Senators surprise Sabres, 4-2

Peter Schaefer broke a third-period tie, helping struggling Ottawa beat host Buffalo, 4-2, Wednesday night.

Chris Neil, Jason Spezza and Chris Phillips also scored for the Senators, who ended a two-game losing streak and won for only the second time in nine games.

Buffalo lost for the second time in regulation and its winning streak ended at four games.

New York Islanders 3, Dallas 0 -- Rick DiPietro stopped 35 shots at Dallas for his first shutout and seventh of his career.

The Islanders, who started the game 27th in the NHL in penalty killing, fought off seven Stars power plays.

Carolina 2, New York Rangers 1 -- Rod Brind’Amour scored with 6:05 left in the third period to lift the Hurricanes at Raleigh, N.C.

The Rangers’ Jaromir Jagr scored his 599th goal.

Boston 3, Washington 2 -- Patrice Bergeron scored the only goal in the shootout at Washington.

After Bergeron beat Olie Kolzig, Tim Thomas stopped a shot by Matt Pettinger to secure the victory.

Montreal 3, Tampa Bay 1 -- Sheldon Souray scored two power-play goals at Tampa, Fla., his third two-goal game this season.

Saku Koivu recorded his 335th assist with the Canadiens, tying him with Claude Provost for 16th on the club’s career list.

San Jose 4, Colorado 3 -- Joe Thornton and Patrick Marleau scored power-play goals 17 seconds apart in the third period at Denver and Evgeni Nabokov stopped 40 shots for San Jose.

Nashville 5, Columbus 4 -- David Legwand had two goals and an assist, and the Predators ruined the debut of interim Coach Gary Agnew, who took over after Gerard Gallant was fired Monday.

*

Evgeni Malkin was cleared to stay with the Pittsburgh Penguins after a federal judge denied a demand by his former Russian club, which claims to have him under contract, that he be removed from the NHL.