NHL roundup: Moulson helps Islanders snap Thrashers' winning streak

ATLANTA — Matt Moulson scored three goals and the New York Islanders snapped the Atlanta Thrashers' four-game winning streak with a 4-1 victory on Thursday night.

It was the first career hat trick for Moulson, who is in his third season in the NHL and first with the Islanders. Rookie forward John Tavares' 11th goal, scored into an empty net with 1 second remaining, made it 4-1.

Moulson, who has a team-leading 14 goals and is tied with Tavares with a club-best 22 points, finished his hat trick at 13:09 of the third period to give New York a 3-1 edge. His other two goals came in the second period.

The Thrashers took a 1-0 lead when Slava Kozlov scored 9:01 into the game.

CAPITALS 6, PANTHERS 2: At Washington, Alexander Semin had two goals and two assists in his return from a wrist injury and Washington hardly missed the suspended Alex Ovechkin, beating Florida for its fourth straight victory.

Ovechkin served the first of a two-game ban levied by the NHL following his ejection Monday for a knee-to-knee hit on the Hurricanes' Tim Gleason. The Capitals are 5-1-1 this season without him.

Brendan Morrison had a goal and two assists, and Tomas Fleischmann, Matt Bradley and Nicklas Backstrom also scored for Washington, 3-0 against the Panthers.

Stephen Weiss and Bryan Allen scored for Florida, which has lost six of seven.

SABRES 6, CANADIENS 2: At Buffalo, N.Y., Clarke MacArthur, Jason Pominville and Derek Roy scored first-period goals, Ryan Miller made 21 saves, and Buffalo topped Montreal.

It was the fourth straight win for Buffalo and the fourth consecutive loss for the Canadiens, who will celebrate their 100th anniversary today.

Miller had few difficult saves until late in notching his 16th win. Tim Kennedy, Andrej Sekera, and Michael Grier also scored for Buffalo, which outshot Montreal 37-23. Thomas Vanek had three assists.

Scott Gomez and Josh Gorges scored for the Canadiens.

OILERS 4, RED WINGS 1: At Detroit, Patrick O'Sullivan scored twice in the second period and Jeff Deslauriers made 27 saves to lift Edmonton over Detroit.

Lubomir Visnovsky and Robert Nilsson had the Oilers' other goals.

Dan Cleary scored for Detroit and Jimmy Howard stopped 32 shots.