Fountain Makes It Dry Night for Devils

After four seasons in the minor leagues and five call-ups by the Vancouver Canucks, goaltender Mike Fountain made the most of his NHL debut Thursday night.

Not only did Fountain stop 40 shots in a 3-0 victory over the Devils at East Rutherford, N.J., ending the Devils’ five-game winning streak, he came within a few feet of scoring an empty-net goal.

“I never doubted I would get to the NHL,” said Fountain, who was called up from Syracuse Wednesday because of an injury to Kirk McLean. “It was four solid years that I’ve been saying I can play.”

Alexander Mogilny scored twice for the Canucks.

Buffalo 5, Colorado 4--Jason Dawe scored twice at Buffalo as the Sabres ended the defending Stanley Cup champion Avalanche’s 11-game unbeaten streak.

Dawe’s second goal broke a 3-3 tie at 5:28 of the third period. He took the puck from behind the net and swung around, hitting a wrist shot from in front of the crease while Colorado goalie Craig Billington was down.

Colorado, which had been on a 9-0-2 streak, got goals from Valeri Kamensky, Sandis Ozolinsh, Eric Lacroix and Rene Corbet.

St. Louis 5, Tampa Bay 3--Pierre Turgeon had a goal and an assist as the Blues set a team record with three goals in a 39-second span in the third period to defeat the Lightning at St. Louis.

The Blues cut 10 seconds off their previous record set April 3, 1995, when Ian Laperriere, Esa Tikkanen and Adam Creighton scored against Toronto.

St. Louis trailed, 3-2, before the flurry. Stephane Matteau tied it at 13:15 off a Turgeon feed, Turgeon put the Blues ahead at 13:27 off a centering pass from Brett Hull, and rookie Jim Campbell scored at 13:54 after Geoff Courtnall’s shot deflected off a Lightning player and onto his stick.

Washington 5, Philadelphia 2--Joe Juneau had two assists at Philadelphia as the Capitals held off the Flyers, whose home record dropped to 4-6.

After trailing, 3-0, the Flyers pulled within a goal. Defenseman Eric Desjardins’ third goal of the season, off a rebound in front 59 seconds after intermission, made the score 3-1. At 8:30 of the third, Rod Brind’Amour came around from behind the net and stuffed a shot between the pads of goalie Olaf Kolzig. But the Capitals clinched the victory when Steve Konowalchuk tapped in a rebound with 1:50 left. Flyer goalie Ron Hextall lasted only two periods in his 500th NHL appearance.

Boston 2, Pittsburgh 1--Adam Oates scored off a pass from Todd Elik at 1:05 of overtime to lift the Bruins at Boston and keep the Penguins winless on the road (0-10-1).

Bill Ranford stopped 30 shots, losing the shutout when Kevin Hatcher at 19:13 of the third period on a shot from the slot.

Defenseman Ray Bourque returned after sitting out Boston’s last nine games because of a bruised right shoulder.

Calgary 2, Chicago 1--German Titov scored on a rebound with 4.1 seconds left in overtime as the Flames ended a five-game winless streak by defeating the Blackhawks at Chicago.

Trevor Kidd made 30 saves and Dave Gagner scored early in the third period to tie the game. Kevin Miller scored for the Blackhawks.

Hartford 2, Phoenix 1--Jeff O’Neill scored a short-handed goal and Sean Burke stopped 40 shots as the Whalers edged the Coyotes at Phoenix.

Keith Primeau gave the Whalers a 1-0 lead at 3:34 of the first period with his fourth goal of the season. O’Neil padded that at 5:29 of the second period when he beat Phoenix goalie Nikolai Khabibulin with a back-hander.