Bourque Gets Past Howe On All-Time Assist List

The Detroit Red Wings couldn’t stop Ray Bourque from passing Gordie Howe and they couldn’t stop the Boston Bruins, either.

Bourque had three assists to move past Howe--the Red Wings’ Hall of Famer--into third place on the all-time list with 1,052 as the Bruins rallied behind 23 saves by goaltender Byron Dafoe to defeat the Red Wings, 4-1, Saturday at Boston.

Boston ended a five-game losing streak against the Red Wings and handed the defending Stanley Cup champions their third loss in four games.

“This was an important win for us because we want to show the top teams in the league we can play with them,” Bourque said. “It was nice to get the assists, but it was especially nice because it was against Detroit, Gordie’s old team.”

Toronto 7, N.Y. Rangers 4--The Maple Leafs defeated the Rangers for the first time in 10 games and spoiled Wayne Gretzky’s final appearance at Maple Leaf Gardens.

Derek King had two goals for the Maple Leafs while Alyn McCauley had a four-point night, including a goal. Steve Thomas, Darby Hendrickson, Mike Johnson and Tie Domi had the other goals.

Gretzky had two assists to give him 77 points in 30 games at Maple Leaf Gardens and eight points in his last three games.

Pittsburgh 3, Washington 0--Jaromir Jagr scored his fifth goal in his last seven games and Tom Barrasso stopped 24 shots for his second shutout of the season to lead the Penguins at Pittsburgh.

Barrasso got his 32nd shutout and Pittsburgh dropped the Capitals to 1-5-0 over their last six games. The Penguins have had four shutouts in 28 games this season with three goalies.

Nashville 6, Vancouver 4--Sergei Krivokrasov and Sebastien Bordeleau had two goals and two assists each as the Predators overcame a two-goal deficit and Markus Naslund’s penalty-shot goal at Vancouver.

Andrew Brunette and Denny Lambert added a goal and an assist each as the expansion Predators set a franchise high for goals in a game.

New Jersey 1, Montreal 1--Turner Stevenson’s goal late in the third period lifted the struggling Canadiens to a tie at Montreal.

Vadim Sharifijanov scored New Jersey’s lone goal against Montreal goalie Jeff Hackett, who had 30 saves. The Canadiens are winless in their last nine games (0-5-4).

Philadelphia 3, Chicago 1--Mark Bureau, Daniel McGillis and Colin Forbes scored and John Vanbiesbrouck made 23 saves for the Flyers at Philadelphia.

Florida 3, Edmonton 1--Rob Niedermayer’s goal broke a 1-1 tie and Sean Burke had 29 saves for the Panthers at Sunrise, Fla. The Oilers finished a seven-game trip at 1-4-2 and have won once in their last nine games.

Carolina 3, Buffalo 2--Trevor Kidd made 38 saves to lead the Hurricanes at Buffalo, ending the Sabres’ eight-game unbeaten streak.

San Jose 2, Colorado 1--Dave Lowry and Joe Murphy scored first-period goals for the Sharks and Colorado was held to a total of seven shots in the first two periods at San Jose.

Around the NHL

Detroit forward Viacheslav Kozlov was suspended for three games by the league for an elbowing incident with Dallas forward Joe Nieuwendyk in a game Friday night.