MONTREAL — Chris Higgins scored on a two-man advantage 12:38 into the thirdand added an empty net goal to lift the Montreal Canadiens to a 4-2 win over theBuffalo Sabres on Saturday night.

Higgins flicked a backhand towards the net that bounced off goalie RyanMiller’s right arm and into the net with Montreal enjoying a 5-on-3. He scoredagain into an empty net with 24.9 seconds remaining to seal the win.

Bryan Smolinski and Kyle Chipchura also had goals for the Canadiens, whoended a three-game losing streak (0-2-1), including a 4-3 loss in Ottawa onThursday.

Paul Gaustad and Derek Roy scored goals nine seconds apart for Buffalo,which lost its second in a row to begin a five-game road trip.

Miller made 23 saves, one night after stopping 26 shots in a 3-0 loss toColumbus.

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TORONTO — The Chicago Blackhawks scored five goals in the third period torally past the Toronto Maple Leafs 6-4 on Saturday night.

Jason Williams, Andrei Zyuzin, Duncan Keith, Robert Lang, Patrick Sharp andTuomo Ruutu, with an empty-netter with 25 seconds left, scored for theBlackhawks.

Mats Sundin scored twice and Tomas Kaberle and Chad Kilger once each for theLeafs.

Trailing 3-1 at the start of the final period, Chicago rallied, scoring twogoals in 30 seconds.

Zyuzin, gliding into the middle of Toronto’s end during a power play,redirected a Patrick Kane pass through Raycroft’s legs at 1:04.

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OTTAWA — Ray Emery made 31 saves in his first regular-season start of theseason to help the Ottawa Senators beat the Florida Panthers 4-1 on Saturdaynight.

Emery, who underwent offseason wrist surgery, did play two games lastweekend for the Senators’ AHL affiliate in Binghamton, stopping 80 of 86 shots.

Mike Fisher and Shean Donovan scored second-period goals for the Senators,and Christoph Schubert and Daniel Alfredsson scored in the third.

The Panthers got their lone goal on a power play in the second period whenRichard Zednik stuffed a loose puck between Emery and the goal post.

Tomas Vokoun made 43 saves for Florida goal.

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TAMPA, Fla. — Martin St. Louis and Mathieu Darche scored 39 seconds apartduring a three-goal second period to help the Tampa Bay Lightning beat theAtlanta Thrashers 6-2 on Saturday night.

Tampa Bay got two goals from Vinny Prospal. Chris Gratton and VincentLecavalier had the other goals, helping the Lightning (4-2-0) stay unbeaten infour home games this season.

Ilya Kovalchuk and Brett Sterling scored for the defending SoutheastDivision champion Thrashers (1-7-0), who are winless in four road games. JohanHedberg allowed five goals on 24 shots before being pulled after two periods.

After Lecavalier’s breakaway goal at 5:36 of the second make it 3-1, theLightning broke the game open late in the period.

BOSTON — Phil Kessel scored the lone goal in a shootout to give the BostonBruins a 1-0 victory over the New York Rangers on Saturday.

After the first five shooters failed in the tiebreaker, Kessel skated in onHenrik Lundqvist and fired a wrist shot under the crossbar. The formerUniversity of Minnesota star had four shootout winners as a rookie last season.

Lundqvist made 19 saves in regulation and overtime, including ahighlight-reel save on Marc Savard late in the opening period. Manny Fernandezstopped 26 shots for Boston in his first start since Oct. 12.

With the shootout victory, Boston ended an eight-game winless streak (0-5-3)against the Rangers. The Bruins’ last win against New York was March 4, 2004, inBoston.

Rangers forward Martin Straka left the game in the first period when hebroke a finger blocking Zdeno Chara’s slap shot.

The Bruins improved to 5-2-1, while the low-scoring Rangers dropped to2-4-1.

BOSTON — Rangers center Martin Straka broke a finger on his right handblocking Zdeno Chara’s slap shot in the first period of New York’s game againstthe Boston Bruins on Saturday.

