Burns helps Wild get past Sharks in OT

Brent Burns scored at 1:38 of overtime to give the Minnesota Wild a 3-2 victory over the San Jose Sharks last night in St. Paul, Minn.

Burns took a cross-ice pass from Mikko Koivu and beat Evgeni Nabokov over the left shoulder. Owen Nolan also scored in his return to the Minnesota lineup, and Krys Kolanos added a goal.

Devin Setoguchi scored twice for the Sharks, the second with 25.2 seconds left in regulation with Nabokov off for an extra attacker.

San Jose lost for just the second time in regulation in 21 games. The loss was the first in nine games against Minnesota for San Jose, which regained the lead for most points in the NHL, one more than the Bruins.

Minnesota thought it had a 2-1 lead when Kolanos's shot from the right circle went into the net with under six minutes to play. However, the puck quickly caromed out of the net, referee Stephane Auger waved no goal, and play continued. James Sheppard scored from in front 28 seconds later, but after officials reviewed Kolanos's goal, it was determined to be good.

Setoguchi tied it in the final minute, fighting off Burns to score off a rebound.

Hurricanes 3, Thrashers 1 - Sergei Samsonov had two goals and an assist to lead host Carolina past Atlanta.

Joe Corvo also scored after Samsonov snapped out of a two-goals-in-10-games slump for the Hurricanes. They have won five of eight while picking up points in nine of their 13 games under coach Paul Maurice.

Ilya Kovalchuk scored to end the longest scoring drought of his career - nine games - but couldn't prevent the Thrashers from losing their fourth straight. The NHL's second-worst team is 5-14-3 since capping a franchise-record-tying five-game winning streak with a mid-November home-and-home sweep of the Hurricanes.

Stars 4, Devils 2 - Loui Eriksson scored Dallas's first shorthanded goal of the season and added an empty-netter with 40 seconds left to help the Stars end visiting New Jersey's three-game winning streak.

Mark Parrish had a power-play goal, and Landon Wilson also scored for Dallas. Marty Turco made 25 saves for the Stars, 5-1-1 in their last seven.

Turco stopped Patrik Elias on a breakaway with 3:05 left and made a sliding save on Devils top scorer Zach Parise's shot from the left circle with about 14 minutes remaining to preserve the 3-2 lead. Parise had three goals in his previous two games.

Scott Clemmensen stopped 41 shots for the Devils.

Coyotes 3, Avalanche 1 - Peter Mueller scored twice in a 2:05 span in the second period and host Phoenix beat Colorado.

Olli Jokinen also scored, Shane Doan had a pair of assists, and Mikael Tellqvist made 28 saves in place of the ailing Ilya Bryzgalov, allowing only T.J. Hensick's goal.

Phoenix won for the second time in three games, and has earned at least a point in nine of its last 11 games. Colorado had won its previous three games.

Islanders 4, Panthers 2 - Mike Comrie scored twice in New York's three-goal second period - first with his skate and then with his stick - to help beat visiting Florida.

After Brett McLean gave the Panthers a 1-0 lead with 1:36 left in the first period, the Islanders took over. Comrie stretched his goal streak to three games with the tying tally, and put New York in front later in the frame.

Blue Jackets 2, Ducks 0 - Craig MacDonald and Michael Peca scored third-period goals and Steve Mason made 27 saves to lift visiting Columbus.