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Last-Place Blue Jackets Stun Red Wings, 3-2

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From Associated Press

At first, Marc Denis wouldn’t gloat about a victory in Detroit, then the Columbus goalie admitted it was special.

David Vyborny’s goal 19 seconds into the third period helped the Columbus Blue Jackets hand the Detroit Red Wings only their fifth loss at home, 3-2, on Friday night.

“It didn’t matter what we did or who we did it against,” said Denis, who made 33 saves. “We just needed a total team effort to get a win. The fact that it came against Detroit in Detroit made it that much sweeter.”

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Vyborny, who also had an assist, broke a 2-2 tie when he tipped in a pass from Ray Whitney.

“I just passed the puck behind the net, beat the guy from the boards [to the net] and got the pass,” said Vyborny. “I just chipped it.”

It gave the Blue Jackets’ their first win ever at Joe Louis Arena and ended a five-game losing streak and 10-game road winless streak.

Detroit’s 13-game home unbeaten streak was ended.

Detroit is the league’s best team with a record of 38-11-6-2 while Columbus is the NHL’s worst at 15-33-7-1.

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New York Rangers 2, Atlanta 1-- Eric Lindros and Matthew Barnaby scored second-period goals as the Rangers remained perfect in Atlanta.

New York, 6-0 on the road against the Thrashers, ended its three-game losing streak.

Ranger captain Mark Messier became the fourth player to skate in 1,600 NHL games, joining Gordie Howe, Larry Murphy and Ray Bourque.

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San Jose 4, Chicago 2--Niklas Sundstrom and Scott Thornton each had a goal and an assist as the Sharks defeated the Blackhawks at San Jose.

Patrick Marleau and Owen Nolan also scored for the Sharks, who improved to 18-1-3 when leading after two periods.

San Jose goalie Evgeni Nabokov stopped 26 of 28 shots for his 57th career victory, matching Arturs Irbe for the franchise record.

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Buffalo 3, Ottawa 2--Jason Woolley scored with 38.8 seconds left in overtime, lifting the Sabres at Buffalo, N.Y.

Ottawa had a six-game unbeaten streak ended. The Senators are also winless in six trips to Buffalo, dating to Dec. 30, 1998.

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Colorado 6, Minnesota 0--Rookie Radim Vrbata had three goals, Alex Tanguay scored twice at St. Paul, Minn., and the Avalanche ended a three-game losing streak by defeating the struggling Wild.

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The Wild lost its fifth consecutive. Minnesota has scored two goals or fewer in 17 of its past 19 games.

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Vancouver 4, Calgary 1--Peter Skudra made 25 saves and four players scored at Calgary, Canada, as the Canucks stretched their unbeaten streak to nine games (8-0-1).

Vancouver right wing Todd Bertuzzi failed to record a point, ending his team record-tying streak at 15 games.

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Edmonton 1, Dallas 1--Ryan Smyth of the Oilers scored the tying goal with 22.3 seconds left at Dallas with Edmonton goalie Jussi Markkanen off for an extra skater.

The Oilers are 0-12-1 in Dallas since their last regular-season victory in Texas on Jan. 17, 1996.

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Nashville 3, Washington 3--Cliff Ronning scored with 2:26 left in regulation, lifting the Predators to a tie at Nashville.

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The Predators have tied or won 19 of 22 at home.

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