Roundup: Jaroslav Halak leads surging Blues past Stars - USA TODAY

ST. LOUIS (AP) â€" The St. Louis Blues thought they had solved their goaltending issues when they traded for Jaroslav Halak in 2010.

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  By Dilip Vishwanat, Getty Images

  Blues goalie Jaroslav Halak (41) makes a save against the Stars during their game in St. Louis on Tuesday. Halak made 22 saves in his shutout victory over Dallas.

By Dilip Vishwanat, Getty Images

Blues goalie Jaroslav Halak (41) makes a save against the Stars during their game in St. Louis on Tuesday. Halak made 22 saves in his shutout victory over Dallas.

After some bumpy stretches, Halak is starting to live up to his team's lofty expectations.

Halak continued a strong stretch of recent play Monday night by making 22 saves en route to his third shutout and the St. Louis Blues blanked the Dallas Stars 1-0.

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He is not taking all the credit for his recent success, though.

"Guys are scoring big goals for me," Halak said. "It's all timing. Sometimes I need to make the key saves for them to keep the score tied and sometimes, they come up big for me. It's a combination right now."

T.J. Oshie came through for Halak on Monday, as his goal at 11:26 of the third period broke a scoreless tie.

The Blues have earned 13 out of a possible 14 points this month (6-0-1) and are tied with the New York Rangers and Chicago Blackhawks atop the NHL standings with 60 points.

St. Louis improved to 19-3-3 at the Scottrade Center and set a single-season club record by earning at least a point at home for the 13th straight game.

"Getting into the 60s is good," Blues coach Ken Hitchcock said. "If we can quickly plow a way and get through the 70s now, there's light at the end of the tunnel. For me, it's about the points."

Halak, who has 19 career shutouts, has been a big part of that streak, going 9-0-3 in his past 12 starts. He did not have any margin for error Monday.

"We knew it was going to be tight going in," Halak said. "After the second period when it was tied, we just needed to play our game."

Dallas lost for only the second time when allowing two or fewer goals (20-2-0). The Stars were blanked 1-0 by the Los Angeles Kings on Oct. 22.

"We worked hard against a very good club," Dallas coach Glen Gulutzan said. "We got into a position to have some success. We got it into a next goal win game and it just wasn't us that got it."

Stars goalie Kari Lehtonen (31 saves) was the hard-luck loser. In 10 career starts against St. Louis, Lehtonen has yet to allow more than two goals.

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"When we went to the third period, we felt pretty good," Lehtonen said. "They took it up another level and were able to get that one goal, which was all that was needed today."

Lehtonen frustrated the Blues for more than 50 minutes Monday before Oshie and David Perron broke into the offensive zone and executed a perfect give-and-go.

Oshie got the puck back in the slot and deked Lehtonen out of position before sliding the puck into the net. Oshie's goal at 11:26 of the third period was his 14th.

"They made a nice pass," Lehtonen said. "I kind of felt like he was going to shoot right away and tried to get over. He's a great player and he can see I'm doing that and held on to the puck and made it look pretty easy."

Oshie said that move dates back to his youth hockey days.

"My coach Mike Murphy in pee-wee's always told me any pass down low, grab it and cut back across," Oshie said. "Since it was on my backhand, right away when he started sliding across, I knew what I was doing."

NOTES: Blues defenseman Alex Pietrangelo had his six-game scoring streak snapped. … Stars leading scorer Jamie Benn was a scratch as he recovers from an appendectomy early Sunday. … The Blues have not allowed a third-period goal in nine games. … Dallas' Loui Eriksson was called for hooking in the third period, just his third penalty of the season. Eriksson is one of four NHL players with at least 40 points and less than 10 penalty minutes (40 points, six penalty minutes). … Dallas is 3 for 39 on the power play in its past 12 games.

Bruins 3, Panthers 2 (SO)

SUNRISE, Fla. â€"Patrice Bergeron scored two goals and David Krejci scored the winner in the shootout and Boston beat Florida.

Bergeron scored two goals for Boston, and Tuukka Rask stopped 38 shots.

Jason Garrison and Shawn Matthias scored goals for Florida, and Scott Clemmensen made 33 saves.

Bergeron also had a goal in the shootout for Boston, and Stephen Weiss had a shootout goal for Florida.

Bergeron's second goal of the game came during a two-man advantage and put the Bruins ahead 2-1.

Tyler Seguin shot from the slot and Bergeron deflected the puck under Clemmensen's legs at 14:40 of the second.

The Panthers answered back just over a minute later. As Matthias was coming out of the penalty box, he took a pass from Tomas Kopecky. Matthias skated in on Rask and his wrist shot got past him at 15:54.

Stephen Weiss got an assist on the goal, giving him the Panthers franchise record for assists with 232, passing Olli Jokinen.

The Panthers tied it at 1 on Garrison's goal at 8:28 of the second.

