The Montreal Canadiens are nearly perfect on the road, while the St. Louis Blues have been downright terrible wherever they've suited up lately.

Niklas Sundstrom deflected Steve Begin's shot from the right point with just under three minutes remaining in the Canadiens' 3-2 victory over the Buffalo Sabres on Friday night. Montreal is an NHL-best 6-0-1 on the road, its best away start since the franchise was established in 1909.

"I don't know if we play any type of different hockey on the road. All I know is that we're playing pretty good right now," Sundstrom said. "Normally it's a little tougher to get road wins, but so far this year we've been doing it."

The Blues (2-8-3) haven't missed the playoffs since 1979, but that run is in danger after they fell 7-2 at home to Edmonton for their seventh straight loss.

"We're last in the league because we deserve to be last in the league," defenseman Eric Brewer said. "We just didn't play well. We need to suck it up and play better hockey."

At Washington, Alex Ovechkin scored the only shootout goal, lifting the Capitals.Atlanta's Ilya Kovalchuk shot wide left, Marian Hossa fired wide right and Capitals goalie Olaf Kolzig gobbled up former Capitals star Peter Bondra's attempt that would have prolonged the Thrashers' first shootout.

At Dallas, Stu Barnes capped a hat trick with a short-handed goal and Jason Arnott scored twice and had an assist as the Stars matched the most goals they've scored since moving to Texas.

At Vancouver, British Columbia, Anson Carter had a goal and two assists for the Canucks.Henrik Sedin put Vancouver ahead 3-2 with 1:33 left in the second period.

At Anaheim, Calif., Marcel Goc scored a power-play goal 51 seconds into overtime and Nolan Schaefer made 21 saves for his first NHL shutout, helping San Jose snap Anaheim's six-game, home winning streak.