Place an Ad Calendars Classified Forums Sports Weather

sptimes.com Text-only News sections Arts & Entertainment AP The Wire Business Citrus County Columnists Floridian Hernando County Hillsborough Letters Movies Neighborhood Times News Update North Pinellas North of Tampa Obituaries Opinion Pasco County South Pinellas Sports State Tampa Bay TV Times World & Nation  Find your local news section Weekly sections Brandon Times City Times Homes Outdoors Perspective Personal Tech Taste Travel Weekend Xpress Special Sections Arena football Buccaneers College football Devil Rays Lightning Police reports Schools Seniority Subscriber Services Subscribe Renew Help Advertise Place an ad In print Online Market Info Join Us Internships Scholarships Times Jobs Contact us

NHL briefs

Compiled from Times wires

© St. Petersburg Times, published March 24, 2001

Devils shut out Canucks, win 13th straight

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. -- Patrik Elias scored two goals and the Devils tied the NHL's fourth-longest winning streak by beating the Vancouver Canucks 4-0 on Friday night for their 13th straight win.

The streak matches runs by the Boston Bruins in 1971 and Philadelphia Flyers in 1985, and it moved the Devils within four of tying the league record, set by the Pittsburgh Penguins in 1993.

"We just know we have the ability to win any hockey game we want to," center Bobby Holik said. "The biggest opponent for us now is ourselves."

John Vanbiesbrouck had 23 saves as the Devils posted consecutive shutouts. The shutout was the second of the season and 40th of his career for Vanbiesbrouck, acquired this month from the Islanders.

Pittsburgh can end the run Sunday, when the Devils can tie the NHL's third-longest streak, by Boston in 1929-30.

STARS 2, ISLANDERS 1: Brett Hull scored the tiebreaker, his 38th goal, late in the second period for host Dallas. The Stars are 5-0-1 in their past six to stretch their lead in the Pacific Division to 11 points over San Jose.

Marty Turco had 22 saves, including 16 in the third period, for Dallas.

HURRICANES 5, PENGUINS 3: Sami Kapanen scored twice and Ron Francis had three assists as host Carolina won its season-high fourth straight.

"Our best player was our best player tonight," Jeff O'Neill said. "Ronnie Francis was awesome."

Francis has 1,133 career assists, within two of Paul Coffey for third on the NHL's career list.

Alexei Kovalev scored his 42nd of the season on a power play with 12:41 left as the Penguins rallied from a three-goal deficit to tie.

Kapanen scored the winner with 7:15 left.

Pittsburgh experimented with Mario Lemieux and Jaromir Jagr on different lines, but that didn't generate much offense in the first two periods. They were back together by the third.

PANTHERS 4, CAPITALS 1: Pavel Bure scored twice to extend his goal-scoring streak to seven games for host Florida. Peter Bondra scored for Washington, which lost its fifth straight. The Capitals had not lost five in a row since finishing the 1998-99 season with six losses.

Lemieux leads Canadian Oympians

TORONTO -- Mario Lemieux will captain Canada's team at the 2002 Olympics, heading a list of eight players named by Wayne Gretzky.

"I think it is a great opportunity and something that I'm looking forward to, especially at age 35 or 36 to play in the Olympics," Lemieux said.

He was joined by defensemen Rob Blake of Colorado, Scott Niedermayer of New Jersey and Chris Pronger of St. Louis, and forwards Paul Kariya of Anaheim, Owen Nolan of San Jose, Joe Sakic of Colorado and Steve Yzerman of Detroit.

"We felt in selecting these eight players ... (they) will don the sweater and play extremely well for us and be a big part hopefully of bringing us a gold medal," said Gretzky, executive director of the Canadian team.

The roster will be filled by Dec. 22.

Canada finished fourth at the 1998 Games. It lost to the Czech Republic in a semifinal shootout and 3-2 to Finland in the bronze-medal game. Blake, Pronger and Yzerman were on that team. Kariya and Sakic were injured. Lemieux was out of hockey.

FINLAND OLYMPIC TEAM: Sami Kapanen, Teemu Selanne of San Jose and Saku Koivu of Montreal were among eight players named. Other forwards chosen were Jere Lehtinen of Dallas and Juha Ylonen of Phoenix. The defenseman were Teppo Numminen of Phoenix, Janne Niinimaa of Edmonton and Kimmo Timmonen of Nashville. All eight played in the 1998 Games. The team said the remaining 15 players will be chosen by the end of May.

BLUES: Forward Tyson Nash will miss the rest of the season after re-injuring his right knee in Thursday's 3-1 loss to Colorado. Nash will have reconstructive surgery on the ACL.

FLYERS: After more than three months recuperating from a staph infection in his back, left wing John LeClair was expected to play against Toronto tonight. Left wing Simon Gagne also was expected to rejoin the lineup after missing 12 games with a dislocated left shoulder.

TV RATINGS: Commissioner Gary Bettman said he is "not the least bit concerned" about the league's declining ratings. The first two regular-season games on ABC drew ratings of 1.1 (each point represents about 1.02-million homes), down more than 20 percent from last season. Ratings also are down on ESPN (2 percent) and ESPN2 (17 percent).

© 2006 • All Rights Reserved • Tampa Bay Times
490 First Avenue South • St. Petersburg, FL 33701 • 727-893-8111

Contact the Times | Privacy Policy
Standard of Accuracy | Terms, Conditions & Copyright