Panthers Finally Find a Way to Beat Avalanche

Tom Fitzgerald scored a short-handed goal and John Vanbiesbrouck stopped 25 shots as the Florida Panthers defeated the Colorado Avalanche, 2-1, Thursday night at Denver in the first meeting of the teams since they met in the Stanley Cup finals last June.

It was a different story this time for the Panthers, who were swept in four straight in last season’s finals.

“Forget the notion that this makes up for us not winning the Stanley Cup,” Florida Coach Doug MacLean said. “I don’t think of it as anything more than two points for us. It feels really good, but there is no more to it than that.”

The Panthers remained the only unbeaten team in the NHL (4-0-2) after the Dallas Stars were beaten, 6-1, by Vancouver.

Florida won despite being unable to convert five power-play chances. The Avalanche have killed off 29 consecutive power plays.

Craig Billington was given the start in goal, his first as a member of the Avalanche since being acquired from the Panthers in the 1996 waiver draft. He stopped 30 shots as Patrick Roy was given his first game off.

Florida took a 1-0 lead 10 seconds into the game on a goal credited to John Garpenlov. Billington stopped Garpenlov’s wrist shot, but Colorado forward Mike Keane slapped the puck back into the net.

Colorado couldn’t convert on two first-period power plays, but tied the score at 10:50 on a 40-foot slap shot by Alexei Gusarov.

The Panthers dominated play in a scoreless second period and outshot the Avalanche, 15-2.

Florida didn’t convert on three power-play chances where Billington made saves on deflected shots by Robert Svehla and Rob Niedermayer.

Fitzgerald’s short-handed goal broke the tie at 3:55 of the third period. He took a pass from Bill Lindsay and sent a shot between the legs of Billington. It was the 10th career short-handed goal for Fitzgerald, the most in Panthers history.

The Panthers had to kill a penalty for the final 1:49 when Vanbiesbrouck was whistled for interference.

Vancouver 6, Dallas 1--The Canucks handed the Stars their first loss of the season thanks to two goals and an assist by Markus Naslund and a goal and three assists by Mike Ridley at Dallas.

The Stars had won their first six games for the best start in franchise history.

“People were talking about how well they were playing so, sure, we wanted to beat them,” Naslund said. “That’s how you get respect.”

The line of Naslund, Ridley and Alex Mogilny, playing their fourth game together, combined for four goals and five assists as the Canucks improved to 3-3-0.

Naslund and Dave Babych scored second-period goals over a span of 1:22 for the Canucks. Alex Semak, Mogilny and Naslund scored in the third period, with Mogilny and Semak getting power-play goals.

Chicago 2, Detroit 1--Tony Amonte and Chris Chelios scored in the third period and the Blackhawks rallied for their first home victory at Chicago.

Trailing, 1-0, after two periods on a goal by Viacheslav Fetisov, the Blackhawks seemed to be headed for their third shutout loss in four games at the United Center.

But Amonte beat Chris Osgood 18 seconds into the final period to tie and Chelios added the winner with 10:07 to play. The Blackhawks took the first nine shots of the period.

Buffalo 4, Pittsburgh 1--Garry Galley scored a goal and assisted on three others to lead the Sabres over the struggling Penguins at Buffalo.

Dominik Hasek made 29 saves for the Sabres, who handed the Penguins their second loss in two nights and their fifth in six games.

Derek Plante, Michael Peca and Brian Holzinger also scored for the Sabres, who ended a two-game losing streak and won for the second time in six games.

Hartford 3, N.Y. Islanders 1--Kevin Dinnen scored twice and Jason Muzzati stopped 20 shots in his first start in goal this season for the Whalers at Uniondale, N.Y.

Sami Kapanen also scored for the Whalers, who won their first game with newcomers Keith Primeau and Paul Coffey in the lineup, and continued their unbeaten streak against New York. Hartford is currently 6-0-1 against the Islanders since a 3-1 loss on March 7, 1995.

Derek King scored for the Islanders, who have only 11 goals in their five games this season.

St. Louis 6, Toronto 1--Al MacInnis scored twice and Grant Fuhr made 31 saves to lead the Blues at St. Louis.

The Blues led, 2-1, after two periods, thanks to strong goaltending by Fuhr who blocked several shots from point-blank range.

The Blues then put the game out of reach with a three-goal barrage during a 1:38 span of the third period.