NHL: Boston's Thomas blanks Flyers

PHILADELPHIA (AP) - Tim Thomas stopped Scott Hartnell on a second-period penalty shot and finished with 41 saves for his NHL-leading fifth shutout of the season in the Boston Bruins' 3-0 victory over the Philadelphia Flyers on Wednesday night.

Thomas, 12-2-1 with an NHL-best 1.46 goals-against average and .955 save percentage, helped Boston beat Philadelphia in their first meeting since May when the Flyers rallied from a 3-0 series deficit to edge the Bruins in the Eastern Conference semifinals.

Patrice Bergeron, Tyler Seguin and Milan Lucic scored for Boston.

Canucks 7, Flames 2

CALGARY, Alberta (AP) - Mason Raymond had his second career hat trick - scoring at even strength, short-handed and on a power play - and added an assist, leading Vancouver to its third straight victory.

Daniel Sedin, Jeff Tambellini, Alex Burrows and Dan Hamhuis also scored, and Roberto Luongo made 18 saves. The Canucks improved to 13-7-3 and moved a point ahead of Colorado for the Northwest Division lead.

Alex Tanguay and Tim Jackman scored for Calgary. The Flames have lost five of their last seven at home.

Raymond opened the scoring 2 minutes into the first period, and assisted on Tambellini's goal that made it 2-0 at 8:51. Raymond added a short-handed goal at 1:03 of the third to make it 4-2, and completed the hat trick on a power play with 4:23 remaining. He has seven goals in 23 games this season.

Oilers 4, Canadiens 3, OT

MONTREAL (AP) - Dustin Penner scored at 2:28 of overtime and Ales Hemsky had a goal and two assists in Edmonton's comeback victory over Montreal.

Sam Gagner tied it at 3 with a short-handed goal with 6:43 left in the third.

Hemsky returned to the Oilers' lineup after missing three games because of a groin injury. He drew Edmonton to 3-2 with his seventh goal at 10:02 of the third and got his second assist of the game on Gagner's goal after setting up Kurtis Foster's power-play tally late in the first.

Devan Dubnyk made 36 saves to help the Oilers win consecutive games for the first time since the beginning of the season. Roman Hamrlik, Mathieu Darche and Scott Gomez scored for Montreal.

Capitals 4, Blues 1

ST. LOUIS (AP) - Semyon Varlamov made 37 saves for his fourth straight victory since recovering from a groin injury and Washington got back at the goalie who eliminated the Capitals in the playoffs last spring.

Nicklas Backstrom had two goals and an assist to help NHL-leading Washington push its points total to 38. Brooks Laich and Boyd Gordon also scored for the Capitals in their first win in St. Louis since Oct. 26, 1996.

The Capitals got a goal in each period against Jaroslav Halak, who bedeviled them during heavy underdog Montreal's first-round upset of the overall No. 1 seed last spring. Halak allowed one goal in each of the final three games of the series, facing a total of 131 shots.

Alex Steen scored for St. Louis.

Predators 4, Blue Jackets 3, SO

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) - Longtime Columbus nemesis Steve Sullivan scored the only goal in the shootout for Nashville, and Pekka Rinne stopped Jake Voracek, Rick Nash and Antoine Vermette in the tiebreaker.

Colin Wilson, Sergei Kostitsyn and Kevin Klein scored in regulation for Nashville.

Vermette scored twice and Kris Russell added a goal for Columbus.

The Predators are 41-13-4-1 against the Blue Jackets, going 24-4-2 since 2006-07.

Coyotes 4, Wild 2

ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) - Scottie Upshall scored twice, Ed Jovanovski and Lauri Korpikoski added goals, and backup Jason LaBarbera made 33 saves for Phoenix

Pierre-Marc Bouchard returned to the Wild lineup after a 104-game absence, the product of lingering post-concussion symptoms, but his presence didn't give the home team much of a spark.

Matt Cullen and Mikko Koivu scored for Minnesota.

Ducks 5, Panthers 3

ANAHEIM, Calif. (AP) - Ducks enforcer George Parros had his first two-goal game in the NHL, Ryan Getzlaf and Corey Perry each had a goal and an assist, and Jonas Hiller made 29 saves for Anaheim.

Both of Parros' goals were set up by Kyle Chipchura, the first points of the season for Chipchura in 14 games. Bobby Ryan scored into an empty net in the final minute, securing Anaheim's third straight win after six consecutive losses and putting them into a three-way tie with Dallas and Phoenix for the Pacific Division lead.

Steve Bernier had two power play-goals in his return to Florida's lineup and Mike Santorelli also scored.