NHL-Highlights from Wednesday's NHL games

March 9 (The Sports Xchange) - Highlights from National Hockey League games on Wednesday: Maple Leafs 4, Islanders 3 (SO) The Toronto Maple Leafs defeated the New York Islanders 4-3 in a shootout on a goal by rookie right winger Nikita Soshnikov. The Leafs, last in the National Hockey League, improved to 22-34-11. Center Zach Hyman, defenseman Morgan Rielly and center William Nylander scored the Leafs' goals in regulation. Center John Tavares, defenseman Nick Leddy and center Ryan Strome scored the goals for the Islanders, who dropped to 38-20-9 on the season. They trail the New York Rangers, who are second in the Metropolitan Division, by two points. The Islanders have two games in hand. Blues 3, Blackhawks 2 (SO) Kevin Shattenkirk's goal in the sixth round of the shootout was the difference as the St. Louis Blues beat the visiting Chicago Blackhawks. David Backes and Troy Brouwer scored goals and Jake Allen made 33 saves for St. Louis (39-20-9), which has won four straight games and nine of 12. Andrew Ladd and Artemi Panarin scored for Chicago (41-21-6), which had won three of four. Corey Crawford made 28 saves. Flames 3, Predators 2 (OT) Mikael Backlund scored at 1:12 of overtime to lead the Calgary Flames to a 3-2 win over the Nashville Predators. Johnny Gaudreau assisted on the OT winner and also scored twice in a span of 10 seconds in the first period for the Flames (28-34-5), who have earned points in three straight games on the heels of a seven-game losing streak. Avalanche 3, Ducks 0 Semyon Varlamov had 37 saves for his second shutout of the season and 20th of his career, and the Colorado Avalanche beat the red-hot Anaheim Ducks. Nathan MacKinnon, Andreas Martinsen and Shawn Matthias scored for the Avalanche. Colorado finished 3-1 on its homestand and moved two points ahead of Minnesota for the second wild card in the Western Conference. The Avalanche played two more games than the Wild. John Gibson had 23 saves for Anaheim (37-20-9). The Ducks, who had their 11-game winning streak snapped in a shootout against Washington on Monday, lost consecutive games for the first time since Dec. 17. Canucks 3, Coyotes 2 (OT) Markus Granlund scored 1:42 into overtime to give the Canucks a 3-2 win over the Arizona Coyotes. It was the Vancouver center's fifth goal of the season and first as a Canuck in seven games since being acquired by trade. Granlund skated in on a 2-on-1 with right winger Jake Virtanen during the 3-on-3 overtime and scored on a big rebound off the pad of Arizona goalie Louis Domingue. Vancouver goalie Jacob Markstrom had stopped Arizona left winger Max Domi on a breakaway 40 seconds earlier, getting his left pad down on the Coyotes rookie Arizona had jumped to a 2-0 second-period lead, but could not hold it. Kings 4, Capitals 3 (OT) Jeff Carter scored the game-winning goal at 2:50 of overtime as the Los Angeles Kings defeated the Washington Capitals. Los Angeles (40-22-4) has won two straight, seven of its last nine games and lead the division by one point over the Anaheim Ducks with 15 games remaining in the regular season. Washington (49-14-4) had a two-game winning streak snapped but maintained its 18-point lead in the Metropolitan Division. Carter took a cross-ice feed from Milan Lucic and beat Washington goalie Braden Holtby over his pad with a wrist shot for the game winner.