NHL

DALLAS (AP) Dallas boosted its NHL-best record with a 3-0 home win against Buffalo on Saturday, with goaltender Antti Niemi getting his second shutout this season. Jamie Benn scored two third-period goals for the Stars, who have five straight wins and moved six points clear atop the Central Division, ahead...

Erik Karlsson stood outside the visiting locker room, munching on a celebratory slice of pizza. Must have tasted pretty good. Karlsson spent the evening on the ice for the first time in about 2½ months, and he and the Ottawa Senators are heading back to the NHL postseason. They might even...

DENVER (AP) The Colorado Avalanche have placed captain Gabriel Landeskog on injured reserve with a lower-body injury. The move is retroactive to Nov. 15. In video posted on the team's website Wednesday, coach Jared Bednar says he hopes Landeskog is more ''day to day than week to week.'' Landeskog has four...

Nazem Kadri had three assists and Joffrey Lupul added a goal and an assist as the Toronto Maple Leafs snapped a five-game winless skid with a 4-2 victory over the Tampa Bay Lightning on Wednesday night. Dion Phaneuf, Tyler Bozak and Nikolai Kulemin also scored for Toronto. Kadri's three...

DALLAS (AP) Ken Hitchcock feels like he is coming home with his return to the Dallas Stars, more than 15 years after they fired the coach who led them to their only Stanley Cup championship. Hitchcock also knows his re-introduction to Dallas is about now - not then. ''I study history....

SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) Pete DeBoer has spent little time since taking over as coach of the San Jose Sharks figuring what went wrong last year when the team missed the playoffs for the first time since 2003.He'd rather let the players make their own impressions when training...

For 120 minutes over two games, New York Rangers goalie Henrik Lundqvist stopped every single shot Alex Ovechkin and the Washington Capitals threw at him. That's the main reason the Rangers are heading to the Eastern Conference semifinals. Led by Lundqvist's 35 saves in a second consecutive shutout, and goals from...

ST. LOUIS (AP) Artemi Panarin scored 25 seconds into overtime and Corey Crawford made 27 saves to lead the Chicago Blackhawks over the St. Louis Blues 2-1 on Wednesday night. Crawford won his sixth consecutive game and improved to 15-5-5 against the Blues as Chicago recorded their seventh straight win. Panarin...

The Phoenix Coyotes have signed forward Henrik Samuelsson, their first-round draft pick last year, to a three-year entry-level contract. Coyotes general manager Don Maloney announced the signing Monday, but didn't disclose financial details. The 19-year-old Samuelsson is from Scottsdale and is the son of former NHL defenseman and ex-Coyotes assistant...

MONTREAL (AP) Ottawa's Mark Stone and Erik Karlsson scored 2:24 apart in the third period, helping the Senators rally to win 4-3 at NHL-leading Montreal on Tuesday. Elsewhere, St. Louis won at Boston to push its winning run to four games, and Philadelphia also won on the road, beating Florida. Ottawa's...

Buffalo Sabres defenseman Andrej Sekera has been ruled out against the Florida Panthers on Sunday because of a lower body injury. Coach Lindy Ruff said before the game that Sekera will miss at least a few days and potentially longer. Sekera was hurt Saturday, when he was struck in the leg...

Things are going so well for the Montreal Canadiens that even the kids they are bringing up from the minor leagues are contributing. Making his NHL debut, big defenseman Jarred Tinordi set up Tomas Plekanec's tiebreaking goal in the third period, and the Canadiens extended their winning streak to...