By The Associated Press

NEW YORK – Petr Prucha scored New York’s first goal and then netted another to end the sudden-death shootout, helping the Rangers win 3-2 Saturday and sweep a home-and-home series with the New Jersey Devils.

Brian Gionta, who scored twice in regulation, kept the Devils alive by beating Kevin Weekes with a goal in the third and final round. Sudden death became necessary when Jaromir Jagr then hit the post.

Weekes made a left skate save while on his stomach to set up the heroics for Prucha, recalled earlier this week from the minor leagues. Prucha joined Michael Nylander as Rangers scorers against Scott Clemmensen in the tiebreaker.

Leafs 5, Lightning 3

TORONTO – Mats Sundin had a goal and an assist in his first game since sustaining serious eye injury, and the Toronto Maple Leafs held on for a 5-3 victory over the Tampa Bay Lightning.

The Toronto captain helped Jeff O’Neill end an eight-game goal drought by assisting on the first goal.

Kings 3, Predators 2

LOS ANGELES – Pavol Demitra and Jeremy Roenick scored in a shootout, helping the Los Angeles Kings rally for a 3-2 victory over the Nashville Predators.

Jason LaBarbera stopped Nashville’s Simon Gamache and Marek Zidlicky in the Kings’ first shootout under the NHL’s new rules.

Flyers 4, Thrashers 3

PHILADELPHIA – Simon Gagne had his second career hat trick and Peter Forsberg added a goal and two assists to lead the Philadelphia Flyers to a 4-3 victory over the Atlanta Thrashers. Gagne leads the NHL with 15 goals, and has scored five goals in his last three games. Forsberg leads the league with 21 assists.

Coyotes 4, Red Wings 1

DETROIT – Curtis Joseph made 36 saves in his first game in Detroit since leaving the Red Wings, leading the Phoenix Coyotes to a 4-1 victory.

Mike Leclerc, Zbynek Michalek and Mike Johnson scored power-play goals for Phoenix and Mike Comrie added a short-handed, empty-net goal with 12.8 seconds remaining.

Senators 6, Islanders 0

OTTAWA – Daniel Alfredsson scored his 13th and 14th goals of the season and also had an assist, and Dominik Hasek made 28 saves for his third shutout in the Ottawa Senators’ 6-0 victory over the New York Islanders.

Alfredsson has seven goals and nine assists in his six-game scoring streak. The 40-year-old Hasek, in his first season with Ottawa, has 66 career shutouts.

Hurricanes 2, Panthers 0

RALEIGH, N.C. Rod Brind’Amour and Niclas Wallin scored third-period goals to lead the Carolina Hurricanes past the Florida Panthers 2-0, extending the best start in franchise history.

Eric Staal added an assist to extend his scoring streak to eight games for the Hurricanes, who improved to 7-0 at home and extended the franchise record for consecutive home wins. Martin Gerber finished with 27 saves to earn his second shutout this season.

Carolina improved to 10-2-1 with its seventh straight win, and earned a point for the 10th straight game.

Canadiens 3, Sabres 2

MONTREAL – Alex Kovalev scored twice and Richard Zednik had a goal and an assist, leading the Montreal Canadiens to a 3-2 victory over the Buffalo Sabres.

Saku Koivu and Andrei Markov each had two assists for Montreal.

Stars 3, Avalanche 2

DENVER – Marty Turco stopped 29 shots in regulation and overtime and made two more saves in a shootout, helping the Dallas Stars end the Colorado Avalanche’s four-game winning streak with a 3-2 victory.

Sergei Zubov beat Avalanche goalie Peter Budaj to the glove side to open the first shootout in Dallas history, then Turco stopped Milan Hejduk, spinning around to block the shot with his back. Jussi Jokinen beat Budaj stick side at the other end, and Turco secured Dallas’ third win in eight games by nearly doing the splits to stop Alex Tanguay with his skate.

The game was fast and furious at the start before slowing to a grind by the third period.

The Avalanche spent most of the second period chipping pucks out of their zone and mustered four shots in the third, leading to shouts of “Go!” and “Shoot!” from the fans.

Dallas had all kinds of scoring chances in the second period, tying it on Antti Miettinen’s power-play goal with two minutes left, but had trouble with Colorado’s defense in the final period, getting six shots. Dallas’ Philippe Boucher nearly won it with five minutes left in regulation, when his shot from the right circle climbed Budaj’s stick and landed on top of the goal, and Stu Barnes hit the post with 11/2 minutes left in overtime.

Colorado had scored at least four goals in seven straight games and had 53 goals in the first 12 games. Dallas struggled a bit early, but was coming off its highest scoring game in nine years, getting nine goals against Chicago on Friday night.

No surprise then that the first period included 23 shots and three goals.

Colorado’s Andrew Brunette started it off six minutes in, gathering Pierre Turgeon’s pass just outside the crease before spinning around and flipping it in.

Mike Modano tied it less than two minutes later, punching in a rebound for his sixth of the season after Budaj stopped Barnes’ redirected shot.

Steve Konowalchuk put the Avalanche back up with eight minutes left in the first, getting a short-handed goal on a breakaway after Dallas forward Brenden Morrow mishandled a puck at the Stars’ blue line.

The Stars picked up the pressure even more in the second period, thanks in part to Colorado’s five penalties.

Budaj did his best to keep Dallas out of the net, turning away a flurry of shots on the third power play, but the Stars just had too many chances. Miettinen scored on Dallas’ 13th of 16 shots in the period, raking in rebound on a power play with two minutes left.

Notes: A fight between Colorado’s Ian Laperriere and Steve Ott broke out early in the second period. Laperriere clearly got the better end of it, landing about a dozen punches to the top of Ott’s head. … Tanguay had his 10-game points streak end.

AP-ES-11-05-05 2349EST