Kostitsyn delivers KO to Penguins

Andrei Kostitsyn had his first career hat trick, leading the Montreal Canadiens to a 3-2 victory over the Penguins last night in Pittsburgh.

Kostitsyn, who missed the previous two games with a minor leg injury, scored twice in the first period and had the winner in the third. Tomas Plekanec added two assists for Montreal, 3-0-1 in its last four games.

"We want [Kostitsyn] to shoot," Montreal coach Guy Carbonneau said. "I think he has the best shot on our club. He should be ready to shoot from everywhere, and tonight that's all he did. He got good shots right on the net and turned them into goals."

Sidney Crosby and Pascal Dupuis each had a goal and an assist for the Penguins, who have scored only three goals in the past three games.

Avalanche 4, Red Wings 3 - Peter Budaj stopped all three shots in the shootout, and Wojtek Wolski scored the lone goal in the tiebreaker, lifting Colorado over visiting Detroit.

Wolski has converted on six of seven shootout attempts this season.

Devils 4, Rangers 2 - Travis Zajac had a goal and two assists for New Jersey, which broke out of a team-record (159 minutes 18 seconds) scoreless drought and beat host New York.

Blues 3, Sharks 2 - Brad Winchester tied it in the second period, and scored the deciding goal on his first shootout chance of the season, helping host St. Louis end a seven-game losing streak against San Jose.

Blue Jackets 3, Flyers 0 - Rookie Steve Mason made 20 saves for his third shutout as host Columbus earned its first win over Philadelphia in franchise history.

Sabres 4, Islanders 3 - Ales Kotalik and Drew Stafford scored shootout goals, and Ryan Miller (32 saves) stopped both of New York's attempts to power host Buffalo.

Lightning 6, Panthers 4 - Vincent Lecavalier scored twice and Martin St. Louis had a goal and three assists to help host Tampa Bay win its third straight.

Kings 4, Coyotes 0 - Jonathan Quick made 30 saves for his second shutout in three games and Alex Frolov scored twice for visiting Los Angeles.

Stars 4, Ducks 3 - Mike Modano scored at 3:24 of overtime after setting up Mike Ribeiro's tying goal late in regulation to lift Dallas over visiting Anaheim.

Flames 6, Senators 3 - Rene Bourque scored three goals for his first NHL hat trick as host Calgary beat Ottawa.