Former Duck Helps Wild Defeat Oilers

Marc Chouinard scored for the first time in more than three months, and Dwayne Roloson made 28 saves to earn his fourth shutout to lead the Minnesota Wild to a 3-0 victory over the Edmonton Oilers Friday night in St. Paul, Minn.

Sergei Zholtok and Pascal Dupuis also had goals for the Wild, which won for the third time in four games and ended the Oilers’ -- and goalie Ty Conklin’s -- three-game winning streak.

With less than 25 games remaining in the regular season, Minnesota picked up an importantl victory and broke a tie with Edmonton for 10th place in the Western Conference. The Wild has 57 points, the Oilers have 55. The top eight teams make the playoffs.

Zholtok and Chouinard, a former Mighty Duck, scored less than a minute apart in the first period -- Chouinard’s third goal and his first since Nov. 7.

After spending three seasons with the Mighty Ducks, Chouinard signed with the Wild last summer. He broke his jaw against Edmonton on Nov. 13, however, and sat out the next 32 games while recovering from that and a viral infection that caused him to lose significant weight. This was his eighth game since his return.

Conklin played only one period after breaking two bones in his right hand. He stopped 12 of 14 shots and was replaced by Tommy Salo for the final two periods. The initial diagnosis was a jammed right hand, but X-rays revealed the broken bones. Conklin said he had no idea how it happened.

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New York Islanders 5, Phoenix 2 -- The Islanders capped a four-game road swing with their first victory of the trip. It was their first win on the road against the Coyotes since they were the Winnipeg Jets. After a 4-2 victory in Winnipeg on March 9, 1996, the Islanders were 0-4-2 in Phoenix.

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Atlanta 4, Vancouver 1 -- Dany Heatley had a goal and an assist at Vancouver to help the Thrashers end a 10-game winless skid. Pasi Nurminen made 30 saves for the Thrashers, who had given up 29 goals in six consecutive losses entering the game.

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Nashville 5, Washington 2 -- Scott Hartnell had two goals and an assist at Nashville to help the Predators end a three-game losing streak.

Marek Zidlicky had a power-play goal in the second period when he put a rebound of his own shot around Maxime Ouellet’s left pad. Hartnell scored with 10.9 seconds left in the period to give Nashville a 4-1 lead.