. Martin St. Louis Jersey . Petersburg crushed FC Krasnodar 4-0 on Saturday to take a seven-point lead into the Russian Premier Leagues three-month winter break.Zenit coach Andre Villas-Boas said the win boosted the club ahead of Tuesdays Champions League match at Monaco, which Zenit must win to qualify for the knockout stages.Its a very important win for us, Villas-Boas told Russian media. We wanted to go into the Monaco game with just this kind of attitude.Zenits win in the snow in St. Petersburg was an emphatic performance after weeks of indifferent form, with three defeats in its preceding five matches.Villas-Boas team went ahead through Ezequiel Garays 11th-minute opener, the Argentinian defender scoring on the rebound after Hulks free kick hit the post.Krasnodars first-choice goalkeeper Andriy Dikan had been injured shortly before Garays goal, and a blunder by his replacement Andrei Sinitsyn was responsible for Zenits 55th-minute second goal.With smoke from flares restricting visibility, Sinitsyn failed to cope with a cross from deep by Igor Smolnikov, palming it into the path of Axel Witsel, who scored easily.Miguel Danny made it 3-0 to Zenit with a fine strike seven minutes later, before full back Igor Smolnikov scored off a pass from Hulk on 68 minutes.Defeat leaves Krasnodar third, although the team from southern Russia could finish the year in fifth place depending on Sundays games.Defending champion CSKA Moscow scraped a 1-0 win away to Kuban Krasnodar, thanks to a goal from Nigerian forward Ahmed Musa on 45 minutes.Matching the club record by making his 426th league appearance for CSKA, goalkeeper Igor Akinfeev had little to do against poor finishing from Kubans players. Igor Armas should have scored for Kuban on 18 minutes when presented with an open goal, but hit the post.CSKA travels to Germany to face Bayern Munich on Wednesday in its final Champions League group game. In order to qualify, CSKA must win and hope that Roma does not beat Manchester City.The 17th round in the 30-match Russian league season concludes Monday, with action resuming in March after the winter break. Tampa Bay Lightning Jerseys . RAPTORS STRUGGLING: The bottom line is the true test in sports isnt just how you handle failure, but how you handle success. Andrej Sustr Jersey . Howard had 17 points and a career-high-tying 26 rebounds in his Houston debut, James Harden added 21 points and the Rockets cruised to a 96-83 win over the Charlotte Bobcats on Wednesday night. http://www.authentichockeyshoplightning.com/adidas+nikita+kucherov+lightning+jersey . You can catch all of the action LIVE on TSN2 at 6pm et/3pm pt. The Heat reached that mark Saturday night when they ruined the Philadelphia 76ers home opener.LIVERPOOL, England - Daniel Sturridge scored within 12 minutes of his return from injury to help Liverpool beat West Ham 2-0 in the Premier League on Saturday.The 25-year-old striker came on as a second-half substitute and his angled shot in the 80th minute found the bottom right corner after he was set up by Philippe Coutinho.Earlier, Coutinho had also set up Raheem Sterling to score in the 51st.Liverpool moved above West Ham into seventh place with its third straight league win.Sturridge had been missing for five months — 33 matches and 3,030 minutes of football in total — with thigh and calf injuries but showed he had lost none of his clinical finishing skills.His short-term stand-in Raheem Sterling had scored his fifth goal in 10 matches to put the Reds on the road to victory but Sturridge applied the finishing touch to put the result beyond doubt.Sturridges 22-minute run-out, having replaced Lazar Markovic, could not have gone better and it ensured another England striker did not grab the headlines on his return to Anfield.Exactly four years to the day Liverpool signed Andy Carroll in a club record of 35 million pounds (then $56 million) but, having been unceremoniously dumped by Brendan Rodgers, the big front man arrrived with a point to prove. Victor Hedman Jersey. The only points Carroll made in the first half, however, seemed to come from his elbow as he caught Emre Can in the mouth and Markovic in the face either end of the half.Aside from one header, easily saved by Simon Mignolet, Carroll was quiet. After the break his clumsiness continued when he was booked for catching Can with a late, sliding tackle. He appeared to injure himself and was replaced by Carlton Cole soon after.Philippe Coutinho, Adam Lallana — back in the starting line-up for the rested Steven Gerrard — and Markovic had their best opportunities while Sterling wanted a penalty just before the break after Joey OBrien appeared to haul him to the floor.However, the West Ham defence could not get near the England forward for his goal six minutes after halftime when he slotted Coutinhos brilliant through-ball past Adrian.Having received a rapturous reception from Liverpool fans starved of his goal threat for far too long, Sturridge rewarded them with a well-placed strike after exchanging passes with Coutinho