NHL roundup

Red Wings 4, Canadiens 2

DETROIT

Pavel Datsyuk and Jimmy Howard ended the Detroit Red Wings’ losing streak. Datsyuk had a goal and an assist and Howard made 36 saves to help Detroit beat the Montreal Canadiens 4-2 on Friday night in the matchup between Original Six rivals. Nicklas Lidstrom, Niklas Kronwall and Patrick Eaves also scored to help the Red Wings snapped their losing streak at three. Howard was outstanding in the third period, stopping 18 of 19 shots. The biggest was a spectacular glove save while flat on his back on P.K. Subban’s shot off a rebound with 2:39 left. “It was just fluttering. He’s a good goaltender. If he saw it, he was going to stop it,” Subban said. “If I would have gotten more wood on it, maybe he wouldn’t have seen it and it might’ve went in. But I was only able to chip it with one hand.” Howard also outdueled Montreal’s Carey Price, who leads NHL goalies with 17 wins. Howard is second with 16. “It’s a pride thing. It doesn’t matter who is a the other end, I don’t want to lose. I want to play my best,” Howard said. “I don’t think it has anything to do if it’s the [Columbus Blue Jackets’] Steve Mason or Carey Price. I pride myself being the best every single day.” Travis Moen and Benoit Pouliot scored for Montreal. Price stopped 28 shots.

Avalanche 4, Thrashers 2

ATLANTA

Milan Hejduk gave Colorado the lead 42 seconds into the third period, and Craig Anderson stopped 24 shots to help Colorado end a five-game road losing streak. Tomas Fleischmann and Greg Mauldin also scored and the Avalanche ended the Thrashers’ home winning streak at six. Niclas Bergfors and Bryan Little scored for Atlanta.

Stars 2, Hurricanes 1, SO

DALLAS

Brad Richards converted in the second round of the shootout, and James Neal scored in regulation for Dallas. Richards got the puck past Cam Ward after a series of head fakes, and Stars goalie Andrew Raycroft denied Eric Staal in the third round to secure the extra point. With No. 1 goalie Lehtonen out with lower back stiffness, Raycroft made 22 saves. Raycroft also is expected to start Saturday night at Phoenix. Jiri Tlusty scored in regulation for Carolina.

Senators 3, Devils 2

OTTAWA

Pascal Leclaire called the Ottawa Senators’ victory over the New Jersey Devils “a good win”, though either of the two struggling teams would have gladly settled for a bad or ugly victory, too. Milan Michalek and Jarkko Ruutu scored 2:16 apart midway through the second, spoiling Martin Brodeur’s return to New Jersey’s lineup in Ottawa’s 3-2 victory Friday night. Erik Karlsson had a goal and an assist and Leclaire stopped 29 shots for the Senators, coming off a 4-3 loss to the New York Rangers on Thursday night. “Both teams are fighting hard for points right now,” Leclaire said. “We’re both not in a situation we expected to be in the standings so it was a pretty hard-fought game and it’s good for us. Hopefully we can build some confidence out of it.” Brodeur made 26 saves in his first appearance in eight games following a right elbow injury as the Devils’ losing streak stretched to four. “It’s more of the same for us,” Brodeur said. “We could cry all about it all we want but we’re the ones playing the game and we put ourselves in the situation that we need breaks all the time. If we played well right from the get-go it would have been a lot different.” The NHL’s career victories and shutouts leader,

Associated Press