SAN JOSE, California (AP) San Jose’s Czech center Tomas Hertl scored 1:12 into overtime to give the Sharks a 4-3 victory over Dallas on Saturday, denying the Stars a return to the top of the NHL’s Central Division.
Hertl’s shot beat his former teammate Antti Niemi, with the goaltender making his return to San Jose to warm applause.
The slumping Stars remained a point behind idle Chicago and four points ahead of St. Louis, who won in overtime against Montreal.
In other key results, two divisional leaders lost: Washington was convincingly beaten by a Buffalo team which had been struggling on home ice, and Ottawa came from two goals down in the third period to stun Los Angeles.
San Jose’s Marc-Edouard Vlasic scored twice and Chris Tierney also netted to give the Sharks three straight home wins for the first time since last January.
Ales Hemsky, Tyler Seguin and Jason Spezza scored for the Stars, who have lost six of seven overall and seven straight on the road.
St. Louis’ Jori Lehtera scored 2:04 into overtime to give the Blues a 4-3 win against Montreal.
Brian Elliott made a career-high 46 saves, Ty Rattie tied the game with 5:25 left, and Robby Fabbri and Paul Stastny also scored for the Blues.
P.K. Subban, Max Pacioretty and Tomas Plekanec scored for the Canadiens, who have won only five of their past 20 games to slide from the top of the Atlantic Division to fifth.
Buffalo handed Washington goaltender Braden Holtby a rare loss by beating the Capitals 4-1.
Evander Kane had a goal and an assist, Chad Johnson stopped 33 shots, while Phil Varone, Tim Schaller and Cody Franson also scored for the Sabres, who had lost their previous six home games.
Marcus Johansson scored the sole goal for the Capitals.
Holtby had gone 23 games without a loss in regulation time.
Ottawa scored three goals in just over five minutes of the third period to rock Los Angeles and record a 5-3 win.
Bobby Ryan and Jean-Gabriel Pageau scored 26 seconds apart early in the third and Mike Zibanejad put the Senators ahead with 6:50 to play.
Alex Chiasson also scored and Mark Borowiecki added an empty-net goal.
Jeff Carter, Tyler Toffoli and Vincent Lecavalier scored for the Kings.
Nashville halted a run of five successive losses by downing Minnesota 3-0.
Backup goalie Carter Hutton replaced Pekka Rinne and made 29 saves for his third career shutout.
Eric Nystrom, Roman Josi and Filip Forsberg scored for the Predators, who handed the Wild a fourth straight defeat.
The New York Rangers beat Philadelphia 3-2 after a shootout, giving goalie Henrik Lundqvist a 20th win for the 11th straight season. He joins Martin Brodeur and Tony Esposito as the only goalies to have done that, and the Swede is the first to do it in his opening 11 seasons.
New Jersey goaltender Cory Schneider made 38 saves for his fourth shutout of the season, leading the Devils to a 2-0 win against Arizona.
Boston’s Brad Marchand scored with 47 seconds left to lift the Bruins to a 3-2 win over Toronto.
Columbus also had a late winner, with Jack Johnson scoring with 1:07 left off an opponent’s skate to give the Blue Jackets a 2-1 win against Colorado.
Edmonton’s Teddy Purcell scored in the shootout, giving the Oilers a 2-1 victory against Calgary.
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