Vernon Returns to Haunt Red Wings Once Again

Even though he no longer wears a Detroit uniform, Red Wing fans still love goalie Mike Vernon. The feeling is very mutual.

Vernon beat his former teammates for the second time this season as the San Jose Sharks ended the Red Wings’ eight-game unbeaten streak with a 4-1 victory Friday night at Detroit.

Vernon, who earned the Conn Smythe Trophy as the MVP of Detroit’s Stanley Cup championship run last year, stopped 35 shots Friday night. He was given a warm ovation afterward when he was announced as the game’s No. 1 star.

“It’s very nice and very much appreciated,” Vernon said. “The fans here have always been great to me. You come in here nervous no doubt coming into the game because they have a lot of talent and a lot of firepower and they’ve got guys who can score a lot of goals.”

Only Mathieu Dandenault could beat Vernon this time, however.

“There’s no one we’d rather beat than Vernie, and there’s probably no one he’d rather beat than us,” Detroit’s Darren McCarty said.

“He’s over there strutting and gloating right now because there’s nobody you’d rather beat than your buddies.”

The Red Wings were 6-0-2 since Vernon beat them, 5-1, Dec. 16 at San Jose.

Both John MacLean and Jeff Friesen had a goal and an assist while Owen Nolan and Mike Ricci scored for the Sharks, who also got their first regular-season win ever in 12 tries at Joe Louis Arena.

Detroit goalie Chris Osgood, made 30 saves in his first loss since Dec. 12 against Edmonton.

Montreal 5, Edmonton 3--Saku Koivu and Vincent Damphousse each scored twice and the Canadiens rallied with four straight goals at Edmonton.

The Canadiens extended their unbeaten streak to four games and are unbeaten in 10 games against Pacific Division teams (7-0-3). The Oilers dropped their fourth straight home game before a sellout crowd of 17,099 and are now winless in in seven games.

Mark Recchi added an empty-netter for the Canadiens.

Dallas 2, New York Islanders 1--Backup goaltender Roman Turek stopped 17 shots at Dallas as the Stars remained unbeaten in eight games.

Turek started in place of No. 1 goaltender Ed Belfour after Belfour had started nine straight. The Czech Republic native was playing in the 15th game of his career.

Turek was headed for his first career shutout until Ken Belanger scored his second goal of the season from the top of the right circle with 8:11 to play.

Colorado 2, Buffalo 2--Claude Lemieux scored with 2:43 remaining in the third period as the Avalanche came back from a two-goal deficit at Buffalo.

Lemieux took a pass from Peter Forsberg deep in the Buffalo zone and beat Sabre goaltender Dominik Hasek with a quick wrist shot into the top corner as the Avalanche extended their unbeaten streak to nine games.

Tampa Bay 2, Florida 2--Tampa Bay’s Derek Wilkinson and Florida’s Mark Fitzpatrick nearly mirrored each other in goal at Tampa.

Wilkinson stopped 25 shots for the Lightning. Fitzpatrick had 26 saves for the Panthers, now unbeaten in five games.

NHL Notes

The Vancouver Canucks, languishing at the bottom of the Western Conference, acquired goaltender Sean Burke, left wing Geoff Sanderson and defenseman Enrico Ciccone from the Carolina Hurricanes late Friday night for goalie Kirk McLean and left wing Martin Gelinas. Earlier, the Hurricanes traded defenseman Jeff Brown to the Toronto Maple Leafs for a fourth-round pick in the 1999 entry draft.