Panthers Win, Stay Unbeaten

Goaltender Mark Fitzpatrick, filling in for John Vanbiesbrouck, made 36 saves as the Florida Panthers defeated the Ottawa Senators, 5-2, on Wednesday night at Miami to remain the only unbeaten team in the NHL.

The Panthers, who advanced to the Stanley Cup final last season in only their third year, improved to 5-0-3.

They came into the game with the 24th-ranked power play at one for 29, but scored on three of five extra-man situations, with defenseman Ed Jovanovski, Rob Niedermayer and Martin Straka getting the goals.

Jovanovski opened the scoring with a power-play goal at 4:44 of the second period and Per Gustafsson made it 2-0 at 11:48, finishing off a two-one-one break with Brian Skrudland.

Ottawa’s Alexei Yashin scored his team-high sixth goal of the season with 1:14 left in the period when the Senators had a two-man advantage. But the Panthers pulled away with three goals in the third period.

Detroit 4, Dallas 1--Brendan Shanahan ended the Red Wings’ power-play drought with his second consecutive two-goal game at Detroit.

Shanahan, who scored his first two goals as a Red Wing in Monday’s 3-0 victory over the Kings, had power-play goals in the first and third periods against the Stars. They were the first two power-play goals of the season for the Red Wings, who failed to score on their first 33 chances with a man advantage.

Kris Draper and Greg Johnson also scored goals, and Steve Yzerman added two assists for Detroit.

Shanahan scored his second power-play goal in the third period to give Detroit a 4-1 lead.

Washington 3, New York Rangers 2--Defenseman Ken Klee scored with 6:10 left at Madison Square Garden.

The Rangers thought they had taken a 3-2 lead about two minutes earlier when Niklas Sundstrom beat Washington goalie Jim Carey with a shot coming down the right side, but the goal was disallowed when officials ruled that Ranger forward Daniel Goneau had his skate in the crease.

Wayne Gretzky had an assist to extend his point-scoring streak to nine games.

Colorado 4, Vancouver 1--Peter Forsberg scored a short-handed goal in the third period to break a tie and Joe Sakic had three assists at Vancouver.

With Colorado’s Adam Foote serving an interference penalty, Forsberg’s fifth goal of the season put the Avalanche ahead, 2-1.

Patrick Roy made 20 saves to improve to 15-6-1 lifetime against the Canucks.