flyers 6, canadiens 4

Matvei Michkov had two goals and an assist and the Philadelphia Flyers got off to fast start in their first game after coach John Tortorella’s morning firing, beating the Montreal Canadiens.

With Brad Shaw serving as interim coach, Philadelphia ended a six-game losing streak and handed Montreal its fourth straight loss.

Michkov opened the scoring at 1:55 of the first period, assisted on the first of Sean Couturier’s two goals and added his 22nd goal in the third. Tortorella came under scrutiny when he scratched Michkov or benched him for long periods, explaining it was part of a tough-love approach toward with the Russian rookie.

lightning 8, utah 0

Jake Guentzel and Oliver Bjorkstrand scored two goals each, Andrei Vasilevskiy made 25 saves, and the Tampa Bay Lightning routed the Utah Hockey Club.

Brayden Point, Nikita Kucherov, Gage Goncalves and Victor Hedman also scored for Tampa Bay, which won its second in a row and has won five of its last seven games. Kucherov also had three assists.

It was the fourth time this year Tampa Bay has scored eight goals in a game.

sabres 7, penguins 3

Jiri Kulich scored twice as part of a five-goal second period, and the Buffalo Sabres routed Pittsburgh in an outing Penguins captain Sidney Crosby broke an NHL record for point-per-game consistency he shared with Wayne Gretzky.

Buffalo won its fourth-straight home game with Tage Thompson, Alex Tuch, Peyton Krebs, Tyson Kozak each securing a goal and assist. Mattias Samuelsson also scored, and backup James Reimer made 22 saves in winning his third consecutive start.

Crosby’s goal 8:49 in to cut Buffalo’s lead to 2-1 was his 80th point, to assure he’ll finish his 20th NHL season averaging at least a point per outing.

The 37-year-old surpassed Gretzky, who finished all but his 20th and final NHL season in 1998-99 averaging a point a game.

blues 3, predators 2

Dylan Holloway scored two goals to lead the St. Louis Blues to a 3-2 comeback victory over the Nashville Predators on Thursday night for their season-best eighth straight win.

Cam Fowler also scored and Joel Hofer made 16 saves for the Blues. Robert Thomas had two assists.

Fedor Svechkov and Brady Skjei scored and Juuse Saros made 18 saves for Nashville, which has dropped two of three.

Nashville’s Jonathan Marchessault appeared to tie it late in the third, but a video review determined that time had expired before the puck entered the net.

Nashville raced out to a 2-0 first-period lead, but Holloway’s first goal midway through the second cut the deficit.

Fowler and Holloway scored 22 seconds apart to give St. Louis its first lead of the game as the Blues controlled play in the third period. Nashville managed just five shots in the third.

The win gave the Blues a season sweep of the five-game season series with Nashville. Thursday’s game was the third between the teams in a 10-game span. St. Louis entered Thursday in the Western Conference’s second wild-card position.

Skjei’s goal came on a Nashville power play. The Predators have scored a power-play goal in a season-high five straight games.