Hull and Belfour Are Brightest Stars

Brett Hull was much more impressed with Ed Belfour’s goaltending than his own scoring streak.

Hull had two goals and Belfour came within 3:43 of his eighth shutout of the season as the Dallas Stars defeated the Chicago Blackhawks, 4-1, Friday night at Dallas.

“Eddie was fabulous,” Hull said. “I’m mad he didn’t get the shutout.”

Hull’s list of achievements continued to grow as he reached 629 goals for his career, one behind Detroit’s Steve Yzerman for No. 7 in NHL history. Hull added an assist to give him seven goals and six assists in his last 11 games.

Belfour, who played for Chicago from 1989-97, stopped the Blackhawks’ first 26 shots before Boris Mironov notched his first goal of the season on a power play. Belfour finished with 29 saves.

Detroit 5, Colorado 3--Tomas Holmstrom and Darren McCarty scored less than three minutes apart in the third period as the Red Wings defeated the Avalanche at Denver.

Steve Yzerman added an unassisted goal with 2:05 remaining to help Detroit hand the Avalanche its second home loss and first since Oct. 30. Colorado was 8-0-3 in its previous 11 home games.

St. Louis 6, Atlanta 3--Pierre Turgeon scored three goals at Atlanta and the Blues went on to beat the Thrashers for a club-record eighth consecutive victory.

The Blues had won seven in a row four previous times in their 34-year history.

It was the 15th hat trick for Turgeon, 31, who is in his 14th season in the NHL.

Florida 4, Pittsburgh 1--Trevor Kidd made 35 saves at Pittsburgh to help the Panthers win for the first time since Nov. 25, ending an 0-4-2-2 streak.

The Penguins are 0-5-1 in their last six home games and 6-8-1 overall at home.

Penguin Coach Ivan Hlinka returned after missing two games because of his father’s death in the Czech Republic.

New Jersey 2, Montreal 1--Alexander Mogilny set up Randy McKay for the game-winner at 2:36 of the third period at East Rutherford, N.J.

Instead of attacking the net head on, Mogilny made a play from the right corner, then passed to McKay on the left side for an easy goal.

The point was the 300th of McKay’s career.

Both of the Devils’ goal came on power plays.

Carolina 5, Buffalo 3--Ron Francis had a goal and two assists as the Hurricanes defeated the Sabres at Raleigh, N.C.

Francis’ second three-point game of the season gave him 1,582 points and moved the center within nine of passing Phil Esposito for fifth place on the NHL career list.

The Sabres had won four of five.

New York Islanders 3, Toronto 2--Bill Muckalt’s power-play goal in the third period at Uniondale, N.Y., gave the Islanders their first victory in four games.

Around the League

Mario Lemieux plans to return to practice Tuesday and could possibly begin his comeback with the Penguins on Dec. 27 against Toronto. The 35-year-old Lemieux, the team’s owner and a Hall of Famer, has been working out privately for six weeks and skating on his own since late November. . . . Kevin Stevens of the Philadelphia Flyers, arrested on drug charges last January when he was with the New York Rangers after a game in St. Louis, is close to reaching a plea agreement. A hearing scheduled for Thursday in Edwardsville, Ill., was rescheduled for Wednesday.