Sabres extend perfect start to nine games

Chris Drury scored his 10th goal and the Buffalo Sabres set a new team record by extending their season-opening winning streak to nine games with a 4-1 win over the Montreal Canadiens on Monday night in Montreal.

Buffalo moved to within one victory of tying Toronto’s league record of 10 straight wins at the start of the 1993-94 season. The Sabres matched their previous record of eight, set in 1975-76, with a 6-2 win in Boston on Saturday.

Sharks 3, Blue Jackets 0: At Columbus, Ohio, Vesi Toskala ran his winning streak to 12 games with his fifth career shutout in San Jose’s victory over the Blue Jackets.

Steve Bernier and Jonathan Cheechoo both had goals for the Sharks.

Thrashers 6, Panthers 3: At Sunrise, Fla., Ilya Kovalchuk scored three power-play goals to help Atlanta (7-1-1) continue the best start in franchise history with a victory over Florida.

Marian Hossa and Steve Rucchin also scored on the power play for the Thrashers, who also got a goal from former Florida captain Scott Mellanby. Vyacheslav Kozlov had four assists.

Avalanche 6, Kings 1: At Denver, Milan Hejduk had two goals and an assist and Colorado scored five second-period goals to cruise to a victory over Los Angeles.

Paul Stastny had a goal and two assists and John-Michael Liles and Marek Svatos added a goal and assist each for Colorado.

Stars 2, Canucks 1: At Dallas, Mike Modano scored the winning goal and Marty Turco had 33 saves as the Stars beat Vancouver to give it its best start in franchise history.

Dallas (8-1-0) topped the mark it set in 1971 when the franchise was in Minneapolis. It was 7-1-1 that season.

Oilers 5, Coyotes 2: At Edmonton, Alberta, Petr Sykora had a goal and three assists in lifting the Oilers to a victory over slumping Phoenix.

Ales Hemsky added a goal and two assists, Shawn Horcoff, Jarrett Stoll and Raffi Torres scored, and rookie Patrick Thoresen had three assists for Edmonton.