Devils Overpower Short-Handed Avalanche

Martin Brodeur stopped 23 shots and earned his ninth shutout of the season as the New Jersey Devils beat the undermanned Colorado Avalanche, 2-0, Thursday night at Denver.

Petr Sykora and Denis Pederson scored second-period power-play goals and each had an assist for the Devils, who had lost their previous two road games.

New Jersey swept the two-game season series with Colorado and extended its lead in the Atlantic Division to 14 points over Philadelphia.

It was the 31st shutout of his career for Brodeur, who improved to 41-12-7 and 9-1-3 against the Avalanche. He was aided by a penalty-killing unit that held Colorado scoreless in six power-play attempts.

Colorado, which had won its previous two games, was shut out for the second time this season. The Avalanche played without Peter Forsberg, scratched with a minor groin pull, and Joe Sakic, who sat out his 14th game with a knee injury.

Craig Billington, 1-7-1 lifetime against the Devils, started in goal for the Avalanche. Patrick Roy was brought into the game when referee Paul Stewart gave Billington a game misconduct at 7:12 of the second period for disputing Sykora’s goal.

Toronto 1, Dallas 0--Felix Potvin stopped 36 shots for his fifth shutout, and Sergei Berezin got the game’s only goal at Dallas.

Berezin’s 15th goal, with 16:18 remaining wasn’t a thing of beauty, but it was enough to stop a Maple Leaf winless streak at five games (0-4-1).

Defenseman Rob Zettler’s shot from the blue line glanced off the glove of Dallas goalie Roman Turek, hit the end boards, flipped into the air and landed in front of the net. Berezin was set up in front to knock it past Turek.

Dallas hasn’t scored in the last two games, and are without a goal over a stretch of 131 minutes 33 seconds.

Carolina 4, New York Rangers 1--Martin Gelinas and Keith Primeau scored in 43 seconds of the second period at Greensboro, N.C., to keep the Hurricane playoff hopes alive.

With the win, Carolina (28-34-7) moved in front of New York (22-33-17) as the two chase Ottawa for the final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference. The Hurricanes trail Ottawa by five points while the Rangers remained seven behind .

Defenseman Jeff Beukeboom was ejected in the third period for fighting and the Rangers also played in the late stages without Wayne Gretzky and Ulf Samuelsson, who were both serving long penalties. Gretzky saw his current point-scoring streak end at six games.

Buffalo 5, Vancouver 2--Mike Peca scored twice, including the go-ahead goal, as the Sabres scored five third-period goals on five consecutive shots in a fight-filled victory at Vancouver.

Jason Wooley, Geoff Sanderson and Alexei Zhitnik also scored for the Sabres, who overcame a 2-0 third-period deficit in a bloody, ugly period.

All totaled, referee Dan Marouelli handed out 124 of the 152 total penalty minutes in the third period, including six game misconducts.

Boston 4, Philadelphia 2--The Bruins’ top checking line scored three goals in the first 10 minutes at Boston as they remained unbeaten against the Flyers this season.

P.J. Axelsson got the go-ahead goal at 9:04 of the first period after the Flyers had twice come back from deficits.

The Bruins, fourth in the race for eight Eastern Conference playoff spots, are 2-0-1 this season against the Flyers, whose road losing streak reached six games.

St. Louis 3, Tampa Bay 2--Brett Hull scored twice and Al MacInnis added another goal to lead the Blues at St. Louis.

The Blues built a 3-0 lead in the first period. Steve Duchesne had two assists.

New York Islanders 4, Pittsburgh 3--Bryan Smolinski’s power-play goal with 64 seconds left in the second period broke a tie at Uniondale, N.Y.

The Islanders killed off seven Penguin power plays, mostly thanks to the goaltending of Tommy Salo, who blocked 23 shots.

Florida 5, Montreal 4--Bill Lindsay scored two goals, including the game-winner at Miami, as the Panthers ended a losing streak at 13 games.

Lindsay’s game-winner came with 5:27 left, giving the Panthers their first victory since Jan. 13. The 13 consecutive losses were four shy of the league’s all-time mark of 17.

Calgary 3, Washington 2--Jason Wiemer scored the winning goal in his debut for the Flames at Calgary, Canada.

Wiemer, acquired Tuesday from the Tampa Bay Lightning, capped Calgary’s comeback from a 2-0 deficit by scoring the go-ahead goal at 14:13 of the second period.