Fuhr Finds How to Stop Capitals

Goaltender Grant Fuhr hasn’t had much luck defeating Washington in his career, and the St. Louis Blues also have been having problems with the Capitals in recent years.

But Saturday night was different, as the Blues scored a 5-2 victory at St. Louis with Fuhr making 16 saves.

“I knew about it, but I can’t say I was concerned about it,” Fuhr said of his 7-18-3 record against the Capitals. “In any sport, there’s always some team that has a good record against you.”

The Blues, meanwhile, beat the Capitals for the first time since 1992. They were 0-5 in their last five games against Washington and 1-9 in their last 10.

Capital Coach Ron Wilson said the Blues took his team by surprise.

“We didn’t respect how hard the Blues were going to work,” he said. “Things sort of imploded as the game went on.”

San Jose 4, New Jersey 3--Defending a one-goal lead in the third period is one of the toughest things to do in hockey, but the Sharks managed to do so in their victory at East Rutherford, N.J.

“I think it’s the first time we’ve showed some resilience in terms of facing a little bit of adversity,” Shark Coach Darryl Sutter said. “It’s obvious to me coaching a new group of people that they still have to learn how to win. Tonight, for the third period they did that. They played with composure.”

Florida 5, Boston 4--Bill Lindsay broke a tie late in the third period to lead the Panthers over the Bruins, ending Boston’s undefeated streak at six games.

Ray Sheppard scored twice for the Panthers, his first two goals of the season.

Montreal 4, Ottawa 2--Martin Rucinsky scored two goals as the Canadiens handing the Senators their first home defeat of the season and first in 10 games going back to last season.

Dave Manson and David Wilkie also scored for the Canadiens. Alexei Yashin and Daniel Alfredsson scored for Ottawa in front of a sellout crowd of 18,500.

Dallas 3, Colorado 1--Goaltender Patrick Roy suffered his first loss of the season as Pat Verbeek and Mike Modano scored third-period goals at Dallas to give the Stars the victory.

Roy’s record dropped to 5-1-4 as he was peppered with 28 shots. Roman Turek turned back 25 shots for Dallas, earning his second win of the season against two losses.

Toronto 4, Calgary 3--Maple Leaf captain Mats Sundin scored one goal and assisted on two others as Toronto scored its first home victory of the season.

Pittsburgh 3, Vancouver 2--Kevin Hatcher’s fourth goal of the season off assists from Martin Straka and Ron Francis gave the Penguins the overtime victory at Vancouver.

NHL Notes

New York Ranger left wing Adam Graves will be out four to six weeks because of a sprained right knee ligament he suffered when teammate Tim Sweeney fell on him during a goalmouth scramble in Friday night’s game against the Tampa Bay Lightning.