Sabres take down Canadiens in shootout

Tomas Vanek drove a slap shot past goalie Cristobal Huet on Buffalo’s second shot in the shootout Saturday night to lead the Sabres to a 3-2 win over the Montreal Canadiens in Montreal.

Alex Kovalev beat Ryan Miller with a backhand on Montreal’s first shot and Sabres co-captain Daniel Briere put a shot through Huet’s pads to even it.

Miller made a pad save to deny Canadiens captain Saku Koivu’s backhand attempt, and Vanek stunned the sellout crowd when he wound up and fired a slap shot over Huet’s right arm into the top left corner.

Miller, who made 31 saves in regulation and overtime, stopped Sergei Samsonov to give Buffalo its fourth win in six games.

Jiri Novotny and Derek Roy scored in regulation for the Sabres, who have won six of nine.

Ducks 4, Lightning 3: At Tampa, Fla., Dustin Penner had two goals and Anaheim defeated Tampa Bay.

Teemu Selanne and Chris Kunitz also scored for Anaheim.

Eric Perrin, Ruslan Fedotenko and Brad Richards scored for the Tampa Bay.

Rangers 3, Senators 1: At Ottawa, Jaromir Jagr and Martin Straka each had a goal and an assist, and Henrik Lundqvist made 34 saves in New York’s victory over Ottawa.

Brendan Shanahan added his 22nd goal of the season into an empty net for New York.

Devils 5, Bruins 1: At Boston, Jay Pandolfo and Jamie Langenbrunner scored first-period goals and Martin Brodeur made 19 saves to lead New Jersey to a win over Boston.

Eric Rasmussen, Patrik Elias and Sergei Brylin scored third-period goals for the Devils after the Bruins cut their deficit to 2-1.

Marc Savard had the goal for Boston.

Red Wings 5, Maple Leafs 1: At Detroit, Henrik Zetterberg scored two of Detroit’s season-high five power-play goals and added an assist in the Red Wings’ victory over Toronto.

Mikael Samuelsson also had two goals, and Pavel Datsyuk added a goal and two assists for Detroit.

Penguins 4, Thrashers 3 (OT): At Atlanta, Colby Armstrong scored 3:51 into overtime and Pittsburgh beat Atlanta.

Armstrong scored on a wrist shot in front of the net on a pass from rookie Evgeni Malkin, who had a goal and two assists.

Sidney Crosby had a goal and an assist for the Penguins.

Capitals 5, Flyers 3: At Philadelphia, Bryan Muir scored the go-ahead goal at 7:40 of the third period to help lift Washington over Philadelphia.

Alex Ovechkin had a goal and two assists, and Brooks Laich, Chris Clark and Matt Pettinger also scored for Washington.

Islanders 5, Panthers 4 (SO): At Uniondale, N.Y., Miroslav Satan and Viktor Kozlov scored in the shootout as New York came from behind to beat Florida.

Andy Hilbert, Arron Asham, Radek Martinek and Miroslav Satan scored for the Islanders, who got 28 saves from DiPietro.

Nathan Horton, Gary Roberts, Stephen Weiss and Ruslan Salei scored for the Panthers.

Wild 5, Blackhawks 4 (OT): At St. Paul, Minn., Mark Parrish’s hat trick, including the winner in overtime with 1:42 remaining, lifted Minnesota over Chicago.

Parrish added two power-play goals in regulation, and Pavol Demitra had a goal and two assists in his return to the Minnesota lineup.

Mikko Koivu also scored for the Wild.

Blue Jackets 5, Blues 1: At St. Louis, Sergei Fedorov had two goals and an assist, and Fredrik Norrena came within a shot of posting his third consecutive shutout in Columbus’ victory over St. Louis.

Norrena stopped 24 shots, allowing only Bill Guerin’s team-leading 12th goal.

Stars 4, Coyotes 3: At Glendale, Ariz., Jere Lehtinen scored the winning goal with 4.6 seconds remaining in overtime to give Dallas a win over Phoenix.

The goal, Lehtinen’s second of the game, stood up after a dispute and a video review.

Phoenix allowed 31 shots in the first two periods.

Sharks 3, Predators 1: At San Jose, Calif., Jonathan Cheechoo scored two goals on assists from Joe Thornton, and San Jose was victorious over Nashville.

Thornton and Cheechoo assisted on Curtis Brown’s opening goal and Evgeni Nabokov stopped 20 shots for San Jose.

Flames 5, Canucks 3: At Calgary, Alberta, Jarome Iginla had a goal and two assists to lead Calgary to a win over Vancouver.

Kristian Huselius, Dion Phaneuf, Matthew Lombardi and Alex Tanguay also scored for Calgary.

Daniel Sedin, Jan Bulis and Kevin Bieksa scored for Vancouver.

Kings 5, Avalanche 4: At Los Angeles, Craig Conroy netted the go-ahead goal with 6:12 remaining and Michael Cammalleri scored twice, leading Los Angeles to a come-from-behind victory over Colorado.

Tom Kostopoulos also scored for Los Angeles.