Thrashers tackle Sabres
Marian Hossa broke out of a slump with two goals and Atlanta beat Buffalo 5-2 on Sunday in Atlanta.
Johan Hedberg made 37 stops as the Thrashers won the meeting of teams that began the day tied for 10th in the Eastern Conference with 41 points.
Hossa had only two goals in his last 14 games before scoring in the first and third periods.
Pascal Dupuis, Colin Stuart and Ilya Kovalchuk also scored for Atlanta.
Kovalchuk’s league-leading 34th goal came with 15 seconds left after Buffalo pulled goaltender Ryan Miller.
The Thrashers won despite drawing five penalties. Buffalo’s only penalty came 11 seconds into the second period.
Atlanta, near the bottom of the league with a 77.2 percent success rate on the penalty kill, stopped each of the five power plays.
Red Wings 3, Blackhawks 1: At Chicago, Henrik Zetterberg, Dan Cleary and Mikael Samuelsson scored in the first period, and Detroit beat the Blackhawks.
Jiri Hudler had two assists and the Red Wings beat the Blackhawks for the first time this season after losing their first four contests against Chicago.
Rene Bourque scored for the injury-depleted Blackhawks, whose losing streak reached a season-high five games.
Detroit’s Chris Osgood, who entered the game with a league-leading 1.71 goals-against average, made 19 saves. The Red Wings killed both Chicago power-play chances and have killed 25 straight over seven games.
The Blackhawks’ Nikolai Khabibulin blocked 25 shots.
Top-prospect joining Islanders
Top prospect Kyle Okposo will begin his career in the New York Islanders organization with Bridgeport of the AHL.
Fresh off a solid run in the world junior tournament, Okposo was assigned by the Islanders to their top minor league affiliate. He will practice with the Sound Tigers on Thursday and make his debut at Binghamton on Friday.
Okposo’s first AHL home game will be Saturday against Springfield.
In 1 1/2 seasons at the University of Minnesota, Okposo had 26 goals with 25 assists in 58 games. As a freshman, he had 19 goals and 21 assists in 40 games.