Cristobal Huet made 28 saves for his second consecutive shutout over Boston and his fourth of the season on Thursday as the Montreal Canadiens beat the undermanned Bruins 3-0.
Boston was without Sergei Samsonov, who was sent to the Edmonton Oilers before the game at the NHL trading deadline for Marty Reasoner, Yan Stastny and a second-round draft pick. That left the Bruins, already struggling for offense, without much of an attack.
Alex Kovalev and Sheldon Souray scored and Tomas Plekanec added an empty-netter with 25 seconds left for Montreal, which won for the fourth time in six games. The Canadiens have beaten Boston four times in five tries this season, and Kovalev and Souray have combined for 11 points against the Bruins.
PHOTO: EPA
Tim Thomas made 38 saves for Boston, which has one win in six games.
Blue Jackets 5, Coyotes 4
At Columbus, Ohio, Rick Nash had a goal and an assist, and Columbus broke out of its scoring slump against Phoenix.
Nikolai Zherdev and former Coyotes Jan Hrdina, Mike Rupp and Jason Chimera also had goals for Columbus, which had scored only five goals in four games since the Olympic break.
Former Blue Jackets forward Geoff Sanderson had a goal for Phoenix, as did Derek Morris, Mike Comrie and Dave Scatchard.
Leading 3-2 heading into the third period, the Blue Jackets scored twice in 28 seconds on consecutive shots.
Red Wings 7, Kings 3
At Detroit, Henrik Zetterberg scored his 30th and 31st goals less than a minute apart in the second period to lead Detroit past Los Angeles.
Tomas Holmstrom and Nicklas Lidstrom each added a goal and two assists, and Jason Williams and Robert Lang had a goal and an assist each for Detroit. Pavel Datsyuk also scored.
Lubomir Visnovsky had a goal and an assist for Los Angeles, and Dustin Brown and Mike Cammalleri got the other Kings goals.
Zetterberg's first goal in the second period snapped a 2-2 tie. Just 52 seconds later, he made it 4-2.
Avalanche 2, Blackhawks 1
At Chicago, Peter Budaj made 26 saves, and Pierre Turgeon and Antti Laaksonen scored to lead Colorado over Chicago.
Budaj was especially sharp late in the second period and early in the third, stopping several Blackhawks, including Kyle Calder and Patrick Sharp, on close-in chances.
Curtis Brown scored for Chicago, which has lost six of eight. Nikolai Khabibulin stopped 22 shots in his return after missing 12 games with a sprained left knee.
Flames 1, Stars 0
At Calgary, Alberta, Miikka Kiprusoff made 39 saves for his league-leading eighth shutout and Daymond Langkow scored his 19th goal at 15:40 of the first period to lead Calgary over Dallas.
Kiprusoff tied the Stars' Marty Turco, who had 23 saves, for the league lead in wins with 32. The Flames maintained their one-point lead over Colorado atop the Northwest Division.
Calgary killed off all seven power plays, extending their streak to 37 straight the last six games.
Predators 3, Canucks 2, OT
At Vancouver, British Columbia, Steve Sullivan tied the game twice in the third period and David Legwand scored 6 seconds into overtime as Nashville edged Vancouver.
After being stopped on a 2-on-1 break late in regulation, Legwand pounced on a loose puck off the opening faceoff in overtime, skated in and snapped a wrist shot past Alex Auld's blocker from just inside the left faceoff circle.
Vancouver led 1-0 and 2-1 on goals by Anson Carter and Henrik Sedin. Sullivan replied both times, ending a personal nine-game goal-scoring drought and forcing overtime.
Tomas Vokoun made 23 saves as the fourth-place Predators moved five points ahead of the Canucks in the Western Conference. Auld finished with 33 saves and Daniel Sedin had two assists for the Canucks, who have lost three of five since the Olympics.
Sharks 5, Oilers 2
At San Jose, California, Joe Thornton scored the tiebreaking goal and got his NHL-leading 65th assist, and San Jose began a vital six-game homestand with a victory over Edmonton.
Steve Bernier scored two third-period goals and fellow rookie Milan Michalek had a goal and two assists for the Sharks, who spoiled the debut of new Edmonton goalie Dwayne Roloson with their fourth straight home victory.
Captain Patrick Marleau matched his career high with his 28th goal of the season and added two assists for the Sharks. Vesa Toskala made 19 saves, and new forward Ville Nieminen landed a series of crowd-pleasing checks in an impressive debut.
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