisional opponents to 6-1 this season.
"Through the early part of the year we've shown some resiliency," Tampa Bay coach John Tortorella said. "What's that from? Is it part of maturity? I don't have the answer. We just feel as a team that we're able to come back, we're able to find ways."
MIGHTY DUCKS 5, THRASHERS 1: Jean-Sebastien Giguere stopped 27 of 28 shots, and Steve Rucchin and Paul Kariya each had two assists as Anaheim won at Atlanta.
Stanislav Chistov, Patric Kjellberg, Kevin Sawyer, Niclas Havelid and Petr Sykora scored for Anaheim, 6-1-1-2 in its last 10 — all with Giguere in net.
Atlanta goalie Milan Hnilicka (0-9) made his first start since Oct. 29 but was chased late in the second period after giving up four goals on 20 shots.
Vyacheslav Kozlov scored to give Atlanta a 1-0 lead.
AVALANCHE 4, COYOTES 4: Mike Johnson scored the tying goal as Phoenix rallied from a two-goal deficit to tie Colorado.
Coyotes goalie Brian Boucher had five of his 24 saves in overtime, when the Avalanche played the first 1:43 with a man advantage.
Patrick Roy had 27 saves for Colorado, which improved to 5-1-2-2 on the road.
Joe Sakic scored his NHL-best 12th goal, Milan Hejduk had two power-play goals and an assist and Serge Aubin scored for the Avalanche.
Phoenix, just 2-4-1 at home, got two goals and an assist from Ladislav Nagy. Deron Quint scored the first goal.
BLACKHAWKS 4, PREDATORS 2: Steve Sullivan scored two goals, and Chicago extended its unbeaten streak to six games by beating Nashville.
Alex Zhamnov had a goal and two assists for the Blackhawks, who got 28 saves from Jocelyn Thibault. Boris Mironov also scored for Chicago, 4-0-2 during its streak.
Nashville rookie Vernon Fiddler had his first NHL goal and assist. Clarke Wilm also scored for the visiting Predators, winless in four games (0-3-1).