Coffey Gets Milestone in Hurricanes’ Loss

Paul Coffey’s 1,500th point, a first for an NHL defenseman, wasn’t enough to get a win for the Carolina Hurricanes at Kanata, Canada.

Joe Juneau scored the go-ahead goal in Ottawa’s come-from-behind 4-3 victory Thursday night.

“We had a strong third period,” said Senator Coach Jacques Martin, whose team is on a 3-1-3 roll. “The last seven games we’ve played pretty well, only one loss, but we have to keep getting better.”

Janne Laukkanen, Magnus Arvedson and Vaclav Prospal also scored for the Senators.

Juneau, who also had an assist, broke a 3-3 tie at 12:11 of the third period to spoil Coffey’s milestone night. Coffey got the assist on Sami Kapanen’s second-period goal.

“It’s nice to get it over with,” said Coffey, who has 1,112 assists, second only to Wayne Gretzky’s 1,963.

“It was inevitable I was going to get it,” Coffey said. “To get 1,500 points, a lot of things have to happen. One is longevity, you have to be a half-decent player and play with some great players. I’ve had a chance to play with Wayne and Mark [Messier] and Jari [Kurri] and those guys in Edmonton.”

Calgary 2, Edmonton 1--Valeri Bure had a goal, an assist and stopped the potential tying goal at Calgary.

Calgary extended its home unbeaten streak to seven games--6-0-1--while Edmonton lost for the first time in four games.

With the score tied, 1-1, Alexander Selivanov sent Todd Marchant in alone and Fred Brathwaite made the save. Then Jim Dowd’s shot got through Brathwaite’s pads, but was swept away by Bure as it trickled toward the net.

Chicago 5, Dallas 2--Tony Amonte had a goal and three assists at Chicago.

Bob Probert, Michael Nylander, Doug Gilmour and Ed Olczyk also scored for Chicago, which won at home for only the third time and ended Dallas’ four-game unbeaten streak.

The Blackhawks, who scored on three of their first 15 shots to chase starting Dallas goalie Ed Belfour, improved to 3-10-3 at the United Center.

Philadelphia 4, Atlanta 4--Nelson Emerson scored late in the third period as the Thrashers rallied from a three-goal deficit at Philadelphia.

Darryl Shannon, Yannick Tremblay and Kelly Buchberger also scored for the Thrashers, who are 0-7-2 in their last nine.

Atlanta goalie Scott Fankhouser, making his first NHL appearance, came up big in overtime. He stopped five shots, including a breakaway by Eric Desjardins and a pair of close attempts by Eric Lindros. Fankhouser made 36 saves.

Buffalo 2, Colorado 1--Miroslav Satan and Geoff Sanderson scored within a 2:20 span in the second period to lead the Sabres at Buffalo, N.Y.

Martin Biron made 23 saves for the Sabres, who won their second straight game and are 4-1-1 in their last six.

Adam Deadmarsh scored for Colorado, who ended its four-game road trip 1-2-1 and is 5-5-1 this month.

St. Louis 2, Nashville 2--Scott Young scored a short-handed goal with 4:15 left in the third period at Nashville, and the Blues extended their unbeaten streak to six.

Roman Turek, coming off consecutive shutouts, made pad saves on Cliff Ronning and Sergei Krivokrasov in overtime for St. Louis, 4-0-2 during the streak. Mike Dunham made 44 saves for Nashville, which was outshot, 46-23.

Toronto 4, New Jersey 1--Nik Antropov had a goal and an assist at Toronto as the Maple Leafs won their fifth straight.

Igor Korolev, Jonas Hoglund and Dmitri Khristich also scored for Toronto, which tied Detroit for the most points in the NHL with 50.

New Jersey outshot Toronto, 32-20, but Curtis Joseph made a number of outstanding saves.

Pittsburgh 4, Tampa Bay 3--Jaromir Jagr scored his 26th goal at Pittsburgh and ended the Penguins’ 0-for-26 power-play slump.

The Penguins, 6-2 since Herb Brooks replaced Kevin Constantine as coach on Dec. 9, took a 3-1 lead into the third period but Tampa Bay rallied to tie before losing its fourth straight.

On Pittsburgh’s fifth power-play opportunity, Jagr sent a shot from the right circle through traffic beating goalie Dan Cloutier to the short side at 15:08.

New York Islanders 4, New York Rangers 2--Claude Lapointe scored two second-period goals at Uniondale, N.Y., and Kevin Weekes, in his Islander debut, beat the Rangers for the third time this season.

It was Lapointe’s second two-goal game of the season and seventh of his career.

Weekes, who beat the Rangers twice with Vancouver before being dealt to the Islanders last week, made 36 saves.

Montreal 3, Boston 3--Patrice Brisebois scored his first goal of the season late in the second period to lift the Canadiens to a tie at Boston.

Brisebois’ shot found the net off the skate of Boston defenseman Don Sweeney with 31 seconds left in the second to make the score 3-3.

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Percolating

Carolina’s Paul Coffey became the first defenseman and only the eighth player to score 1,500 points in his career. A look (x-active):

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No. Player Goals Assists Points 1. Wayne Gretzky, Edm-LA-StL-NYR 894 1,963 2,857 2. Gordie Howe, Det-Har 801 1049 1,850 3. Marcel Dionne, Det-LA-NYR 731 1040 1,771 4. x-Mark Messier, Edm-NYR-Van 615 1059 1,674 5. Phil Esposito, Chi-Bos-NYR 717 873 1,590 6. x-Ron Francis, Har-Pit-Car 457 1058 1,515 7. x-Steve Yzerman, Det 607 907 1,514 8. x-Paul Coffey Edm-Pit-LA-Dt-Ph-Chi-Car 388 1112 1,500 9. Mario Lemieux, Pit 613 881 1,494 10. x-Ray Bourque, Bos 390 1100 1,490

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