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NHL briefs

By Compiled from Times wires

© St. Petersburg Times, published October 27, 2000

Keenan's return is a winner

BOSTON -- Mike Keenan won his first game as coach of the Bruins, as Jason Allison scored twice and Andrew Raycroft stopped 27 shots in a 4-1 victory over Washington on Thursday night.

P.J. Axelsson and Mikko Eloranta also scored for Boston, which had lost four straight after opening the season 3-0-1. Craig Billington stopped 39 shots, and Joe Sacco scored for Washington.

The Bruins fired Pat Burns on Wednesday, eight games into his fourth season. Boston is Keenan's sixth NHL club, and the man they call "Iron Mike" promised to turn things around quickly, as he has in three of his five previous stops.

But Keenan inherited a team that didn't respond to Burns, who is himself no slouch as a motivator. Thursday's victory may have had more to do with the opponent: The Capitals dropped to 1-4-3 with the loss.

Burns was right about one thing: Joe Murphy is a discipline problem. The Washington forward was released by Boston last season for insubordination after getting into a shouting match with Burns during a game.

Thursday, Murphy drew a four-minute penalty when he took one Bruins player down and punched another in the face at the 7:40 mark of the third. Boston scored twice on the resulting power play to turn a 2-1 game into a blowout.

Allison scored his second goal to make it 3-1 when he flipped a shot in off a Washington defenseman with 10:23 left.

FLYERS 3, RANGERS 0: Michal Sykora scored his first goal in two years and Brian Boucher made 32 saves for host Philadelphia.

Philadelphia has beaten New York twice in three days.

The Rangers have lost five of their past six games.

Rick Tocchet also scored for Philadelphia. Daymond Langkow added an empty-net goal.

Sykora, who spent the past two seasons playing in the Czech Republic, gave the Flyers a 1-0 lead 7:07 into the game when he one-timed a crossing pass from Paul Ranheim just inside the far post.

Sykora's last goal came Nov. 8, 1998, when he played for Tampa Bay.

Boucher, who led the league with a 1.91 goals-against average last season, had allowed 14 goals in three previous starts, and was yanked in his past two starts at home.

He made a couple nice stops in the final minutes when New York pulled its goalie during a power-play for a six-on-four advantage.

Boucher, the first rookie in 50 years to allow less than two goals a game last season, saw his goals-against average dip to 3.83 from 4.52 after the shutout.

The Flyers played without injured forwards John LeClair, Mark Recchi and Keith Jones and defenseman Chris Therien.

AVALANCHE 2, BLACKHAWKS 0: David Aebischer became the fourth backup this season to beat the Blackhawks as visiting Colorado stayed unbeaten. In just his second start, Aebischer record his first shutout, stopping 18 shots. Chicago had a first-period goal by Stephane Quintal wiped out when ex-Lightning Michael Nylander was called for a cross-check.

BLUES 4, FLAMES 3: Scott Young scored twice for host St. Louis to become the first player to reach 10 this season. Young entered the game tied with four other players with eight goals. He reached double digits in a 1:33 span of the second period by tipping home a Pierre Turgeon pass on a break-in, and then banging in the rebound.

Pronger gets $29.5-million

ST. LOUIS -- Chris Pronger, the reigning most valuable player, agreed to a contract extension with the Blues that will make him one of the league's highest-paid players.

The Blues and Pronger announced the deal at a news conference at the Savvis Center, before the team's game against the Flames.

Pronger, 26, signed a three-year, $29.5-million deal beginning in the 2001-02 season. He will get a $1-million signing bonus and earn $9.5-million per year for each of the three seasons, according to his agent, Pat Morris.

"Without question, it's a great day in the history of the franchise," owner Bill Laurie said.

Brian Leetch of the Rangers, at $7.68-million for this season, is the highest-paid defenseman. Colorado's Peter Forsberg and Anaheim's Paul Kariya, each earning $10-million, are the highest-paid players.

PANTHERS: Florida recalled defenseman Joey Tetarenko and right wing Ivan Novoseltsev from Louisville of the American Hockey League. They will fill in for centers Len Barrie and Viktor Kozlov, who were injured in the 2-1 loss to New Jersey on Wednesday. Barrie (bruised kidney) is day-to-day. Kozlov (shoulder) is out indefinitely.

RANGERS: Mark Messier tied Wayne Gretzky for sixth on the NHL's all-time games-played list at 1,487.

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Gary Shelton