Montreal Wins After Firing

Andrei Markov had two goals and two assists in a six-goal second period to help Montreal General Manager Bob Gainey win his Canadien coaching debut, a 6-2 victory over the San Jose Sharks on Saturday night at Montreal.

Gainey, who stepped behind an NHL bench for the first time in 10 years, fired coach Claude Julien and assistant coach Rick Green before the game and appointed himself to replace Julien. Montreal, which got off to a 12-3-1 start, had won only seven of its last 25 games.

Gainey had a 165-190-60 regular-season coaching record with Minnesota/Dallas from 1990 to ‘96, leading the North Stars to their second Stanley Cup finals appearance in 1992.

“I hadn’t been close to the ice for a game in quite a while,” Gainey said.

“It was a fun game to be a part of.”

Ottawa 5, Edmonton 3 -- Vaclav Varada scored twice and Dany Heatley added his team-leading 28th goal to lead the Senators past the Oilers at Edmonton, Canada.

Columbus 5, Florida 4 -- David Vyborny scored a power-play goal with 12 seconds left in overtime and Pascal Leclaire made 47 saves to lift the Blue Jackets to victory at Sunrise, Fla.

Calgary 4, Minnesota 1 -- Jarome Iginla, Daymond Langkow, Kristian Huselius and Tony Amonte scored and the Flames ended a three-game losing streak at St. Paul, Minn.

Vancouver 8, New York Islanders 1 -- Todd Bertuzzi scored twice on Vancouver’s first three shots en route to his fifth career hat trick and the Canucks chased Islander goalie Rick DiPietro with three second-period goals in a victory at Uniondale, N.Y.

Phoenix 4, Toronto 3 -- Paul Mara, Geoff Sanderson, Ladislav Nagy and Fredrik Sjostrom scored goals to help the Coyotes overcome a three-goal, first-period deficit in a victory at Toronto.

Colorado 4, Philadelphia 3 -- Alex Tanguay scored with 45.8 seconds left in overtime at Philadelphia, lifting the Avalanche to its seventh consecutive victory.

Detroit 4, New York Rangers 3 -- Brendan Shanahan’s second goal snapped a third-period tie at Detroit and the Red Wings broke the Rangers’ streak of seven games in which they had earned at least a point.

Dallas 2, Boston 1 -- Jussi Jokinen scored the only goal of the shootout at Boston to lift the Stars to their season-high sixth consecutive victory.