Eric Daze scored three power-play goals to lead the Chicago Blackhawks to a 4-3 victory over the visiting New York Islanders Friday night.

Chicago capitalized on Daze's third career hat trick to earn its third straight victory.

The Blackhawks are off to their best home start (11-1-3) since the 1994-95 season.

Daze's goals all came on the power play, tying a Blackhawks record shared by four others for power-play goals in a game.

· Avalanche 4, Sabres 1 -- David Aebischer made 26 saves as Colorado won at Buffalo. Joe Sakic, Dan Hinote, Steve Reinprecht and Milan Hejduk scored for Colorado, which came from behind to extend its unbeaten streak to seven games (6-0-1).

· Stars 5, Oilers 0 -- Joe Nieuwendyk and Pat Verbeek scored in a 10-second span to spark a four-goal first period as host Dallas beat Edmonton to snap a six-game home winless streak.

· Coyotes 1, Red Wings 1 -- Daymond Langkow's goal with 32.4 seconds left in regulation time gave visiting Phoenix a tie with Detroit.

Also

· The Red Wings signed defenseman Nicklas Lidstrom to a two-year, $20 million contract extension, setting him up to be the NHL's highest-paid defenseman. He was signed through the 2003-04 season.

· Kings right wing Nelson Emerson was activated after missing 22 of the first 27 games because of a concussion.

· San Jose Sharks goalie Evgeni Nabokov is ineligible to play for Russia at the 2002 Winter Olympics, the International Ice Hockey Federation ruled. The 26-year-old Nabokov played for the Kazakstan national team at the 1994 World Championship.

· Bill McCreary, who called the gold-medal game between Russia and the Czech Republic in 1998, is one of seven NHL officials chosen to work the Salt Lake Olympics. The others are referees Dennis LaRue and Stephen Walkom, and linesmen Mike Cvik, Jean Morin, Tim Novak and Dan Schachte. Under international rules, the games will be officiated by a referee and two linesmen. The NHL uses two linesmen and two referees.