NHL

Florida's skid hits 11 with loss to Isles

By wire services
Published November 20, 2005

SUNRISE - The Islanders made quick work of the free-falling Panthers in the third period.

Shawn Bates scored two goals to help New York hand Florida its 11th straight loss, 5-3 on Saturday night.

Miroslav Satan, Oleg Kvasha and Mark Parrish also scored for New York, and Rick DiPietro made 25 saves in the Islanders' third victory on their four-game trip.

The Panthers' 11-game losing streak is their longest since a team-record 13-game slide from Feb. 7-March23, 1998. Florida hasn't won since Oct. 25 at Pittsburgh.

"It was disappointing," Panthers coach Jacques Martin said. "Once again we got into trouble when we took penalties. You have to give them credit, they got to the front of the net. We have to be able to box them out."

SABRES 3, BRUINS 2: Mika Noronen earned another chance after winning his first start of the season for Buffalo.

Noronen had 20 saves and Henrik Tallinder scored with 4:21 left to lead the visiting Sabres. The 26-year-old goalie hadn't started since allowing four goals in 33 minutes of a 10-4 loss to Ottawa on Nov. 2.

The win was Buffalo's season-high third straight and sent the Bruins to their fifth consecutive loss.

FLYERS 6, PENGUINS 3: Jeff Carter and Michael Handzus scored in the first 21/2 minutes of the third and visiting Philadelphia made a late lead hold up this time in a feisty rematch. Simon Gagne got his league-leading 19th and 20th goals of the season as Philadelphia improved to a league-best 10-1-1 on the road after dropping its previous three games, including successive home overtime losses to the Penguins on Wednesday, then Atlanta on Friday.

RANGERS 4, HURRICANES 3: Michael Nylander's goal and three assists helped New York split a home-and-home series with the East co-leaders. Martin Straka, Petr Prucha and Michal Rozsival also scored and Jaromir Jagr had three assists for the Rangers, the Atlantic Division leaders.

MAPLE LEAFS 5, THRASHERS 1: The Thrashers were too tired to avenge an embarrassing loss. Alexei Ponikarovsky scored twice and had an assist to help host Toronto for its season-high fourth straight victory. Bryan McCabe added a goal and two assists for the Maple Leafs, who also beat Atlanta 9-1 in a fight-filled rout on Oct. 14.

WILD 4, PREDATORS 2: Kurtis Foster scored his first two NHL goals as host Minnesota ended a three-game losing streak. Foster, who led AHL defenseman in scoring with 15 points in 19 games, was recalled from Houston on Thursday.

BLUES 3, RED WINGS 2: Mike Sillinger and Doug Weight scored in the third for visiting St. Louis, which won its second straight after losing 11 in a row. Curtis Sanford made 33 saves in St. Louis' first victory over Detroit in nine games (0-7-1) since Oct. 29, 2003.

SENATORS 5, DEVILS 4: Mike Fisher scored twice and backup goalie Ray Emery had 25 saves for host Ottawa. After Fisher gave Ottawa a 5-2 lead with 8:38 left, New Jersey cut it to one on goals by John Madden with 6:16 to go and Grant Marshall with 1:44 left.

CAPITALS 5, CANADIENS 1: Brian Sutherby scored twice and Olaf Kolzig had 43 saves for visiting Washington. Sutherby, Brian Willsie and Brooks Laich each scored before the midway point of the first period.

WILD REMEMBERS ZHOLTOK: The Wild honored the late Sergei Zholtok with a pregame program. His 16-year-old son, Edgar, was presented with a framed jersey his father wore for the Wild from 2001-04 - when he had 110 points in 210 games as a right wing and became one of the team's leaders and most popular players.

Zholtok died last year at 31 in former teammate Darby Hendrickson's arms when his heart failed near the end of a game in Belarus during the NHL lockout. Zholtok, who was playing for a team from his native Latvia, missed seven Minnesota games in January 2003 with an irregular heartbeat.

[Last modified November 20, 2005, 00:55:14]