Barrasso Stops Florida for His 300th Victory

The Pittsburgh Penguins had enough offense to go along with a milestone effort from goaltender Tom Barrasso for a 4-1 victory over the Florida Panthers on Sunday at Miami.

The Penguins scored twice in a 57-second span in the first period and Barrasso recorded his 300th career victory as the Penguins improved to 3-0-1 on their current trip.

Barrasso became the first American-born goalie to win 300 games, and is the 14th goalie in NHL history to reach that plateau.

“It’s great company to be in,” Barrasso said. “There are a lot of people responsible for it. I have to thank my mom and dad, and my wife and kids have been very supportive and given me motivation.

“Any goaltender wants to get 100 and then 200, and not many guys have won 300. Obviously, I’d like to keep adding to it and climb even higher on that list.”

Eddie Olczyk and Martin Straka scored midway through the first period, beating goalie John Vanbiesbrouck to help the Penguins overcome an early 1-0 deficit.

Chicago 5, Buffalo 2--Losers of their first seven games and unable to score in the last two, the Blackhawks got a textbook goal from Sergei Krivokrasov in the first period and went on to defeat the troubled Sabres at Chicago.

“The weight of the whole city of Chicago was off our shoulders,” said the Blackhawks’ Steve Dubinsky.

Said Krivokrasov: “After the goal, if you saw everybody’s eyes, you could see that everybody was ready to go. It’s a good feeling to get the team going on the right track.”

The Blackhawks played by far their best game this season, outshooting the Sabres, 47-17, and coming within a goal of matching their output for the first seven games combined.

After allowing Jason Dawe’s goal just 37 seconds into the game, Krivokrasov responded at 4:54. He started the play by feeding Tony Amonte in Buffalo ice and went to the net. Amonte passed to Alexei Zhamnov, who quickly found Krivokrasov alone in front of goalie Dominik Hasek.

Vancouver 4, Colorado 4--Donald Brashear scored on a rebound with 10.6 seconds left in the third period for the Canucks in a tie at Vancouver.

With goaltender Kirk McLean pulled for an extra skater, the Canucks gained possession in the Colorado zone with Trevor Linden working the puck back to Jyrki Lumme for a point shot. Goalie Patrick Roy managed to stop Lumme’s shot but was unable to get the rebound before Brashear slipped it past him.

Vancouver had taken a 3-2 lead into the third period only to see it evaporate quickly as Joe Sakic tied the game on the power play 54 seconds into the period.

Linden scored twice and had two assists.

Ottawa 3, Dallas 1--Daniel Alfredsson scored the winning goal for the second consecutive night to lead the Senators at Kanata, Canada.

Alfredsson beat Roman Turek between the pads with 51 seconds to play in the second period, and the goal stood as the game-winner.

Phoenix 5, San Jose 3--Though the Sharks scored only 58 seconds into the game, it didn’t matter as the Coyotes took control in the second period at Phoenix. Trailing 2-1, Phoenix scored three consecutive goals.

Five players scored for the Coyotes, including Cliff Ronning who had the go-ahead goal and added an assist.