NHL Last Night: Bruins Tie Sharks for League Lead

Michael Ryder beat Vesa Toskala with a high wrist shot in the fourth round of a shootout to give the Boston Bruins a 4-3 victory over the Toronto Maple Leafs on Wednesday night.

Blake Wheeler and Martin St. Pierre also scored for Boston in the shootout.

Wheeler, Dennis Wideman, Zdeno Chara scored in regulation to help the Bruins (34-8-5) tie San Jose for the overall NHL lead entering the All-Star break.

Jason Blake, Lee Stempniak and Brad May scored for Toronto.

Devils 5, Canadiens 2
 Paul Martin scored on a breakaway goal and added an assist in New Jersey's fifth straight victory.

The Devils entered the All-Star break in first place in the Atlanta Division, a seemingly unreachable goal when star goalie Martin Brodeur tore his biceps on Nov. 1.

Scott Clemmensen, Brodeur's replacement, made 26 saves, to improve to 19-9-1, and Travis Zajac, Johnny Oduya, Zach Parise and Patrik Elias added goals for the Devils, one point ahead of the New York Rangers in the Atlantic. Josh Gorges and Matt D'Agostini scored for Montreal, 1-10-1-1 in its last 13 games in New Jersey.

Flyers 5, Thrashers 3
Antero Niittymaki made 28 saves to improve to 12-0 against Atlanta, and Mike Knuble scored twice for Philadelphia.

Niittymaki is one of only two active goalies with a perfect mark in at least 10 decisions against one team. Detroit's Chris Osgood is 17-0 against Tampa Bay.

Scott Hartnell, Darroll Powe and Randy Jones also scored, and Jeff Carter had two assists. Eric Perrin, Ilya Kovalchuk and Chris Thorburn scored for Atlanta.

Blues 2, Blackhawks 0
Chris Mason made 21 saves for his second shutout of the season, and Jeff Woywitka and Keith Tkachuk scored for St. Louis.

The Blackhawks have lost two straight games at United Center in regulation to drop to 14-4-5 at home.

Flames 5, Blue Jackets 4, SO
Todd Bertuzzi scored for Calgary in the third round of a shootout goal, and Miikka Kiprusoff stopped Jakub Voracek's final attempt for Columbus.

Michael Cammalleri scored twice, and Jarome Iginla and David Moss added regulation goals for the Flames. Kiprusoff finished with 29 saves.

R.J. Umberger had two goals for Columbus, and Voracek and Rick Nash also scored.

Kings 6, Avalanche 5
Alexander Frolov scored twice and Los Angeles chased struggling goalie Peter Budaj with a three-goal second period.

Kyle Calder, Jack Johnson, Jarret Stoll and Dustin Brown also scored. T.J. Hensick, Chris Stewart, Brian Willsie, Cody McLeod and Marek Svatos scored for Colorado.

Stars 4, Panthers 1
 Mike Ribeiro had his first NHL hat trick, Mike Modano also scored, and Marty Turco made 27 saves for Dallas.

Ribeiro completed the hat trick with an empty-net goal with 26 seconds left.

Karlis Skrastins scored for Florida.

Islanders 2, Ducks 1
Yann Danis made 39 saves, and Kyle Okposo and Kurtis McLean scored to help New York snap an eight-game losing streak.

Bobby Ryan scored for Anaheim. Jean-Sebastien Giguere started in net and stopped five shots, and was relieved by Jonas Hiller, who made seven more saves.

Lightning 5, Sabres 3
 Steve Eminger and Steve Downie scored 34 seconds apart early in the first period, leading Tampa Bay to its fifth victory in seven games.

Lukas Krajicek, Jeff Halpern and Cory Murphy also scored for the Lightning. Derek Roy scored twice, and Ales Kotalik added a goal for Buffalo.

Copyright AP - Associated Press
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