Wild beat Sharks to top standings
ST. PAUL, Minnesota (AP) — Zach Parise scored in his return to Minnesota's lineup and Devan Dubnyk made 20 saves as the Wild held on for a 3-1 win over the San Jose Sharks in their headlining NHL meeting on Sunday.
Eric Staal had two goals for the Wild, who won for the third time in four games. Jason Pominville assisted on Parise's 15th goal to open the scoring. Parise and Pominville each returned after missing three games with the mumps.
Minnesota (90 points) moved back ahead of idle Chicago (89 points) for first place in the Central Division and Western Conference.
Melker Karlsson scored for the Pacific Division-leading San Jose, which had won three in a row and had an eight-game point streak snapped. Martin Jones stopped 25 of 27 shots.
PENGUINS 4, SABRES 3
PITTSBURGH (AP) — Jake Guentzel and Conor Sheary scored 50 seconds apart late in the third period to cap a furious and victorious rally by Pittsburgh.
The Sabres led by three after the first period but Pittsburgh ramped up the pressure to win its second straight and move into sole possession of second place in the Metropolitan Division.
Evgeni Malkin had a goal and an assist for the Penguins. Justin Schultz added a goal and two assists. Marc-Andre Fleury stopped all 28 shots he faced after replacing Matt Murray to start the second period.
Jack Eichel scored to extend his points streak to an NHL-best 10 games. Ryan O'Reilly scored in his third straight game and Brian Gionta picked up his 14th of the season, but the Sabres crumpled late. Anders Nilsson finished with 41 saves, but Buffalo saw its flickering playoff hopes take another hit.
BLUE JACKETS 3, DEVILS 0
NEWARK, New Jersey (AP) — Sergei Bobrovsky made 20 saves in posting his second straight shutout and franchise-record 34th win of the season as Columbus beat reeling New Jersey.
Boone Jenner, Oliver Bjorkstrand and Sam Gagner scored as the Blue Jackets won for the fourth time in six games (4-1-1) and sent the Devils to their seventh straight loss (0-5-2).
Cory Schneider made 19 saves for the Devils, who were shut out for the sixth time this season.
The shutout was the fifth of the season for the 28-year-old Bobrovsky, and the win allowed him to break the single-season club record set by Steve Mason in 2008-09.
FLAMES 5, ISLANDERS 2
CALGARY, Alberta (AP) — Sean Monahan had a goal and an assist as Calgary beat New York for its seventh straight victory.
Brian Elliott made 33 saves for his sixth straight win. Elliott is 7-0-1 since his last regulation loss on Feb. 5 when he made 28 saves during a 4-3 loss in New York to the Rangers.
Michael Frolik, TJ Brodie, Micheal Ferland and Kris Versteeg also scored for the Flames.
John Tavares and Jason Chimera scored for the Islanders. They are 3-2-1 on a nine-game trip.
Thomas Greiss started in net for the Islanders and stopped 17 of 21 shots in the first period before being replaced by Jean-Francois Berube, who finished with 15 saves.
