Atlanta, in OT, wins 3rd straight

ATLANTA — Peter Bondra scored 1:03 into overtime to give the Atlanta Thrashers a 6-5 win over New Jersey on Thursday night and a four-game season sweep of the Devils.

Bondra knocked in a rebound shot from Andy Sutton, whose shot bounced off New Jersey goaltender Martin Brodeur's chest and onto Bondra's stick.

It was the Thrashers third straight win and eighth in 10 games and New Jersey's fifth loss in six games and lifted Atlanta within a point of the Devils for seventh place in the Eastern Conference playoff race. The top eight teams make the postseason. Atlanta has 12 games left and New Jersey has 13.

The Thrashers overcame a 4-1 third-period deficit, scoring four times in the final period.

Patrick Stefan, Vyacheslav Kozlov, Bobby Holik, Ilya Kovalchuk and Marian Hossa all scored for Atlanta.

Zach Parise, Jamie Langenbrunner, Brad Lukovich, Brian Gionda, Patrik Elias tallied for New Jersey.

RED WINGS 4, SHARKS 0: At Detroit, Manny Legace stopped 28 shots to record his 12th career shutout and lift the Red Wings over San Jose. Tomas Holmstrom, Jason Williams, Steve Yzerman and Mikael Samuelsson each scored for Detroit. Robert Lang and Nicklas Lidstrom added two assists. It was Legace's sixth shutout of the season, which is second to Calgary's Miikka Kiprusoff, who has eight.

San Jose goaltender Evgeni Nabokov made 26 saves.

CANADIENS 5, MAPLE LEAFS 1: At Montreal, Alex Kovalev scored his 18th to cap Montreal's four-goal first period. Kovalev, who extended his scoring streak to eight games with an assist on Mathieu Dandenault's goal 4:47 in, scored Montreal's second goal in as many power-play opportunities in the opening period to put Montreal up 4-0 at 17:56. Chris Higgins and Sheldon Souray also scored for Montreal in the opening period. Alexander Perezhogin added a goal in the second and Cristobal Huet made 33 saves for Montreal, which remains ninth in the Eastern Conference, one point behind eighth-place Atlanta for the final playoff spot.

FLAMES 7, BLUES 2: At St. Louis, defenseman Roman Hamrlik scored two goals to help Calgary beat the reeling Blues. Defenseman Jordan Leopold scored his first goal of the season and added two assists for the Flames, who have won just two of their last five games. The Flames took a 1-0 lead in the first period on Darren McCarty's goal at 12:26. The Blues then scored four goals in the second period to turn the game into a rout.

Shean Donovan, Robyn Regehr, and Chuck Kobasew tallied goals for the Flames.