By The Assocaited Press

BOSTON – Marco Sturm scored late in the third period, Brad Boyes recorded a goal and two assists, and Boston snapped a three-game losing streak by beating the Buffalo Sabres 5-4 Saturday night, just hours after the Bruins fired general manager Mike O’Connell.

Glen Murray, Tom Fitzgerald and Patrice Bergeron also scored for Boston, which defeated Buffalo for the first time since March 13, 2004, and improved to 1-6 against the Sabres this season. Buffalo had outscored Boston 23-12 while winning the first six games of the eight-game season series.

Before the game, O’Connell was dismissed and replaced by assistant GM Jeff Gorton, who will run the club the rest of the season. Boston is 28-32-12 but well out of playoff contention as the Bruins are in 13th place in the Eastern Conference.

Tim Thomas, who O’Connell signed to a three-year contract extension on March 18, made 36 saves – including 15 in the first period to help the Bruins protect a 1-0 lead.

Boston squandered a 4-2 advantage the third period, but Sturm took a pass from Boyes in front and beat Buffalo goalie Ryan Miller to the short side with 4:49 left to help the Bruins win for only the third time in 12 games.

Chris Drury and Brian Campbell each had a goal and an assist for Buffalo, which has lost a season-high five straight. The Sabres, who hadn’t lost five in a row since 2003, are fourth in the East with 93 points.

After Derek Roy tied it at 1 at 6:40 of the second period, the Bruins scored twice in a little more a minute to go up 3-1.

Murray took a cross-ice pass from Brad Isbister and beat Miller to the right at 8:38. Fitzgerald then scored on a feed from Yan Stastny at 9:39.

Drury cut the deficit to 3-2 when he took a pass from Maxim Afinogenov and scored 14:07 into the second.

But Boyes extended the Bruins’ lead to 4-2 off an assist from Murray.

The Sabres scored twice early in the third period. They got even at 4 when Henrik Tallinder fired a slap shot from just inside the blue line at 12:52.

Miller made 34 shots, including a stop on Travis Green’s penalty shot in the first period.

Flyers 6, Senators 3

PHILADELPHIA – The Flyers scored four goals in the first period and Antero Niittymaki made the early spurt stand up with 33 saves to lead Philadelphia to a 6-3 win over the Ottawa Senators.

Petr Nedved, Niko Dimitrakos, Jeff Carter and Michal Handzus each scored in the first period to chase goalie Ray Emery and lead the Flyers to their fourth straight victory.

While catching the Eastern Conference-leading Senators in the standings seems out of reach, Philadelphia has helped its playoff push with wins over New Jersey and the New York Rangers this week.

Canadiens 6, Leafs 2

MONTREAL – Radek Bonk and Michael Ryder each scored twice and Cristobal Huet made 26 saves as the Montreal Canadiens completed a sweep of their two-game home set against Toronto with a 6-2 win over the Maple Leafs.

Andrei Markov and Garth Murray also scored for Montreal, which moved one point ahead of Atlanta into the eighth place in the Eastern Conference with 77 points.

Toronto captain Mats Sundin scored twice but the Maple Leafs lost for the second time in Montreal in three days. They are in 12th place in the East, seven points behind the Canadiens to 12th overall. The top eight teams make the playoffs.

Islanders 5, Thrashers 1

UNIONDALE, N.Y. – Mike York scored twice, and Miroslav Satan added a goal and two assists as the New York Islanders beat the Atlanta Thrashers 5-1.

Rick DiPietro earned his career-best 27th win by making 22 saves. Sean Bergenheim, Alexei Yashin and Bruno Gervais added goals for New York.

Ilya Kovalchuk scored his 45th of the season for Atlanta, which had a three-game winning streak snapped. With Montreal’s win over Toronto on Saturday, Atlanta fell one point behind the Canadiens for eighth place in the Eastern Conference.

Capitals 3, Hurricanes 1

RALEIGH, N.C. – Dynamic rookie Alexander Ovechkin scored his 47th goal, Matt Pettinger added a short-handed score and the Washington Capitals snapped an eight-game losing streak with a 3-1 victory over the Carolina Hurricanes.

It was Pettinger’s fifth with his team down a man, tying him for the best in the NHL, as Washington won for the first time since beating Pittsburgh 21/2 weeks ago. Five of the eight losses since were by one goal, with two going to a shootout and another decided in overtime.

Lightning 4, Rangers 3

TAMPA, Fla. – Brad Richards scored the lone goal in a shootout and John Grahame stopped three shots in the tiebreaker to lift the Tampa Bay Lightning to a 4-3 victory over the New York Rangers on Saturday night.

Tampa Bay got goals from Martin St. Louis, Fredrik Modin and Ryan Craig.

New York’s Jaromir Jagr, the NHL leader in goals and points, had a goal and assist but was stopped on the Rangers’ first shootout attempt. He also failed to score Friday during the tiebreaker loss at Florida.

Jagr scored his 51st goal in the second period to move past Vic Hadfield (1971-72) into second place on the Rangers’ single-season, goal-scoring list. He is one short of tying Adam Graves’ team record set in 1993-94.

Sharks 5, Wild 1

ST. PAUL, Minn. – Jonathan Cheechoo scored two goals, including his team-record 45th of the season, to help the surging San Jose Sharks beat the Minnesota Wild 5-1 Saturday night.

Joe Thornton had three assists and tied San Jose’s single-season record with 53 in only 44 games with the Sharks, 7-1-2 in their last 10 contests. Brian Rolston scored the lone goal for Minnesota.