Nashville, Tennessee: Nashville extended their NHL lead with a 5-1 home win against San Jose on Tuesday as nearest rivals St Louis suffered a heavy defeat on home ice.
The Predators won their sixth straight game to move six points above their division rivals St Louis, who were three goals down in the opening minutes against Dallas and never recovered. The Blues are level on points with Eastern Conference leaders Montreal.
Elsewhere, Alex Ovechkin scored his league-leading 37th goal of the season to lead Washington to victory in a feisty encounter at Pittsburgh, while the New York Islanders moved within a point of the East lead by downing Carolina.
Nashville goaltender Pekka Rinne made a season-high 42 saves, while Craig Smith scored twice, Shea Weber scored and had an assist and Paul Gaustad and James Neal each had a goal for the Predators.
Matt Irwin scored the sole goal for the Sharks, who have won just one of their past six games.
