ST. PAUL, Minn. – Dan Ellis made 22 saves for a shutout in his first start in nearly three weeks, leading the Nashville Predators to a 2-0 victory over the Minnesota Wild on Friday night.

Jason Arnott and David Legwand scored to help the Predators win their fourth straight and fifth in six games since the All-Star break. Nashville’s last four-game winning streak was Feb. 24-March 3, 2007.

The Wild lost for the first time in three games.

Ellis, who started the season as Nashville’s top goalie, had not played since being pulled in his last start Jan. 17 after allowing three goals on his first four shots. Pekka Rinne started the last six games, and has emerged as the No. 1 goalie.

Ellis, 0-4 with a 4.54 goals-against average and an .837 save percentage in his previous five starts, was fortunate early to earn his third shutout of the season.

Mikko Koivu just missed the net from in front, and Marek Zidlicky tipped a cross-ice pass wide, both in the opening minute. Ellis rebounded from a collision with Shea Weber to scramble back to stop James Sheppard less than 5 minutes later.

Minnesota, which was blanked 1-0 by Rinne in Nashville on Dec. 6, provided little firepower thereafter, going shotless for the final half of the opening period, and managing just five second-period shots. The Wild’s first third-period shot came in the eighth minute.

Sabres 3, Canadiens 2

BUFFALO, N.Y. – Despite allowing his first goal in nearly 160 minutes, Ryan Miller stopped 35 shots in leading the Buffalo Sabres to a 3-2 victory over the Northeast Division rival Montreal Canadiens.

Nathan Paetsch, Jaroslav Spacek and Tim Connolly, courtesy of a fortunate bounce, scored in helping Buffalo win its fifth straight home game – it’s best streak since the end of the 2006-07 season. The Sabres, with 61 points, moved into a tie with idle Philadelphia for sixth place in the Eastern Conference, and within three of Montreal.

Saku Koivu and Roman Hamrlik scored for Montreal, which fell to 2-6 in its past eight and lost its fifth straight road game – its longest streak since Feb. 24-March 8 2007.

Miller was otherwise the difference in the game in which Koivu’s goal midway through the second period ended the goalie’s career-best shutout streak at 157 minutes, 13 seconds.

He stopped all 15 shots he faced in the first period, including robbing Max Pacioretty, who got in behind the goalie only to have Miller reach back and snag the shot out of the air. Miller was also sharp in the third, kicking out his left pad to foil Andrei Markov’s blast from the left circle with 4:15 left.

Stars 10, Rangers 2

DALLAS – Mike Ribeiro and James Neal each scored twice to help the Dallas Stars rout the stumbling New York Rangers 10-2.

Brian Sutherby, Brad Richards, Jere Lehtinen, Fabian Brunnstrom, Steve Ott and Darryl Sydor also scored for the Stars, 9-3-2 in their last 14 games.

The Stars, coming off a 3-2 loss in at Colorado on Thursday night, grabbed a 3-1 first-period lead behind a 17-8 shots advantage. Dallas is 10-1-1 in its last 12 at home.

Nikolai Zherdev had both goals for the Rangers, 0-3-1 in their last four games. The Rangers have scored two goals or fewer in 11 of their last 18 games.

Devils 5, Thrashers 1

ATLANTA – Kevin Weekes made 31 saves, New Jersey scored three goals in the first 12 minutes and the Devils recovered from their only loss in three weeks to beat the Atlanta Thrashers 5-1.

Zach Parise and John Madden each had a goal and an assist for New Jersey. The Devils, who had an eight-game winning streak end with a loss to Washington on Tuesday night, have won nine of 10. The Thrashers have lost five of six. Travis Zajac, David Clarkson and Brian Gionta added goals for New Jersey. Madden and Gionta scored short-handed. Colby Armstrong scored for Atlanta.

Penguins 4, Blue Jackets 1

PITTSBURGH – Kris Letang, normally not a scoring threat, had his second two-goal game in 10 days and the Pittsburgh Penguins won successive games for only the second time in 21/2 months, beating the Columbus Blue Jackets 4-1.

Sidney Crosby set up both of Letang’s goals and scored into an empty net in the final minute for the Penguins, who had lost three of four but moved within one point of the eighth and final spot in the Eastern Conference playoffs. They followed up on their 4-3, come-from-behind win over Tampa Bay on Wednesday night.

Pittsburgh, which plays Detroit on Sunday in the Red Wings’ first visit to Pittsburgh since winning the Stanley Cup there in June, and Carolina have 57 points each and trail eighth-place Florida.

, which has 58.

Since winning six in a row in mid-November, the Penguins had won consecutive games only once, on Jan. 16 (Ducks) and Jan. 18 (Rangers).

Columbus, two points out of the No. 8 spot in the Western when the night began, played for the first time in 20 games without rookie goalie Steve Mason and lost its third in a row and fifth in seven games.

Marc-Andre Fleury made 33 saves but was denied his third shutout of the season when Kristian Huselius threw the puck on net from a bad angle in a corner and Fedor Tyutin deflected it past the goalie on a Blue Jackets power play midway through the third.