No points for Sabres, Canadiens

Despite their shootout loss to the Rangers at Madison Square Garden, the Bruins gained ground on their Northeast Division pursuers as all four - Buffalo, Montreal, Toronto, and Ottawa - lost in regulation last night.

In Pittsburgh, Jordan Staal had two goals, including the tiebreaker late in the third period, and the Penguins scored four third-period goals to rally for their sixth straight victory, 5-2 over the Sabres.

Ruslan Fedotenko, Alex Goligoski, and Evgeni Malkin also scored to help Pittsburgh win for the sixth time this season when trailing after two periods.

Marc-Andre Fleury made 21 saves for the Penguins.

Thomas Vanek and Jason Pominville scored for Buffalo. The second-place Sabres, who trail the Bruins by 3 points in the Northeast, lost for the second straight night after falling, 6-1, at home to Columbus.

With the score tied, 2-2, Staal beat Ryan Miller with just more than four minutes left in the third period. Fedotenko's goal made it 4-2, and Staal finished off the scoring with an empty-netter.

"The work was there," Buffalo coach Lindy Ruff said. "We were pretty smart all night. We gave it away in basically six minutes."

Flyers 2, Canadiens 1 - Scottie Upshall and Jeff Carter scored second-period goals to lead visiting Philadelphia, which ended a seven-game regular-season losing streak against Montreal.

Martin Biron stopped 24 shots for Philadelphia, which eliminated Montreal from the playoffs in five games last spring.

Upshall scored his second goal of the season 5:30 into the second, and Carter got his team-leading 11th at 15:36 to increase the lead to 2-0.

Alex Tanguay scored 9:44 into the third to draw Montreal within one, mere moments after the Canadiens had an apparent goal by Guillaume Latendresse waved off because the net had become displaced.

Jaroslav Halak made 29 saves for Montreal, which lost consecutive games in regulation for the first time this season and fell 4 points behind the Bruins. The Canadiens are 1-3-1 since starting the season 8-1-1.

Devils 6, Capitals 5 - Zach Parise scored the only goal in the shootout and Scott Clemmensen stopped all three Washington shooters as host New Jersey ended its four-game losing streak and Washington's five-game winning streak.

After Parise, New Jersey's first shooter, beat Jose Theodore with a deke, Clemmensen turned away Viktor Kozlov, Alex Ovechkin, and Boyd Gordon.

In regulation, Patrik Elias scored twice for New Jersey. Ovechkin sent the game into overtime with his second goal, coming with a second left in regulation.

Canucks 4, Maple Leafs 2 - Pavol Demitra had three assists after missing 10 games because of broken rib cartilage, and Roberto Luongo made 28 saves in host Vancouver's victory over Toronto. Demitra set up goals by Kyle Wellwood, Ryan Kesler, and Daniel Sedin.

Stars 3, Coyotes 2 - In Glendale, Ariz., Loui Eriksson scored twice as Dallas snapped a three-game losing streak with its second win in seven games.

Islanders 3, Senators 2 - Jon Sim had a goal and an assist, Joey MacDonald stopped 38 shots, and host New York beat Ottawa for the second time in three nights.

Avalanche 3, Oilers 2 - Darcy Tucker scored on a two-man advantage with 10.7 seconds left in regulation, then added the winner in the fifth round of a shootout in Colorado's victory in Edmonton.

Predators 3, Kings 1 - J.P. Dumont scored the go-ahead goal during a power play with 2:28 left, leading visiting Nashville past Los Angeles.

Wild 3, Blue Jackets 2 - Marek Zidlicky and Antti Miettinen scored in the shootout to lift host Minnesota past Columbus.