Jason Pominville scored a short-handed goal that put Buffalo ahead, Ryan Miller turned away 35 shots, and the Sabres defeated Atlanta 5-2 on Tuesday, extending the Thrashers' losing streak to a season-high six in a row.
Atlanta led 2-1 after the first period, but the Sabres fought back to close a six-game road trip -- their longest of the season -- with a third straight win.
Thomas Vanek tied the game at 2 with a deflection past Atlanta goalie Kari Lehtonen, then Pominville put the Sabres ahead to stay while killing off a penalty.
PHOTO: AP
Paul Gaustad gave Buffalo some breathing room with 8:59 left in the third period.
J.P. Dumont finished off the Thrashers with 2:40 remaining.
Alex Kotalik scored his 20th goal just 5 minutes into the game -- the seventh straight time Atlanta has given up the opening goal.
Hurricanes 8, Canadiens 2
At Montreal, Erik Cole scored three goals and tied a career high with four points, and Eric Staal had two goals and an assist to lead Carolina over Montreal.
Martin Gerber made 32 saves, and Kevyn Adams and Craig Adams also scored for Carolina, which leads the NHL with 78 points. The Hurricanes generated all that offense without newly acquired center Doug Weight in the lineup.
Montreal's Jose Theodore, pulled for the third time in four starts, allowed five goals on 10 shots. Theodore, the NHL MVP in 2001-2002, has allowed 18 goals on 63 shots in his last four games.
Steve Begin and Richard Zednik scored for the Canadiens, who returned from a 2-4 road trip and fell to 4-5 since general manager Bob Gainey fired coach Claude Julien and replaced him behind the bench.
Islanders 5, Capitals 3
At Uniondale, New York, Jason Blake scored a power-play goal with 4:43 left and then added an empty-netter to lead New York to a season-best third straight victory.
Blake took a cross-ice pass from Alexei Yashin in the lower right circle and roofed a wrist shot past goalie Olaf Kolzig with 12.1 seconds remaining.
Oleg Kvasha scored twice, and Miroslav Satan added a goal for New York, now six points out of eighth place in the Eastern Conference playoff race. Rick DiPietro stopped 26 shots for the Islanders.
Brian Willsie and Matt Pettinger each had a goal and assist for Washington.
The Capitals played without rookie standout Alex Ovechkin, who missed his first game of the season with what the club termed a lower body injury, believed to be a groin.
Lightning 3, Maple Leafs 2, SO
At Tampa, Florida, Vincent Lecavalier and Brad Richards scored in a shootout, leading Tampa Bay past Toronto.
Richards and Ryan Craig scored for the Lightning in regulation and Sean Burke had 25 saves. The Lightning have won six of eight, and improved to 2-10-1 against Northeast Division teams.
Chad Kilger and Darcy Tucker had goals for Toronto, which has lost nine of 10. Ed Belfour made 35 saves, including a sprawling stop on Lecavalier's point-blank shot late in the second.
Tucker hit the post and had an in-close shot stopped by Burke during the final minute of overtime. Burke stopped both shots he faced in the shootout.
Avalanche 3, Wild 2
At Denver, Milan Hejduk broke out of a slump with a goal and an assist, and David Aebischer set the Colorado record for wins in January by defeating Minnesota.
Hejduk had a goal and an assist.
Patrice Brisebois, also in a scoring slump, added the winning goal at 2:45 of the third period.
Brian Rolston needed just 1:23 to score the Wild's first goal.
But Aebischer stopped everything else until Marian Gaborik's late goal which set up a frantic final 3 minutes.
Canucks 7, Coyotes 4
At Glendale, Arizona, Henrik Sedin had a goal and three assists, and Alex Auld made 42 saves to lead Vancouver past Phoenix.
Markus Naslund scored in his return to the Vancouver lineup, and Daniel Sedin, Josh Green, Tyler Bouck, Mattias Ohlund and Todd Bertuzzi added goals for the Canucks, who won their second in a row after dropping three straight.
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