New York Islanders center Brock Nelson celebrates with his teammates after completing a hat trick Saturday against the Dallas Stars. John Minchillo/Associated Press
NEW YORK — Brock Nelson scored three times in the third period for his fourth career hat trick, Semyon Varlamov made 37 saves and the New York Islanders topped the Dallas Stars 4-2 on Saturday.
Ryan Pulock also scored for New York, which extended its point streak to six games and won for the fifth time in six games.
Denis Gurianov and Jacob Peterson each had a goal and an assist, but the Stars lost for the fourth time in five games.
Nelson scored twice within a span of 1:38 early in the third.
He broke a 1-1 tie with a power-play goal at 4:17. Dallas goalie Jake Oettinger was able to get his shoulder on the initial shot, but the puck had enough velocity to trickle across the goal line.
The Islanders stretched their lead to 3-1 when Anthony Beauvillier slid a puck through the crease to set up Nelson for a one-timer at 5:55.
Nelson completed the hat trick with an empty-net goal at 19:40 and set a career high with 27 goals this season.
WILD 3, BLACKHAWKS 1: Ryan Hartman scored with 3:13 left and Minnesota won at home, finishing a four-game season sweep of its Central Division rival.
Frederick Gaudreau and Jordan Greenway also scored for Minnesota. Cam Talbot made 21 saves to win his fifth straight, improving to 9-4-0 in his last 13 starts.
Seth Jones scored his first goal in 36 games for the Blackhawks, and Kevin Lankinen made 31 saves.
OILERS 6, DEVILS 3: Evander Kane scored twice, Connor McDavid had a goal and two assists, and Edmonton used a four-goal third period to beat visiting New Jersey for its fifth straight victory.
Leon Draisaitl, Tyson Barrie and Zach Hyman also scored for the Oilers, who have the NHL’s longest active winning streak.
Jesper Bratt had two goals and an assist and Nico Hischier also scored for the Devils, who have lost three in a row and four of their last five.
GOLDEN KNIGHTS 5, KINGS 1: Logan Thompson stopped 37 shots and Vegas won at home.
Evgenii Dadonov, Chandler Stephenson, Mattias Janmark, Alex Pietrangelo and Michael Amadio scored for the Golden Knights.
PENGUINS 4, COYOTES 1: Evgeni Malkin and Sidney Crosby scored third-period goals to help Pittsburgh win at Glendale, Arizona.
Malkin broke a 1-1 tie with 7:24 to play. He was stopped on a drive to the net against Scott Wedgewood, but finally corralled the puck and chipped it in for his 11th goal of the season. The Russian center has only played 27 games this season because of injuries.
Crosby picked up a rebound off Jake Guentzel’s shot to score with 3:37 left, then added an empty-net goal with 1:50 to play.
BLUE JACKETS 5, BLUES 4: Gus Nyquist, Patrik Laine and Emil Bemstrom each had a goal and an assist, and Columbus dealt visiting St. Louis its third straight loss.
David Perron had a hat trick and an assist for the Blues, who have lost seven of their last nine as they cling to second place in the Central Division by a single point over the Minnesota Wild.
CANADIENS 5, SENATORS 1: Jake Allen made 29 saves for his first victory since late November, helping the Montreal win at home.
Jake Evans had a goal and an assist for Montreal, and Paul Byron, Cole Caufield, Joel Armia and Brett Kulak also scored.
Allen recently returned from an injury sustained in January. He last won Nov. 27 against the Pittsburgh Penguins.
PREDATORS 6, MAPLE LEAFS 3: Eeli Tolvanen, Filip Forsberg and Matt Duchene each had a goal and an assist to lead Nashville past visiting Toronto.
Forsberg’s goal at 12:11 of the third period gave him 33 on the season and 211 for his career, setting a Nashville record.
Mitch Marner had two goals and an assist for the Maple Leafs, who remained two points ahead of the Bruins for third place in the Atlantic Division.
RANGERS 2, LIGHTNING 1: Mika Zibanejad scored a tiebreaking power-play goal with 16 seconds left as New York won at Tampa Bay.
Jacob Trouba also scored and Igor Shesterkin stopped 28 shots for New York.
Brayden Point scored and Andrei Vasilevskiy had 25 saves for the Lightning.
NOTES
HURRICANES: Carolina forward Nino Niederreiter was suspended for one game by the NHL for slashing Washington Capitals forward Axel Jonsson-Fjallby during Friday night’s game.
Niederreiter will miss Sunday’s game against the New York Rangers and return for Tuesday’s matchup against Tampa Bay.
TRADE: The Philadelphia Flyers are trading team captain Claude Giroux to the Florida Panthers, a person familiar with the deal told The Associated Press.
The person spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity Saturday because the trade had not been announced.
Giroux has played his entire career with the Flyers and appeared his 1,000th game on Thursday. He had to waive his no-movement clause that was part of his $66.2 million, eight-year contract.
The Flyers will receive forward Owen Tippett and draft picks.
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