Blackhawks blank Blues, extend points streak to 20 games

ST. LOUIS: The Chicago Blackhawks extended their NHL-record season-opening points streak to 20 games with a 3-0 win at the St. Louis Blues on Thursday.
Jonathan Toews scored twice, and Ray Emery and Corey Crawford combined on a shutout for the Blackhawks who are 9-0-2 on the road.
Elsewhere, Boston beat Ottawa in overtime to take over second place in the Eastern Conference, Carolina stayed top of the Southeast Division by downing Pittsburgh, keeping their nose in front of Winnipeg which beat New Jersey, while Detroit won a shootout against slumping San Jose and Toronto beat the New York Islanders in overtime.
Dating back to last season, Chicago has a point in its past 26 regular-season games, have won seven in a row overall and beat St. Louis for the fourth-straight time.
Boston’s Patrice Bergeron scored at 3:39 of overtime, awarded after a replay review, to give the Bruins a 2-1 win over the Ottawa Senators.
Nathan Horton also scored for the surging Bruins, who won their fourth straight, while Jim O’Brien scored for the Senators, who had a five-game winning streak snapped.
Carolina’s Jiri Tlusty had two goals and an assist as the Hurricanes beat Pittsburgh 4-1 in ex-Penguin Jordan Staal’s first game against his former team.
Eric Staal had a goal and two assists, Alexander Semin added two assists and Jeff Skinner scored a goal in his first game back from a concussion.
The Southeast Division co-leaders erased an early 1-0 deficit from a Chris Kunitz goal by scoring three in a span of 6 minutes, 14 seconds.
The Winnipeg Jets stayed level on points with Carolina by beating the New Jersey Devils 3-1.
Andrew Ladd scored 8 seconds into the game, tying a franchise record, and finished with two goals and an assist to lead Winnipeg over New Jersey.
Blake Wheeler added an empty-net goal for the Jets, who have won five of six.
Andrei Loktionov had the lone goal for the slumping Devils, who have one win in their past six games.
Detroit’s Damen Brunner scored the lone goal in a shootout and Jonas Gustavsson stopped all three shots in his first start of the season to lead the Red Wings past the San Jose Sharks 2-1.
Patrick Eaves scored Detroit’s equalizer midway through the third period.
Logan Couture scored the only goal for the Sharks, who lost just one regulation win in their past 14 games.
Toronto’s Nazem Kadri had his first career hat trick and Dion Phaneuf scored at 1:11 of overtime to give the Maple Leafs a 5-4 victory over the New York Islanders.
Phaneuf’s fourth goal of the season lifted Toronto to its third straight win. James van Riemsdyk also scored for the Maple Leafs.
New York rallied on third-period goals by Andrew MacDonald and Kyle Okposo after Kadri finished his hat trick to put Toronto up 4-2 at the 14:12 mark of the second. The Islanders also got goals from Josh Bailey and Lubomir Visnovsky.
Minnesota’s Dany Heatley scored two goals as the Wild used a rare offensive outburst to hold off the Phoenix Coyotes and win 4-3.
Edmonton’s Ales Hemsky had a goal and two assists, Jeff Petry added a goal and an assist, and Devan Dubnyk made 33 saves to lead the Oilers to a 5-1 win at the Dallas Stars.
New York’s Carl Hagelin and Derek Stepan scored in a one-sided first period, and the suddenly healthy Rangers snapped a four-game losing streak with a 4-1 victory over the Tampa Bay Lightning.
Colorado’s Gabriel Landeskog had a goal and two assists and the Avalanche scored three times in the third period to rally past the Calgary Flames 5-4.
Buffalo’s Nathan Gerbe scored his first two goals of the season and Ryan Miller made 38 saves as the Sabres beat the struggling Florida Panthers 4-3 in a shootout.