NHL ROUNDUP : Whalers Lose for First Time

With Sean Burke out, the Florida Panthers were in.

The Panthers took advantage of a night off by Hartford’s No. 1 goaltender and defeated the Whalers, 3-0, Saturday night at Miami.

Florida’s John Vanbiesbrouck was the goaltender of the moment, stopping 24 shots for his 22nd career shutout.

Vanbiesbrouck got plenty of offensive help from Scott Mellanby, who had two goals and an assist as the Panthers handed the Whalers (4-1-1) their first loss of the season.

Hartford’s loss left the Philadelphia Flyers (5-0-1) and the Kings (4-0-3) as the remaining undefeated teams in the NHL.

Backup goaltender Jeff Reese kept the game close with several spectacular saves, but his 27 stops weren’t enough.

New Jersey 4, Ottawa 1--Sergei Brylin scored the go-ahead goal late in the second period at East Rutherford, N.J.

Valeri Zelepukin, John MacLean and Scott Stevens had the other goals for New Jersey, which started Chris Terreri in goal for the first time this season. He made 17 saves as the Devils defeated the Senators for the 10th consecutive time.

Ted Drury scored the Ottawa goal.

Chicago 4, St. Louis 1--Jeremy Roenick scored two goals and Ed Belfour stopped 31 shots at St. Louis.

The Blackhawks led, 3-0, after the first period on Roenick’s two goals and a goal by Patrick Poulin.

Tampa Bay 3, Dallas 3--Defenseman Bill Houlder scored the tying goal with 13:21 left in regulation as the Lightning rallied from a two-goal deficit at Dallas.

Houlder notched his first goal of the season when he skated up from the blue line and scored from in front of the net on a pass from Petr Klima.

Detroit 4, Boston 2--Mike Ramsey scored his first goal since March, and Chris Osgood made 19 saves at Detroit.

Vyacheslav Kozlov, Martin Lapointe and Keith Primeau also scored for Detroit, and Dave Reid and Ted Donato tallied for the Bruins.

Edmonton 6, Vancouver 4--Zdeno Ciger had a goal and two assists, Bill Ranford stopped 32 shots and Doug Weight scored an empty-net goal as time expired at Edmonton.

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NHL Notes

Alexei Yashin, the NHL star embroiled in a contract dispute with Ottawa, was back in action for the Central Army team despite a threat of international sanctions against the Russians.

Yashin had played two games for CSKA after arriving early in October.

After those games, the International Ice Hockey Federation warned that his team and the Russian Hockey Federation were liable for penalties if Yashin played again.