The Panthers brought the puck out from behind the net to Mike Weaver above the right circle. He passed across to Garrison above the left circle and his slap shot bounced off Boston's Dennis Seidenberg and into the net. Garrison leads all NHL defensemen with 12 goals.

Boston took a 1-0 lead just 80 seconds in. Bergeron took a shot from above the high slot that got past Clemmensen on the stick side. It was the fourth straight game the Panthers gave up the first goal.

Jets 2, Senators 0

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OTTAWA â€" Chris Mason made 25 saves for his second shutout and the Winnipeg Jets ended a three-game losing streak with a 2-0 win over the Ottawa Senators.

Jim Slater scored 49 seconds in to give Winnipeg an early 1-0 lead. Tobias Enstrom scored in the second period for the Jets, who had lost five of six.

Mason got his 23rd career shutout. Chris Neil and Bobby Butler both put shots off the crossbar late in the third.

Craig Anderson, who was selected as the NHL's first star of the week earlier in the day, stopped 33 shots for Ottawa, which ended a four-game winning streak.

The Senators, who were shut out for the first time this season, lost in regulation for the first time in 10 games (8-1-1).

Blake Wheeler, Zach Bogosian and Dustin Byfuglien were all out of Winnipeg's lineup. Wheeler did not make the trip after he was struck in the throat by a puck in Saturday's loss to New Jersey.

Bogosian missed his third consecutive game because of a lower-body injury. Byfuglien has been sidelined for nine games with a knee injury.

Slater scored his first goal in seven games since returning from an upper-body injury that sidelined him for a pair of games. He tipped Chris Thorburn's shot past Anderson for his eighth goal.

Enstrom scored his second goal â€" his first since Oct. 19 â€" to put Winnipeg up by two 6:48 into the second. The Swedish defenseman took Kyle Wellwood's pass and drove a slap shot along the ice through Anderson's pads while Winnipeg captain Andrew Ladd jumped in front of the Ottawa goalie as he provided a screen.

Mason's closest call before the two shots off the crossbar came 5:14 into the third. A video review confirmed that he kept the puck from crossing the goal line after Ottawa captain Daniel Alfredsson's shot off the end boards bounced back toward the net off Winnipeg defenseman Mark Stuart's left skate.

Neil got an extra roughing penalty at 17:45 of the first when he went after Jets left wing Evander Kane, who leveled Senators All-Star defenseman Erik Karlsson earlier in the opening period.

Ottawa defenseman Matt Carkner and Stuart got fighting majors.

Predators 3, Islanders 1

UNIONDALE, N.Y. â€" Sergei Kostitsyn and Matt Halischuk scored on Nashville's first two shots against Islanders goalie Kevin Poulin, and the surging Predators rolled to a victory over New York in a holiday matinee.

David Legwand also finished a precision three-way passing play to close out the dominating first period for the Predators, who won for the eighth time in nine games and are 14-4 in their past 18.

Pekka Rinne made 36 saves for his 24th win, second in the NHL. He was denied his fourth shutout of the season when John Tavares extended his career-best point streak to nine games by scoring a goal with 3:58 remaining. Rinne's best stop came midway through the second period when he made a quick glove save to turn aside Tavares during New York's two-man power play.

Rinne also stood his ground in the closing seconds of the middle period when the Islanders threatened with a flurry in front of the crease.

Nashville (26-15-4) has 56 points, four behind the NHL lead, but is only fourth in the tough Central Division.

The Islanders dropped to 5-9-1 against Nashville and haven't beaten the Predators in regulation since April 11, 2002. It was a disappointing end to New York's homestand in which the Islanders went 2-2. They had been 15-1-7 at home in their last 23 games against Western Conference teams.

The slow start was nothing new to the Islanders, who have allowed a goal on the first shot nine times this season. Kostitsyn connected for his 11th at 2:17 when he carried the puck into the slot and snapped a shot past Poulin. Nashville took it a step further by grabbing a 2-0 lead 3:17 later when Halischuk fired a shot from near the right wing boards that hit the stick of diving Islanders defenseman Steve Staios and bounded past Poulin for an unassisted goal.

When Poulin finally made a save with 12:39 left in the first, he received a mock cheer from the crowd that was filled with enthusiastic kids, who despite the lopsided score had a good time with a day off from school.

Legwand started and finished the crisp passing exercise that gave Nashville a 3-0 edge. Legwand dropped the puck back to Colin Wilson in the Islanders zone and kept skating toward the net. Wilson crossed a pass to Martin Erat near the right post, and Erat quickly moved the puck across to Legwand, who easily scored his 13th goal into the open left side at 11:37.

The 21-year-old Poulin stopped 29 shots in just his second start of the season for the Islanders, and first since being recalled from the AHL on Jan. 9. He allowed three goals on 29 shots in a 3-2 home loss to Dallas on Jan. 15. Evgeni Nabokov, who earned his 300th NHL victory Saturday against Buffalo, got the day off after playing in the previous 12 games â€" including 11 consecutive starts.

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