CHICAGO — Cristobal Huet stopped 26 shots, and Jonathan Toews had a goal and an assist to lead the Chicago Blackhawks past the New Jersey Devils, 5-1 on Thursday night.
Troy Brouwer, Ben Eager, Andrew Ladd and John Madden also scored for Chicago, which improved to 57 points, remaining two behind NHL-leading San Jose. The Blackhawks won for the fourth time in five games and are 8-2-0 in their last 10.
New Jersey, which also has 57 points, is still in first place in the East after only its second loss in nine games.
RED WINGS 4, AVALANCHE 2: At Detroit, Ville Leino's goal with 3:52 left broke a tie, and Darren Helm scored two short-handed goals to lift Detroit over Colorado.
PREDATORS 2, BLUE JACKETS 1 (OT): At Columbus, Ohio, David Legwand scored 28 seconds into overtime to give Nashville a victory over Columbus. Joel Ward, who also assisted on Andreas Thuresson's tying goal in the third period, stole the puck from defenseman Mathieu Roy to the left of the net.
SHARKS 3, COYOTES 2 (SO): At Glendale, Ariz., Ryan Clowe scored the lone shootout goal in the sixth round to lift San Jose to its seventh straight win. Phoenix had its franchise-record 10-game winning streak snapped.
SENATORS 3, ISLANDERS 2 (SO): At Ottawa, Ryan Shannon scored the decisive shootout goal to lift Ottawa over New York.
STARS 5, DUCKS 3: At Dallas, Loui Eriksson scored three goals for his second career hat trick, and Dallas won consecutive games for the first time since home victories over New Jersey and Carolina on Nov. 21 and 23.
RANGERS 2, HURRICANES 1: At Raleigh, N.C., Brandon Dubinsky's goal at 11:49 of the third off an assist from Marian Gaborik gave New York the victory over Carolina.
CANUCKS 4, BLUES 3 (OT): At St. Louis, Christian Ehrhoff scored a power-play goal 2:24 into overtime, and Vancouver rallied from three goals down to beat St. Louis.
CANADIENS 5, PANTHERS 4: At Sunrise, Fla., Marc-Andre Bergeron and Benoit Pouliot scored in the first 4 1/2 minutes of the third period to lift Montreal over Florida. The Canadiens, who haven't played at home since Dec. 17, won six of seven on their long road trip.
KINGS 5, WILD 2: At St. Paul, Minn., Alexander Frolov scored twice and Michal Handzus added a goal and an assist as Los Angeles snapped a four-game losing streak by beating Minnesota.