Canadiens start fast, win big; Devils win

The Montreal Canadiens gave their South Florida fans one impressive hat trick.

Guillaume Latendresse, Michael Ryder and Christopher Higgins scored on the first 3 shots of the game and the Montreal Canadiens went on to a 5-1 win over the Panthers on Friday night in front of the largest home crowd in Florida history.

Many of the 19,838 fans were there to support the Canadiens, and they saw Montreal's first win over Florida in six games, after Florida had been 5-0-1 against Montreal the past two seasons.

Craig Anderson came on to replace Tomas Vokoun after the third goal came 5:03 into the game.

Vokoun returned to open the second period and gave up a goal to Tom Kostopoulos at 9:55. Mark Streit stole the puck along the right boards after Vokoun had tried to clear it and sent it toward the slot, and Kostopoulos was able to go around Vokoun to make it 4-0.

Anderson played in goal for Florida in the third period.

"This is not figure-skating," Vokoun said. "You don't get points for looking good. It's about winning and if you start a game the way we started it's tough to win."

Sharks 1, Blues 0: Evgeni Nabokov made 26 saves to earn his fifth shutout and league-leading 20th win to help San Jose extend its club-record road winning streak to eight games with a 1-0 win over St. Louis.

The Sharks also set a team record by earning a point in their 11th straight road game (10-0-1).

Devils 2, Sabres 1 (SO): Mike Mottau's first goal since October got host New Jersey even late in the third period, and Zach Parise came back from a sick day to score the only goal in the shootout against Buffalo.

Hurricanes 4, Bruins 3: Chad LaRose converted a penalty shot, and Eric Staal scored on the power play in the third period as host Carolina defeated Boston. Cam Ward made 18 saves for the Hurricanes, who won consecutive home games for the first time since early November.