Sharks Beat Odds in Beating Avalanche

The Sharks had only three victories in 15 games against Colorado and hadn’t beaten the Avalanche/Nordiques in San Jose in five years.

The Sharks had been outscored, 10-1, in two games against Colorado this season.

The Avalanche had Patrick Roy in goal. He was 11-0-1 against San Jose.

Sharks 2, Colorado 1, on Saturday in San Jose.

What happened?

“That’s the best I’ve seen the Sharks play since I’ve been playing against them,” Colorado’s Brent Severyn said. “They were sound defensively.”

The back line of that defense was the goaltending team of Ed Belfour and Kelly Hrudey. Belfour, who was recently acquired in a trade, left after two periods because of a strained knee and Hrudey played the final 20 minutes.

“We had some great shots late in the game, but Hrudey made some great saves,” said Roy, who started the game with a 1.42 goals-against average vs. San Jose.

Jeff Friesen broke a 1-1 tie with a goal with 1:08 gone in the third period against the team with the NHL’s best record.

Boston 3, Tampa Bay 0--Ray Bourque became the Bruins’ all-time point-producer with a first-period goal and added a third-period assist on Ted Donato’s goal in a victory at Tampa.

Bourque has 1,341 points in his 18-year Boston career, two more than Johnny Bucyk compiled from 1957-78.

The goal was Bourque’s 10th this season and 353rd overall. He also has 988 assists in 1,264 games. Bucyk had 1,436 games with the Bruins.

Pittsburgh 4, Phoenix 1--Mario Lemieux needed less than a period to score his 598th and 599th goals and rookie goalie Patrick Lalime made 29 saves for the Penguins in a victory at home.

Lemieux said he was unaware he needed one more goal to match Wayne Gretzky’s feat of scoring 600 goals in 718 games.

Detroit 4, St. Louis 1--Brendan Shanahan, once a 50-goal scorer for the Blues, came back to St. Louis for the first time as a Red Wing and scored twice.

Mike Vernon continued his mastery over St. Louis by stopping 25 shots. He is 16-1-1 in his career against the Blues, with a 1.89 goals-against average.

Brett Hull had the Blues’ goal and extended his scoring streak to 12 games.

Washington 3, Florida 1--Jim Carey faced only 21 shots in helping the Capitals end a four-game losing streak with a victory in Miami.

Carey was supported by Peter Bondra’s assist and third-period goal during a line change, and by Washington’s pressure against Panther goalie John Vanbiesbrouck.

New York Rangers 4, Philadelphia 2--Niklas Sundstrom had a goal and an assist and Mike Richter made 39 saves for the Rangers, who were outshot by the Flyers, 41-17, but still won at Philadelphia.

Brian Leetch had two assists for New York, which also got goals from Mark Messier, Alexander Karpovtsev and Sergei Nemchinov.

New Jersey 4, Montreal 4--Rookie Steve Sullivan scored on a breakaway midway through the third period to give the Devils a tie in Montreal.

Sullivan was sent in alone off a lead pass by Scott Niedermayer and beat goalie Jocelyn Thibault between the pads, giving New Jersey its third consecutive tie.

The Devils outshot Montreal, 50-27, including 20-7 in the first period.

Ottawa 2, Toronto 1--Goaltender Damian Rhodes made his return to Maple Leaf Gardens a successful one, facing only 19 shots in the Senators’ victory.

Rhodes had been traded by Toronto to Ottawa a year ago.

Shaun Van Allen and Shawn McEachern scored for the Senators, who outshot Toronto, 38-19.

Calgary 3, Vancouver 1--Aaron Gavey scored two power-play goals in the second period and Ed Ward added an unassisted goal in the third for the Flames, who got 31 saves in a shutout for goalie Trevor Kidd at Calgary.

Gavey was playing on the Flames’ power-play unit because of slumps by regulars Robert Reichel and German Titov.

It was only the fourth and fifth goals for Gavey, whose ice time normally comes centering the third or fourth line and killing penalties.