Penguins Like New Goaltender

Rookie goaltender Patrick Lalime made 21 saves for his second shutout in three starts as the Penguins stretched their unbeaten streak to five games with a 2-0 victory over the Buffalo Sabres Saturday night at Pittsburgh.

“It’s not a fluke that he’s playing well,” said the Penguins’ Mario Lemieux. “He’s very sound with his angles, the way he moves and the way he reads the play.”

Lemieux and Fredrik Olausson scored as the Penguins extended their streak to 4-0-1. They also are on a 10-2-1 roll that has them three games over .500 for the first time this season at 18-15-4.

Lalime, who assumed the No. 1 position after Ken Wregget pulled his hamstring against Montreal on Thursday night, is 6-0-1 with a 1.61 goals-against average since he came up from the minor leagues Nov. 14.

OTHER GAMES

Washington salvaged a 1-1 tie with Florida at Landover, Md., after Peter Bondra scored with 8.4 seconds left in regulation. On the bright side for the Panthers, they managed to finish a long trip with a 2-2-2 record. “We’ll take that,” said defenseman Gord Murphy. . . . Viacheslav Kozlov and Greg Johnson scored two goals apiece as Detroit beat the New York Islanders, 7-1, at Uniondale, N.Y., for their third victory in a row. . . . Steven Rice scored two goals and Jean-Sebastien Giguere made 30 saves for his first NHL victory as Hartford beat Ottawa, 3-2, at Hartford. Rice now has five goals in his last five games. . . . Benoit Brunet scored his second goal of the game midway through the third period as Montreal staged a rare rally to tie Tampa Bay, 4-4, at Tampa, Fla. . . . Kirk Muller scored with 3:20 remaining to give Toronto a 5-4 victory over Chicago at Toronto, ending the Maple Leafs’ five-game home losing streak. . . . Kelly Buchberger scored with four minutes left and Doug Weight added an empty-net goal as Edmonton beat San Jose, 5-3, at Edmonton.