Barrasso Becomes Saving Grace

The Pittsburgh Penguins defeated one of the NHL’s better teams without playing one of their better games.

Tom Barrasso made 51 saves and Fredrik Olausson scored twice as the Penguins overcame a season-high 53 shots to top the Detroit Red Wings, 4-2, Saturday at Pittsburgh.

“We had a lot of penalties to kill and I’m sure they had quite a few power-play shots,” Barrasso said. “A lot of their offense is to get the puck to their defensemen, who are very skilled. They try to get it to the net and get a lot of rebounds. They did that a lot.”

Barrasso’s 51 saves was a club record for a home game. The previous mark of 49 was set by Patrick Lalime on Jan. 21, 1997 in a 4-2 win over Calgary.

Florida 2, Tampa Bay 0--At Miami, John Vanbiesbrouck earned his second shutout in three games as the Panthers extended the Lightning’s franchise-record losing streak to 12 games.

Vanbiesbrouck made 27 saves in his 28th shutout.

Kirk Muller and Robert Svehla scored the Florida goals.

Panther Coach Bryan Murray recorded his 478th victory to tie Mike Keenan for sixth place on the all-time list.

Boston 4, New York Rangers 2--Rookies Hal Gill and Sergei Samsonov and 19-year veteran Ray Bourque scored third-period goals as the Bruins overcame a 2-0 deficit at Boston.

The Bruins’ three goals in the third period all came on opportunistic plays. Gill and Bourque scored from the point after getting the puck from centers who won faceoffs.

Washington 3, Philadelphia 2--Michal Pivonka’s second goal of the game at Philadelphia, 2:23 into overtime, extended the Capitals’ unbeaten string to seven games.

Pivonka, who has only three goals this season, intercepted a pass by Philadelphia’s John LeClair and beat Ron Hextall with a back-hander from the right crease.

The Capitals are unbeaten in 10 of their last 11 games.

St. Louis 6, Dallas 3--Craig Conroy scored twice, and Brett Hull had four assists to lead the Blues at St. Louis.

Hull was playing in only his second game after missing 14 because of a broken wrist. The Blues were 4-7-3 without him.

Steve Duchesne, Pavol Demitra and Al MacInnis scored in the first period to put the Blues in front.

Ottawa 4, Montreal 3--The Senators gave Coach Jacques Martin a welcome-home gift at Toronto.

Martin, who missed the Senators’ 2-2 tie with the Rangers on Thursday because of illness, saw his club score more than three goals for only the second time in 16 games.

Canadien Andy Moog, 37, became the 10th goaltender in NHL history to play in 700 games, but two rivals are closing in. Florida’s John Vanbiesbrouck played in his 699th game on Saturday while Patrick Roy of Colorado played in his 696th.

Terry Sawchuk holds the NHL record of 971.

San Jose 5, Colorado 2--Owen Nolan and Jeff Friesen each had a goal and an assist as the Sharks took a 5-0 lead and cruised to the victory at San Jose.

Phoenix 5, Toronto 2--Nikolai Khabibulin made 38 saves and five players--Teppo Numminen, Oleg Tverdovsky, Jeremy Roenick, Dallas Drake and Jocelyn Lemieux--scored for the Coyotes at Toronto.

New Jersey 2, Calgary 2--Hnat Domenichelli scored with 42 seconds left in the third period to give the Flames the tie at Calgary.

The Devils had taken the lead 1:20 earlier on a goal by Bobby Holik.

Jonas Hoglund had the other Calgary goal. Steve Thomas also scored for New Jersey.

Vancouver 6, Edmonton 3--Alexander Mogilny had a goal and two assists and Pavel Bure scored for the fifth game in a row as the Canucks posted consecutive victories for the first time in six weeks by defeating the Oilers at Vancouver.