Minnesota wins wild one against Penguins

Marek Zidlicky scored the only goal in the shootout and the visiting Minnesota Wild benefited from a goal Pittsburgh put into its net for a 2-1 victory last night that ended the Penguins' six-game win streak.

Niklas Backstrom, 3-0 in shootouts this season, stopped 24 of 25 shots before turning aside Petr Sykora, Alex Goligoski, and Sidney Crosby in the tiebreaker.

"To keep them to one goal, that's a big effort," said Backstrom, who has allowed six goals while winning four of five. "You always want to compare yourself against the best teams out there, and you try to get up there. Your team gets confidence when you beat them."

Especially when a team is scoring as infrequently as Minnesota is, with only 15 goals in the last eight. But the Wild are allowing fewer than two goals per game, and their NHL-leading, penalty-killing unit stopped all four Penguins power play attempts.

One came during the final 1:28 of overtime following Brent Burns's high-sticking penalty.

Minnesota's only goal in regulation was credited to Andrew Brunette at 7:57 of the first, although he had no hand - or stick - in his seventh of the season.

Mikko Koivu appeared to win a draw from Mike Zigomanis, but the puck bounced off a linesman's leg and deflected to Zigomanis.

He shoveled it backward to defenseman Hal Gill, only to have the puck trickle between goalie Dany Sabourin's pads and in.

Hurricanes 2, Canadiens 1 - Sergei Samsonov and Ray Whitney scored 3 1/2 minutes apart in the third period to help host Carolina rally past Montreal.

Whitney followed Samsonov's first goal of the season with the go-ahead score with 13:27 remaining.

Montreal's Carey Price made a career-high 46 saves.

Panthers 4, Lightning 3 - Bryan McCabe scored twice in regulation and Nathan Horton had the lone goal in a shootout for Florida against host Tampa Bay.

Tomas Vokoun made 49 saves for the Panthers; Tampa Bay's 52 shots set a team record.

Oilers 7, Blue Jackets 2 - Shawn Horcoff had a goal and two assists to lead seven multiple-point scorers, and visiting Edmonton snapped a three-game losing streak.

Sheldon Souray, Andrew Cogliano, Tom Gilbert, and Lubomir Visnovsky had a goal and an assist, and Marc Pouliot and Dustin Penner scored for the Oilers, who went nearly 20 minutes without putting a puck on net.

Blackhawks 3, Coyotes 2 - Nikolai Khabibulin made 36 saves through overtime, then stopped two shots in the shootout as Chicago won at Glendale, Ariz.

Patrick Sharp and Jonathan Toews scored in the shootout and Sharp also had a goal in regulation for the Blackhawks, who snapped a three-game losing streak. Kris Versteeg also scored for Chicago.

Flames 4, Avalanche 1 - Rene Bourque, Adrian Aucoin, Jarome Iginla, and David Moss scored for host Calgary, which blitzed Peter Budaj and Colorado with 51 shots.