Straka has two goals and an assist this season after finishing with 29 goalsand 41 assists last season.

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VANCOUVER, British Columbia — Mike Cammalleri scored his NHL-leading eighthgoal as part of a three-goal outburst in the second period and the Los AngelesKings beat the Vancouver Canucks 4-2 on Friday night.

Jack Johnson scored his first NHL goal and Alexander Frolov also scoredduring a seven-minute stretch, and Dustin Brown was credited with an empty netgoal as the Kings won for the second time in three games after losing fivestraight.

Jason LaBarbera, who replaced Jean-Sebastien Aubin for the final period of a4-3 loss in Calgary the night before, was back in goal for Friday for just histhird start of the season. He had 26 saves for his first NHL win since April2006. It was the Kings’ first road win in four tries.

Mattias Ohlund scored with 5:47 left to make it close, and Roberto Luongomade 12 saves for the Canucks, who have lost four of five at home.

Matt Cooke, a healthy scratch just two games ago for the first time in morethan seven years, opened the scoring with his first goal of the season midwaythrough the first period, driving untouched past three Kings to knock in arebound.

CHICAGO — Tuomo Ruutu tipped in Magnus Johansson’s shot from the point with1:25 left in the third period to snap a tie, and the Chicago Blackhawksrebounded from a three-goal deficit to beat the Colorado Avalanche 5-3 on Fridaynight.

Robert Lang added an empty-net goal with 50 seconds left to complete thescoring.

Chicago rookie Patrick Kane scored his first NHL goal and added two assists,including one on Ruutu’s winner. The 18-year-old Kane was the first overall pickin the 2007 draft.

Chicago’s Patrick Sharp had a goal and assist.

Blackhawks rookie Jonathan Toews scored his second NHL goal after making aseries of spectacular moves. The 19-year-old Toews was chosen with the thirdoverall pick in the 2006 draft.

Chicago’s Nikolai Khabibulin stopped 37 shots.

Colorado’s Ryan Smyth scored on a tip-in on a power-play with 12:25 left inthe third to tie it at 3. Smyth redirected Andrew Brunette’s feed pastKhabibulin as he cut across the top of the crease.

Wojtek Wolski and Marek Svatos also scored for the Avalanche, who got 22saves from Jose Theodore.

PITTSBURGH — Sidney Crosby had the winning shootout goal and the PittsburghPenguins defeated the Carolina Hurricanes 4-3 on Friday night.

All three Penguins shooters scored in the shootout against Hurricanes goalieCam Ward. On Crosby’s goal, he went from his backhand to his forehand.

Pittsburgh’s Erik Christensen used a similar move to begin the shootout.Matt Cullen answered at the other end of the ice.

After Petr Sykora scored a third shootout goal for the Penguins, JeffHamilton answered for Carolina by lifting a backhander underneath the crossbar.

After Crosby’s goal, Pittsburgh goalie Dany Sabourin made the first save ofthe shootout, using his glove on Ray Whitney’s wrist shot to seal the victory.

Justin Williams had a goal and an assist and Rod Brind’Amour two assists forthe Hurricanes, who had won three in a row and were playing the fifth game of asix-game road trip.

Sykora had two goals in regulation and Sidney Crosby had two assists forPittsburgh, which was taking part in a shootout for the first time this season.

BUFFALO, N.Y. — Pascal Leclaire made 21 saves for his third shutout of theseason and fourth overall, and Rick Nash had a goal and an assist to help theColumbus Blue Jackets beat the Buffalo Sabres 3-0 on Friday night.

Nash scored in the second period, 62 seconds after he was denied by goalieRyan Miller on the NHL’s first penalty shot of the season.

Michael Peca also had a goal and assist, and Nikolai Zherdev scored anempty-net goal for the Blue Jackets in their first road victory in three tries.

Buffalo, last season’s highest-scoring team, was shut out for the first timesince April 2006 — a span of 95 regular-season games — and had its three-gamewinning streak snapped. The Sabres finished their four-game homestand 3-1.

Miller made 26 saves.

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