MONTREAL — Jonathan Drouin was the only scorer in the shootout, and the Montreal Canadiens beat the Philadelphia Flyers 3-2 on Thursday night in an empty Bell Centre because of the rise of COVID-19 cases.

Quebec public health officials asked the Canadiens to play without fans in their home arena earlier Thursday to help slow the spread of the virus. The Canadiens agreed to the provincial government’s request, making the game the first at Bell Centre without spectators since Game 4 of the 2021 North Division semifinal against the Toronto Maple Leafs on May 25.

Artturi Lehkonen and Laurent Dauphin scored in regulation for Montreal. Cayden Primeau, son of former Philadelphia player Keith Primeau, allowed two goals on 38 shots. He saved every shootout attempt.

Max Willman and Jackson Cates scored for the Flyers. Carter Hart stopped 38 of 40 shots.

The Canadiens, who are scheduled to host Boston on Saturday, said they’ve been assured by health officials that fans will be allowed to return to partial capacity at the Bell Centre beginning in January.

HURRICANES 5, RED WINGS 3: Nino Niederreiter’s second goal of the game 18 seconds into the third period was the tiebreaker, and short-handed Carolina beat visiting Detroit.

Tony DeAngelo and Jack Drury, who made his NHL debut, joined Niederreiter with first-period goals, and Vincent Trocheck added an empty-net score for the Hurricanes, who played with 16 skaters because of COVID protocols.

Frederik Andersen made 23 saves. Jesperi Kotkaniemi, Teuvo Teravainen and Martin Necas each had two assists for Carolina.

Sam Gagner, Dylan Larkin and Tyler Bertuzzi scored for the Red Wings. Former Carolina goalie Alex Nedeljkovic stopped 29 shots.

The NHL allowed the Hurricanes, who had a scheduled game Tuesday night at Minnesota postponed, to play with two fewer skaters than normal after calling up three players from the minor leagues under an emergency exemption.

Carolina was without team scoring leader Sebastian Aho, second-leading scorer Andrei Svechnikov, captain Jordan Staal, Ian Cole, Seth Jarvis and Steven Lorentz.

LIGHTNING 2, SENATORS 1: Andrei Vasilevskiy set an NHL record for wins in a calendar year, Steven Stamkos picked up his 900th career point and Tampa Bay won at home.

Vasilevskiy made 25 saves to get his 63rd win in 2021 regular-season and playoff games. He broke the record of 62, established by Pittsburgh goalie Marc-Andre Fleury in 2009.

Stamkos and Martin St. Louis (953) are the only Tampa Bay players to reach 900 points. Stamkos is the 118th NHL player to accomplish the feat.

Victor Hedman had a goal and an assist, and Alex Killorn also scored for the Lightning, who lost 4-0 at Ottawa last Saturday. Tampa Bay is 7-1-1 over the last nine games.

The Senators, who had won five of six, got a goal from Thomas Chabot.

Stamkos reached the milestone at 15:05 of the second period when he assisted on Hedman’s power-play goal that put Tampa Bay ahead 2-1.

KINGS 4, PANTHERS 1: Anze Kopitar and Dustin Brown scored second-period goals and Jonathan Quick had 41 saves to help visiting Los Angeles defeat short-handed Florida.

Olli Maatta scored for the first time in 75 games and Arthur Kaliyev added a third-period goal for the Kings, who improved to 3-0-1 in their last four games.

Matt Kiersted scored his first NHL goal and Sergei Bobrovsky stopped 27 shots for the Panthers, who played with only 16 skaters, instead of the usual 18, because of a virus outbreak and injuries.

The Panthers had to recall four players from their AHL affiliate in Charlotte earlier Thursday to fill the roster.

GOLDEN KNIGHTS 5, DEVILS 3: Nicolas Roy scored the last of four straight goals for Vegas, Robin Lehner made 23 saves and the Golden Knights won at New Jersey for their third straight victory.

Dylan Coghlan, William Carrier, William Karlsson and Roy scored for the Golden Knights, who have won six of seven and improved to 5-1-1 all-time against the Devils. Jonathan Marchessault added an empty-net goal with 1:07 left.

The Devils lost their fourth in a row and fell to 2-8-2 in their last 12 games.