The Stanley Cup champion Anaheim Ducks, boosted by the return of Teemu Selanne, ended a six-game losing streak with a 3-0 road win over the New York Islanders.

Selanne, who sat out the first 56 games of the season to ponder his possible retirement, assisted on the opening goal of the game, Anaheim's first in eight periods.

"Awesome," Selanne said. "But it wasn't very easy. Missing that much time and playing my first game back, I knew it wouldn't be easy. But obviously, the team played very well and it was a good win.

"You have to take baby steps and go forward and this was one of them."

The assist helped set up a powerplay goal by Scott Niedermayer, who also sat out the beginning of the season before returning in February.

The Ducks had collected only one point from their last six games, but Jean-Sebastien Giguere recorded his third shutout of the season and the 29th of his career to condemn the Islanders to their fifth straight loss.

The Ducks are in the middle of a long trip and will be at the White House on Wednesday to celebrate their championship before visiting the New York Rangers on Thursday.

The Islanders have scored just five goals during their losing streak, falling to 13th place in the Eastern Conference standings.

Steve Downie scored the winning goal with 4:29 left and goalie Antero Niittymaki raised his career record over Atlanta to 8-0 as the Philadelphia Flyers scored a 3-2 road decision over the Thrashers. Niittymaki has allowed just 13 goals in those eight games.

The Washington Capitals rallied for a 4-3 overtime road win over the Columbus Blue Jackets, Alexander Ovechkin scoring his second goal of the game and 45th of the season at 2:28 of overtime.

Richard Zednik delivered a hat-trick and Tomas Vokoun had the shutout to lift the visiting Florida Panthers to an 8-0 thrashing of the Toronto Maple Leafs.

Dan Cleary forced overtime with a goal 1:20 from time and Brett Lebda scored the winner 1:37 into overtime to give the high-flying Detroit Red Wings a 3-2 road win over the Minnesota Wild.

Chris Mason stopped 31 shots for his fourth shutout of the season and J.P. Dumont scored as the Nashville Predators won their fourth straight game with a 1-0 decision over the visiting Carolina Hurricanes.

Reuters