Williams’ Hat Trick Carries the Red Wings

Jason Williams is really enjoying playing in Nationwide Arena at Columbus, Ohio.

Williams scored his first three goals of the season in the first 16 minutes, leading the Detroit Red Wings over the host Blue Jackets, 6-0, on Saturday night.

It was Williams’ first three-goal game. The last time he played on the Blue Jackets’ ice -- in the spring of 2004 -- he scored twice in a 4-2 Detroit win.

“I do like playing here. It’s a great rink,” Williams said. “I remember the last time I was here I scored two goals. It was in the back of my mind.”

Johan Franzen, Henrik Zetterberg and Pavel Datsyuk also scored for the Red Wings (8-1), who won their fifth game in a row. The Blue Jackets (2-6) have the fewest goals (15) in the league.

“We had nothing going tonight,” Coach Gerard Gallant said. “There was one team playing tonight.”

Datsyuk also had two assists, and Zetterberg had one. Manny Legace had 17 saves in his second shutout this season.

“We got off to a great start,” Legace said. “We just got off to a good start and the boys played good in front of me the rest of the way.”

Marc Denis gave up four of the goals on 17 shots and Martin Prusek gave up two on 19 shots in his season debut.

“You have to give our guys credit -- they were real professional,” Detroit Coach Mike Babcock said. “We had our ‘A’ game early.”

Nashville 2, San Jose 1 -- Scott Hartnell scored the tiebreaking goal at 11:35 of the third period, Tomas Vokoun stopped 37 shots at Nashville and the Predators improved to 7-0.

Vokoun stayed in the game for the last two minutes despite taking a puck to his neck that sent him to the ice for a couple of minutes.

After a scoreless first period, both teams capitalized on two-man power plays in the second.

Vancouver 6, Colorado 4 -- Daniel Sedin scored twice and the Canucks withstood the Avalanche’s three goals in the in the last three minutes to hang on at Vancouver, Canada.

The Canucks scored twice on the power play and twice more within seconds of a man advantage expiring to extend their winning streak to five games.

It was the teams’ first meeting since Todd Bertuzzi’s on-ice attack on then-Avalanche forward Steve Moore on March 8, 2004. But there was little sign of the long-standing bad blood between the teams.

Minnesota 3, St. Louis 2 -- Brian Rolston extended his scoring streak to five games and Marian Gaborik had two assists to help the Wild overcome a two-goal deficit at St. Louis.

Minnesota’s Manny Fernandez made 38 saves, 18 in the third period. St. Louis’ Patrick Lalime stopped 28 shots.

Dallas 2, Calgary 1 -- Marty Turco made 29 saves for his 100th victory and Brenden Morrow had a goal and an assist at Dallas.

Morrow, who also had an assist, scored the winner at 5:55 of the third period. It was his 99th goal.

Dallas stopped a two-minute five-on-three Calgary advantage late in the second period and early in the third.

Boston 6, Pittsburgh 3 -- The host Bruins scored four power-play goals in the second period and extended the winless streak for the Penguins to eight games, their longest to start a season.

Dave Scatchard scored his first two goals as a Bruin, Joe Thornton scored two and Sergei Samsonov and Glen Murray each had one to help the Bruins end a three-game skid.

Carolina 4, Washington 0 -- Cory Stillman had a goal and an assist, and the Hurricanes fired 41 shots at goalie Olaf Kolzig at Washington.

Backup goalie Martin Gerber replaced an injured Cam Ward in the fourth minute and faced only 17 shots.

It was the fourth consecutive game in which the Capitals gave up at least 40 shots.

Atlanta 4, New Jersey 3 -- Marc Savard and Ronald Petrovicky scored 40 seconds apart late in the third period at Atlanta, helping end the Thrashers’ four-game losing streak.

The Thrashers, outscored 22-2 during their skid, trailed, 3-1, after John Madden got his second goal of the game 7:30 into the third period.

Philadelphia 5, Toronto 2 -- Donald Brashear had a goal and an assist in the third period at Toronto to help the Flyers, who had not played since Oct. 15, win their third consecutive game.

Tomas Kaberle and Eric Lindros had goals for the Maple Leafs, whose four-game winning streak ended.

Lindros has seven goals in eight games with his hometown team.

Montreal 4, New York Islanders 3 -- Steve Begin scored with 1:45 left in the third period to lift the host Canadiens, who took a 3-2 lead in the third period on Christopher Higgins’ goal at 13:28.

Alexei Yashin scored at 17:07 to tie the score, 3-3.

Buffalo 3, New York Rangers 1 -- Daniel Briere and Ales Kotalik scored power-play goals at Buffalo, N.Y., and Ryan Miller stopped 22 shots to win his sixth game.

Miller is one victory short of becoming the first rookie goaltender to win seven in the month of October since Ed Belfour in 1990.

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Three’s company

Jason Williams of the Detroit Red Wings on Saturday became the fifth player this season to score three goals in one game.

*--* PLAYER, TEAM Date Res. Opp. Chouinard, Minn. 10/5 6-3 Cal. Svatos, Colo. 10/10 7-3 Cal. O’Neill, Tor. 10/14 9-1 Atl. Jagr, NYR 10/20 4-5 NYI Williams, Det. 10/22 6-0 Colu.

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