Liles leads Hurricanes rout of Maple Leafs

Defenseman John-Michael Liles’ goal against his former teammates helped push the Hurricane’s winning streak to five games following a 6-1 victory over the Maple Leafs.

Left winger Zach Boychuk, center Jeff Skinner, right winger Patrick Dwyer, center Jordan Staal and center Elias Lindholm also scored for the Hurricanes, who are enjoying their best stretch of success in nearly four years.

Right winger Joffrey Lupul scored for Toronto, which lost its third game in a row.

Elsewhere, the Washington Capitals scored two early goals with the powerplay extra man in a hard fought 4-3 win over the Tampa Bay Lightning.

The winning goal was an even-handed effort, however, as right winger Eric Fehr beat Lightning goaltender Anders Lindback with just 52 seconds remaining in the third period.

Washington (21-16-6) entered the game tied for the NHL lead with 38 power-play goals. Tampa Bay slipped to 26-14-4 following the loss.

The New Jersey Devils emerged with a 1-0 victory over the Dallas Stars.

Goaltender Cory Schneider made 26 saves and right winger Michael Ryder scored the game’s lone goal.

The win ended the Devils’ three-game losing streak while the Stars have now lost four in a row, all in regulation.

Schneider posted his third shutout of the season.

The Florida Panthers secured a 2-1 win over the Buffalo Sabres in a nail biting shootout.

Right winger Brad Boyes scored in regulation and the shootout to lead the Panthers to victory over the Sabres.

After hitting the post four times in regulation, the Panthers reversed their luck on Boyes’ winning shootout goal as
it deflected off the left upright and hit Buffalo goalie Jhonas Enroth before going into the net.

Nail biting shootout

Goalie Tim Thomas had 23 saves for Florida (17-21-6) and was perfect in the shootout.

Defenseman Jamie McBain scored in regulation for Buffalo (12-26-5).

A hat-trick from Minnesota Wild right winger Justin Fontaine helped defeat the Phoenix Coyotes 4-1.

The win improved the Wild to 4-0-0 in 2014 with wins over the Buffalo Sabres, Washington Capitals, Los Angeles Kings and Phoenix.

The latest victory also pushed Minnesota into eighth place in the Western Conference standings, two points ahead of the Coyotes, who fell to 3-6-2 in their past 11 home games since a 9-0-1 start.

The St. Louis Blues stretched their winning run to seven games with a 5-0 victory over the slumping Calgary Flames.

The Blues (31-7-5) are undefeated since a December 23 shootout loss in Calgary, having collected points in 10 straight games.

Blues goaltender Jarsoslav Halak made 33 saves.

The Anaheim Ducks recovered from a two-goal deficit to beat the Nashville Predators 4-3.

The tie was broken by 43-year-old right winger Teemu Selanne at 18:52 in the second period for his fifth goal of the season and 680th of his career.

It was the 15th win in 16 games for Anaheim (33-8-5), which captured its seventh victory in its last eight road games.

Two goals from centre Joe Pavelski lead the San Jose Sharks to a 4-1 victory over the Detroit Red Wings.

Pavelski enjoyed his third multi-goal game of the season and staked claim to the team lead in goals with 21.

The Los Angeles Kings defeated the Boston Bruins 4-2 with winger Justin Williams registering a goal and an assist.

The Kings (27-13-5) bounced back from a shootout loss to the Minnesota Wild on Tuesday by getting additional goals from wingers Dustin Brown and Jeff Carter and defenseman Alec Martinez.

Boston (28-14-2) lost for the fourth time in six games but remained two points ahead of the Tampa Bay Lightning for the lead in the Atlantic Division. Wingers Matt Fraser and Justin Florek scored Bruins’ goals.