Hurricanes Cap Amazing Month

Erik Cole scored three goals and tied a career high with four points, and Eric Staal had two goals and an assist to lead the Carolina Hurricanes to an 8-2 win over the Montreal Canadiens Tuesday night at Montreal.

Cole said the coaching staff told the players after the game that their 13-1 mark in January tied an NHL record for wins in a month. They became the sixth team to do it and the first since Detroit went 13-3 in March 2003.

“One of the comments in the room was, ‘If we’d only beaten Washington,’ ” Cole said, referring to a 5-2 road loss on Jan. 21.

Martin Gerber made 32 saves, and Kevyn Adams, Craig Adams and Niklas Nordgren also scored for Carolina, which leads the NHL with 78 points.

Vancouver 7, Phoenix 4 -- Henrik Sedin had a goal and three assists, and Alex Auld made 42 saves to lead the Canucks at Phoenix.

Colorado 3, Minnesota 2 -- Milan Hejduk broke out of a slump with a goal and an assist at Denver, and goalie David Aebischer set the Avalanche record for wins in January. Aebischer finished the month 9-3, breaking Patrick Roy’s mark of eight set in 2001.

Buffalo 5, Atlanta 2 -- Jason Pominville scored a short-handed goal that put Buffalo ahead at Atlanta as the Thrashers lost their sixth in a row.

Tampa Bay 3, Toronto 2 -- Vincent Lecavalier and Brad Richards scored in a shootout at Tampa, Fla. The Lightning has won six of eight, and improved to 2-10-1 against Northeast Division teams.

New York Islanders 5, Washington 3 -- Jason Blake scored a power-play goal with 4:43 left and then added an empty-netter to lead the Islanders at Uniondale, N.Y.