Carey Price made 32 saves for the Canadiens, who won for only the third time in nine road games.
Eric Fehr scored in the first period for the Capitals, who couldn’t complain about a lack of chances. The puck seemed to flutter in front of the Montreal net for much of the game, but Alex Ovechkin and his teammates weren’t able to finish.
Sharks 6, Flyers 3 - Dany Heatley scored three times, Joe Thornton recorded his 600th NHL assist, and host San Jose beat Philadelphia.
Manny Malhotra, Ryane Clowe and Patrick Marleau also scored for the Sharks, who are 7-0-2 at home.
Claude Giroux scored twice and Danny Briere added a goal for the Flyers, who lost for the second time in nine games.
Thornton, who had points on each of Heatley’s goals, earned four assists. He matched his franchise record, and has 30 points this season.
Wild 3, Islanders 2 - Owen Nolan’s goal with 67 seconds remaining, his second of the game, sent struggling Minnesota over visiting New York.
Nolan had been dragged down in front of Islanders goalie Martin Biron on an earlier sequence and had just climbed back to his feet when the puck came his way from Eric Belanger. The 37-year-old Nolan, known for his grittiness around the net, knocked it in for a late lead. That gave a big lift to a team that was 0-2-2 in its previous four games.
Canucks 5, Avalanche 2 - Christian Ehrhoff’s second goal got Vancouver even in the third period, and Henrik Sedin then netted the go-ahead tally to beat visiting Colorado.
Steve Bernier added another goal - on a pretty slap pass from Ehrhoff - just as the first penalty in a brief five-on-three advantage ended with 8:21 left. Mikael Samuelsson scored on a skipping shot from the point less than two minutes later.
Roberto Luongo made 22 saves as the Canucks opened a five-game homestand the way they ended a five-game road trip six days earlier in Colorado, where they won, 8-2.
Panthers 2, Red Wings 1 - Bryan McCabe’s goal 40 seconds into overtime gave Florida the victory in Detroit.
Stephen Weiss scored Florida’s other goal and added an assist. Nathan Horton had two assists and Scott Clemmensen stopped 39 shots.
Pavel Datsyuk scored for Detroit, which lost its second straight at home. Chris Osgood made 18 saves.
