Fast start sparks Red Wings’ 5-1 victory

Brett Hull’s pregame jersey retirement ceremony at St. Louis wasn’t about to put the Detroit Red Wings off their game.

Despite sitting and watching the long ceremony for Hull, who was the star attraction in St. Louis for 11 years but also won a Stanley Cup with Detroit, the Red Wings came out fresh.

Detroit scored two goals in the first 4 1/2 minutes and had 10 shots on goal in the first 10 minutes in a 5-1 rout of the Blues on Tuesday night.

“We wanted to have a good start after not having moved around for close to 45 minutes,” defenseman Nicklas Lidstrom said. “We talked about a quick start after that long ceremony.”

Ottawa 4, New York Islanders 2 -- Dany Heatley scored twice and Jason Spezza had three points to lead the Senators at Uniondale, N.Y.

Florida 3, Pittsburgh 2 -- Olli Jokinen’s first road goal of the season helped the Panthers stop a six-game losing streak.

Buffalo 4, Tampa Bay 1 -- Daniel Briere had three goals, including two during a three-goal first period at Tampa, Fla., for the Eastern Conference-leading Sabres.

Atlanta 5, Toronto 2 -- Vyacheslav Kozlov scored two of Atlanta’s five third-period goals at Toronto, and the Thrashers rallied for a season-high fifth straight win.

Minnesota 3, Chicago 2 -- Pierre-Marc Bouchard scored the winning goal in a shootout and the Wild ended a four-game losing streak at St. Paul, Minn.

Columbus 3, Colorado 0 -- Fredrik Norrena got his second straight shutout and the Blue Jackets won in Denver for the first time in franchise history.

Calgary 3, Carolina 0 -- Miikka Kiprusoff made 23 saves and Daymond Langkow scored 28 seconds into the game to lead the Flames at Calgary.