Both Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin had a goal and an assist in the convincing win, with Pittsburgh's other goals coming from Chris Kunitz, Jordan Staal and Pascal Dupuis, while Zach Parise and Ilya Kovalchuk netted for New Jersey.

After five straight wins, the Chicago Blackhawks were brought back down to earth by the Nashville Predators.

A crushing 6-1 defeat in front of their home crowd was meted out to Chicago as Nashville had six different scorers in their rout - Matt Halischuk, Andrei Kostitsyn, Patric Hornqvist, Francis Bouillon, Shea Weber and Mike Fisher. Viktor Stalberg netted the consolation.

The Washington Capitals pulled ahead of Buffalo in the intriguing Eastern Conference play-off race, nudging up to eighth with a 3-0 home win over the Minnesota Wild as Jason Chimera, Mathieu Perreault and Alex Ovechkin scored.

Blues cruise

Frans Nielsen scored the shoot-out decider as the New York Islanders upset the Florida Panthers 3-2, while the St Louis Blues crushed the Phoenix Coyotes 4-0. St Louis had goals from Alex Pietrangelo, David Backes, Patrik Berglund and Ryan Reaves in their comfortable win.

The Anaheim Ducks were beaten 3-2 on home ice by the Boston Bruins, whose goals came from Zdeno Chara, Benoit Pouliot and Brian Rolston, while the Edmonton Oilers beat fellow stragglers the Columbus Blue Jackets 6-3.