Penguins Beat Canucks, 7-6, in Overtime

Beating the slumping Vancouver Canucks wasn’t supposed to be as difficult as the Pittsburgh Penguins made it Saturday night.

Rob Brown scored with 1:08 left in overtime to give the Penguins a 7-6 victory at Pittsburgh that stretched Vancouver’s losing streak to six games.

Alex Hicks served as a decoy after Brown chipped the puck past defenseman Dana Murzyn and took off on a breakaway.

The Canucks, on a 1-7-1 skid despite the off-season signing of Mark Messier, blew a three-goal lead they built by scoring five goals in 5:27 of the first period.

St. Louis 2, San Jose 0--Chris Pronger broke a scoreless tie with 2:23 remaining and Grant Fuhr made 23 saves at St. Louis.

Pronger’s goal came on a slap shot from just inside the blue line that beat Shark goaltender Kelly Hrudey, who appeared to be screened.

New Jersey 3, Washington 1--Patrik Elias scored his fifth goal in three games to break a second-period tie and lead the equally hot Devils at East Rutherford, N.J.

Petr Sykora and Bobby Carpenter also scored as the Devils won their third in a row and fifth in six games.

Buffalo 4, Florida 3--Dixon Ward scored an unassisted goal with 3:46 left in overtime to lift the Sabres over the struggling Panthers at Miami.

Ward streaked in on Mark Fitzpatrick and his shot appeared to be stopped. But when the loose puck slipped out, Panther defenseman Rhett Warrener accidentally nudged it over the goal line.

Montreal 5, Toronto 1--Benoit Brunet scored his first two goals of the season to lift the Canadiens at Montreal.

Brunet scored on a two-on-one break in the second period and beat struggling goaltender Felix Potvin short-handed in the third.

Boston 3, Edmonton 1--Ted Donato, Jason Allison and Tim Taylor scored goals and Byron Dafoe made 22 saves at Boston to lead the Bruins to their first home victory since Oct. 2.

Calgary 3, Colorado 3--Derek Morris’ third goal of the season, on a third-period power play, helped the Flames tie the Avalanche in an overtime game at Calgary.

NHL Notes

For the first time since a limousine crash critically injured them last summer, Red Wing defenseman Vladimir Konstantinov and team masseur Sergei Mnatsakanov watched the team practice.