Avalanche Powers Past Struggling Stars, 4-2

The Colorado Avalanche keeps making the most of its power-play opportunities, and the points keep coming.

Dallas just continues to struggle on special teams.

Alex Tanguay scored two of Colorado’s three power-play goals in the second period of a 4-2 victory Saturday at Dallas after the Stars missed scoring on three power plays in the first period.

“The key was killing the first-period penalties,” Tanguay said. “When the referee gives one team penalties, they’re going to be looking to even it up the next period, and that’s what happened.”

Unlike the Stars, Colorado made the most of its chances in the second period. The Avalanche converted three of five power plays while playing with a man advantage for nearly eight minutes.

Colorado has scored 10 power-play goals in 25 chances the past five games with four wins and an overtime loss. The Avalanche has added points in the standings in 17 of 20 games.

Milan Hejduk and Adam Foote each added a goal and an assist for Colorado, which reached the halfway point of its season with 53 points. Only two Western Conference teams -- Detroit and Vancouver -- have more points.

Montreal 8, Pittsburgh 0 -- Sheldon Souray set a franchise single-game record for points by a defenseman with a goal and five assists to lead the Canadiens at Pittsburgh.

Souray broke the team record of five points by defensemen Doug Harvey and Lyle Odelein, assisting on each of Montreal’s first five goals -- the first four on the power play -- before scoring midway through the third period on a slap shot from the left point off a faceoff.

Boston 2, Detroit 1 -- Joe Thornton scored with 2:30 left in overtime to lead the Bruins over the Red Wings at Boston for their third consecutive victory.

Dan McGillis charged the net and dumped the puck to a trailing Thornton, who beat Curtis Joseph for the winner and his ninth goal of the season.

New York Rangers 3, New York Islanders 2 -- Eric Lindros’ goal and assist sparked a three-goal spurt within 1:38 of the first period, and the visiting Rangers hung on at Uniondale, N.Y.

Chris Simon and Martin Rucinsky also scored for the Rangers, who rebounded from two poor losses this week against Calgary and Carolina to stretch their unbeaten streak against the Islanders to 5-0-2.

San Jose 5, Atlanta 2 -- Evgeni Nabokov made 31 saves to earn his 100th career win and the Sharks scored three first-period goals at San Jose to hand the Thrashers their sixth consecutive defeat.

The first-place Sharks won for the 15th time in 24 games. Nabokov is 8-3-2 with three shutouts since returning from a strained groin on Dec. 11.

Edmonton 3, Philadelphia 0 -- Tommy Salo stopped 26 shots for his 35th career shutout and 200th NHL victory to lead the Oilers at Philadelphia.

Mike York had a goal and an assist, and Raffi Torres and Shawn Horcoff also scored for the Oilers, who ended a two-game losing streak.

Calgary 4, Florida 2 -- Jarome Iginla scored two goals and had an assist, and the Flames scored three times in the third period to win at Calgary, Canada.

Calgary ended a four-game home winless streak.

New Jersey 1, Toronto 0 -- Martin Brodeur made 25 saves for his league-leading ninth shutout of the season, and Brian Gionta scored in the first period to lead the Devils at Toronto.

Nashville 3, St. Louis 1 -- Jordin Tootoo scored a power-play goal and had an assist for his first multipoint NHL game to lead the Predators at Nashville.