NEWARK, N.J. — Mike Mottau's first goal since October got New Jersey even late in the third period, and Zach Parise came back from a sick day to score the only goal in the shootout, giving the Devils a 2-1 victory over the Buffalo Sabres on Friday night.
Martin Brodeur made a rolling poke-check stop on Ales Kotalik to start the tiebreaker, and then denied Tim Connolly and Thomas Vanek to seal New Jersey's third straight win.
Ryan Miller did all he could to protect a 1-0 lead after Kotalik scored early in the second, but Mottau wrecked the shutout bid with 6:23 left in regulation.
Mottau made a right-to-left pass inside the blue line to defense partner Colin White, then cut down low. White's shot caromed off Miller to Mottau, who scored his first goal in 30 games.
Parise sat out Sunday with the flu.
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Miller made 34 saves through overtime, and stopped Brian Gionta in the shootout.
The Devils spent the final minute of regulation and the first of overtime killing John Madden's delay-of-game penalty.
Buffalo earned a point but dropped its second straight after six consecutive wins. The Sabres had won four in a row on the road.
Brodeur, fresh off a 1-0 overtime win at Calgary on Sunday in the Devils' previous game, stopped 26 shots. New Jersey is 14-3-1 in its last 18 games.
● Canadiens 5, Panthers 1: In Sunrise, Fla., Guillaume Latendresse, Michael Ryder and Christopher Higgins scored on the first three shots of the game, and the Canadiens went on to defeat the Panthers.
Craig Anderson came on to replace Tomas Vokoun after the third goal came 5:03 into the game.
Florida had been 5-0-1 against Montreal over the past two seasons. Cristobal Huet stopped 40 shots for Montreal.
● Hurricanes 4, Bruins 3: In Raleigh, N.C., Chad LaRose converted a penalty shot, and Eric Staal scored on a power play in the third period for the Hurricanes.
Cam Ward made 18 saves for the Hurricanes, who won consecutive home games for the first time since early November.
Mike Commodore and Rod Brind'Amour had Carolina's other goals.
Phil Kessel, P.J. Axelsson and Chuck Kobasew scored for Boston. Kobasew's was a short-handed goal, his second of the year.
● Sharks 1, Blues 0: In St. Louis, Evgeni Nabokov made 26 saves to earn his fifth shutout and league-leading 20th win to help the Sharks extend their club-record road winning streak to eight games with a win over the Blues.
The Sharks also set a team record by earning a point in their 11th straight road game (10-0-1).
San Jose, which got a goal from Milan Michalek late in the third period, has outscored its opponents 32-16 over that stretch.
Nabokov now has 39 career shutouts, fourth among active goaltenders.
Joe Thornton got an assist for his team-leading 42nd point.
The teams combined for 28 shots in the first two periods. St. Louis had a two-man advantage for 1:33 late in the second. But a wide-open Martin Rucinsky fanned on a centering pass from just outside the crease.
