The New Jersey Devils beat the NHL Stanley Cup champion Pittsburgh Penguins for a fifth straight time, winning 3-1 Friday in a clash of the top two teams in the Atlantic Division. Ilya Kovalchuk had a goal and two assists to snap out of a scoring slump as the Devils pulled within two points of the Penguins for the divisional lead with 17 games to play. New Jersey also tied Montreal's NHL record for consecutive seasons with 40 or more victories, with 13. Montreal won 40 or more games in 13 straight seasons from 1971 to 1983 - before overtime and shootouts were introduced to settle tied games. Andy Greene and Patrik Elias also scored goals for New Jersey. Sidney Crosby scored the sole goal for Pittsburgh. Lightning 3, Capitals 2: In Washington, struggling Tampa Bay prevented NHL-leading Washington becoming the first team to reach 100 points this season. Defenseman Matt Walker scored a goal and created another a few minutes later when his shot deflected in off Vincent Lecavalier. Brandon Bochenski also scored for the Lightning. Tomas Fleischmann and Brooks Laich had power-play goals for Washington. Kings 2, Stars 1, SO: In Dallas, Jarret Stoll scored in the sixth round of a shootout to give Los Angeles its fifth victory in five games against Dallas this season. After the first 11 shooters failed to score, Stoll beat Marty Turco with a wrist shot. Fredrik Modin had a powerplay goal for the Kings. Brenden Morrow scored for Dallas. Wild 3, Sabres 2: In Buffalo, New York, Minnesota ended a run of four defeats by edging Buffalo. Josh Harding made 43 saves, and Andrew Ebbett, Guillaume Latendresse and Andrew Brunette scored for the Wild. Thomas Vanek scored twice for Buffalo, which lost its first game in four. Predators 1, Ducks 0: In Anaheim, California, Nashville bounced back from a humbling loss to down Anaheim and move two points ahead of eighth-placed Calgary in the Western Conference. The Ducks have lost five straight. Rangers 5, Thrashers 2: In Atlanta, Vinny Prospal and Marian Gaborik gave New York the lead with goals 41 seconds apart in the first period and New York went on to beat Atlanta.
