Faceoff goals set up Canadiens’ 6-1 victory

The Montreal Canadiens parlayed a couple of faceoff wins into their most lopsided win in nearly two years.

Chris Higgins and Alex Kovalev scored Montreal’s first two goals off faceoffs and Cristobal Huet made 31 saves to lead the Canadiens to a 6-1 win over the Boston Bruins on Monday night in Montreal.

Steve Begin, Patrice Brisebois, Mikhail Grabovski and Andrei Markov also scored for Montreal, which snapped Boston’s four-game winning streak.

Bruins coach Claude Julien singled out faceoff losses that resulted in the Canadiens taking a 2-0 lead.

“It cost us the first two goals, so it kind of changed the momentum of the game and then I guess we were backpedaling the rest of the game,” Julien said. “If anything, we lost our composure.”

Hurricanes 3, Canucks 1: At Raleigh, N.C., Cory Stillman and Chad LaRose scored and Carolina beat Vancouver to snap a two-game losing streak.

Cam Ward stopped 19 shots and improved to 5-0 in regulation, Former Spokane Chief Ray Whitney had an empty-net goal and an assist and Rod Brind’Amour added two assists for the Southeast Division-leading Hurricanes.

Carolina held a 31-20 shots advantage and dealt Vancouver its first road loss of the season.

Sharks 4, Flames 1: At Calgary, Alberta, Milan Michalek scored twice, including a short-handed goal, to lift San Jose to a victory over the Flames.

Daymond Langkow netted his eighth of the season for the Calgary.

Until Langkow’s goal with 3:33 left, the only shot to get past Evgeni Nabokov came off the right arm of Eric Godard as he went to the net.

It was originally ruled a goal that would have given the Flames a 1-0 lead. However, replays indicated Godard slightly moved his arm toward the puck as he skated, so the goal was waved off at 16:01 of the first.

Off the ice

Members of the investor group trying to buy the Predators and keep the NHL team in Nashville expressed optimism they can soon finish the deal after meeting with members of the league’s executive committee in New York. David Freeman said in a statement that the interview seemed to go well. He attended the session that was to include fellow investors Herb Fritch and William “Boots” Del Biaggio, and said the NHL continues to believe in Nashville as a hockey town where local ownership is key to the team’s long-term future. … Darcy Tucker is out of the Toronto Maple Leafs’ lineup indefinitely with ligament damage in his right knee.