Tomas Plekanec and the Montreal Canadiens overpowered the Carolina Hurricanes.
Plekanec had two goals and two assists, all on the power play, to help the visiting Canadiens beat the Hurricanes 7-4 on Friday night.
“We wanted to get the puck on the net and get rebounds,” Plekanec said. “We did all the right things and it paid off.”
Montreal scored five power-play goals, four in the first period, en route to its third straight victory. The Canadiens have scored eight of their NHL-best 16 power-play goals in two games in Carolina, both wins.
“There are no secrets to it,” Montreal coach Guy Carbonneau said. “We have guys that can move the puck and make plays. You can pass it around for 2 minutes, but you can’t score if you don’t shoot it. That’s all we did.”
In other NHL games Friday night, it was: Vancouver 3, Washington 2; Buffalo 4, Florida 2; Detroit 5, San Jose 1 and Colorado 3, Calgary 2 in overtime.
Plekanec scored Montreal’s first goal with the man-advantage at 8:40 in the first, and assisted on Alex Kovalev and Mark Streit’s power-play goals in the period. Kovalev has 338 goals in 1,000 career games.
“They moved the puck about as well as a power play can move it,” Carolina defenseman Mike Commodore said. “We weren’t great on the penalty kill, but you have to give them credit. Their passes were right on the tape and when they had a chance to shoot, they shot. It was like Maurice Richard and Guy Lafleur out there.”
Kyle Chipchura, Saku Koivu and Mathieu Dandenault also scored, and Andrei Markov added three assists. The Canadiens have 17 goals in their past three games.
Jeff Hamilton, Ray Whitney and Rod Brind’Amour scored for Carolina.
Canucks 3, Capitals 2
At Washington, Vancouver goalie Roberto Luongo extended his winning streak against the Capitals to 10 games, making 26 saves for the Canucks.
Taylor Pyatt scored twice, and Daniel Sedin added a goal for Vancouver.
Alex Ovechkin and Michael Nylander scored for Washington.
Sabres 4, Panthers 2
At Sunrise, Fla., Drew Stafford’s fluke goal with 8:48 left in the third period snapped a tie and helped Buffalo end a three-game losing streak.
Stafford scored when his wrist shot bounced off goalie Tomas Vokoun’s blocker high into the air, then fell in behind Vokoun. Ales Kotalik, Jochen Hecht and Paille also scored for the Sabres, and Ryan Miller stopped 33 shots.
Jozef Stumpel and Ville Peltonen scored for Florida.
Red Wings 5, Sharks 1
At Detroit, Valtteri Filppula scored his first goal of the season and also had an assist, and Tomas Holmstrom added a goal and an assist for the Red Wings.
Henrik Zetterberg scored and has a point in all 11 games this season, and Andreas Lilja and Kirk Maltby also scored in Detroit’s fourth straight victory. Chris Osgood made 10 saves, allowing only Alexei Semenov’s late power-play goal.
Avalanche 3, Flames 2, OT
At Calgary, Alberta, Ryan Smyth scored 23 seconds into overtime for Colorado.
Marek Svatos tied it at 2 with 4:15 left in regulation, and Jose Theodore made 39 saves for the victory. Joe Sakic set up the winner and also scored for Colorado to reach the 1,600-point mark. Alex Tanguay and Matthew Lombardi scored for Calgary.
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