Tuesday's NHL Capsules

ST. LOUIS (AP) - Jaroslav Halak shrugged off his shaky start to the season, making 29 saves as the St. Louis Blues won coach Ken Hitchcock's debut with a 3-0 victory over the Chicago Blackhawks on Tuesday night.

Chris Stewart scored on the power play to end a 10-game goal drought. Vladimir Sobotka and T.J. Oshie also scored and Barret Jackman had two assists for the Blues, whose 6-7 start cost coach Davis Payne his job.

Stewart's deflection in the second period was only the fourth goal in 41 power-play opportunities for St. Louis, which entered as the NHL's worst team with the man advantage.

Red Wings 5, Avalanche 2

DETROIT (AP) - Johan Franzen scored three goals, and suddenly Detroit rolled over Colorado.

Detroit has won two straight with a combined 10 goals after scoring a total of six in a six-game skid following a 5-0 start.

Nicklas Lidstrom started the scoring midway through the first period. Franzen gave the Red Wings a three-goal lead in the second period and chased goalie Semyon Varlamov.

Dan Cleary scored off his own rebound against Jean-Sebastien Giguere to essentially seal the win with 5:14 left.

Milan Hejduk pulled the Avalanche within two goals a couple minutes later, but Franzen scored an empty-net goal with 31.3 seconds left after Giguere was pulled for an extra skater.

Gabriel Landeskog scored the only goal for the Avalanche (7-7-1), who are in a 1-5-1 slide.

Stars 5, Capitals 2

WASHINGTON (AP) - Michael Ryder scored twice, Adam Burish had the tiebreaking goal early in the third period, and Dallas beat Washington to snap the Capitals' six-game home winning streak.

Kari Lehtonen stopped 30 shots for the Stars, who have won four straight and own the NHL's best record (11-3).

Burish put Dallas ahead to stay at 34 seconds of the third period, and Jamie Benn and Eric Nystrom scored in a 32-second span to make it 5-2 with 11:55 left.

Trevor Daley had two assists for the Stars, giving him 100 for his career. Benn also had two assists.

Alexander Semin and John Carlson scored for the Capitals, whose 6-0 start at home was the best in franchise history. Washington has dropped two in a row overall following a 9-2 start. Michal Neuvirth had 31 saves.

Devils 3, Hurricanes 2

NEWARK, N.J. (AP) - Rookie center Adam Henrique scored with 3:19 left to lift New Jersey over Carolina. The Devils earned their third straight win, and the Hurricanes dropped their third straight.

Henrique inadvertently sent Joni Pitkanen's pass past Martin Brodeur for a goal that tied the game at 2-2 at 6:06 of the third period.

But Henrique made up for that by skating around goalie Cam Ward and sliding the puck under him for the winning goal. It was the rookie's second straight game-winner after scoring in overtime to beat Winnipeg on Saturday.

Dainius Zubrus and Petr Sykora also scored for New Jersey. Brandon Sutter had a short-handed goal for Carolina.

Sabres 6, Jets 5, OT

BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP) - Thomas Vanek scored a power-play goal 4:35 into overtime, tipping in Jason Pominville's shot, in Buffalo's victory over Winnipeg.

Vanek scored twice and Pominville finished with a goal and two assists. Derek Roy had two goals and an assist, forcing overtime by scoring a power-play goal with 6:08 left in regulation to help Buffalo extend its winning streak to three games.

Bryan Little scored twice, and Dustin Byfuglien and Tanner Glass each had a goal and an assist for the Jets, who went 3-2-2 on their longest road trip of the season.

The Sabres never led until Vanek's winning goal. They trailed 2-0 before the game was six minutes old.

Panthers 5, Maple Leafs 1

TORONTO (AP) - Florida took advantage of shaky Toronto goalie Jonas Gustavsson and routed the Maple Leafs.

Jack Skille, Marco Sturm, Tomas Kopecky, Sean Bergenheim and Shawn Matthias had the goals for Florida (7-4-3), off to its best start since the 1996-97 season.

The Maple Leafs (9-5-1), struggling without injured goalie James Reimer, were booed by the home fans for the second straight game after Gustavsson surrendered three soft goals.

Phil Kessel scored Toronto's lone goal.

Reimer has missed eight games because of concussion symptoms following a hit by Montreal's Brian Gionta on Oct. 22. There is no timetable for Reimer's return.

The Maple Leafs ended a scoreless streak of 137 minutes, 59 seconds when Kessel scored his NHL-leading 11th goal.

Oilers 3, Canadiens 1

MONTREAL (AP) - Nikolai Khabibulin made 28 saves, and Ryan Jones scored a short-handed goal in the second period to send Edmonton past Montreal.

Tom Gilbert scored at 16:28 of the third to put Edmonton up 2-0. Ryan Smyth scored into an empty net with 42.4 seconds remaining.

Khabibulin, who has allowed nine goals in nine games, came within 3:10 of posting his third shutout of the season. He has yet to lose in regulation, improving to 7-0-2.

Montreal's Max Pacioretty scored 22 seconds after Gilbert to make it 2-1.

Carey Price stopped 11 shots for the Canadiens, who have lost two in a row after a four-game winning streak.

Ales Hemsky and Cam Barker both returned to the Oilers' lineup. Hemsky missed 11 games with a right shoulder injury. Barker, who also had an injured shoulder, missed three games.

Wild 3, Flames 0

CALGARY, Alberta (AP) - Niklas Backstrom stopped 41 shots and Minnesota beat Calgary for its fifth straight victory.

Dany Heatley had a goal and an assist for the Wild. Darroll Powe and Guillaume Latendresse also scored.

The Flames had seven power-play opportunities, including a 5-minute man advantage, but couldn't get the puck past Backstrom in his first start since Oct. 27. Backup goalie Josh Harding had started and won the Wild's previous four games, allowing only three goals during that span.

Flames goalie Miikka Kiprusoff made 23 saves.