In First Meeting Since Finals, Devils Still Better Than Stars

Patrik Elias, Jason Arnott and Petr Sykora picked up right where they left off in the Stanley Cup finals against Eddie Belfour and the Dallas Stars.

Elias had a goal and three assists in the opening 10:29 as the Devils drove Belfour to the bench and defeated the Stars, 4-1, on Wednesday night at East Rutherford, N.J., in their first meeting since New Jersey beat Dallas in the Stanley Cup finals.

“We were ready to go from the drop of the puck,” said Arnott, who also registered a goal along with Sykora. “The passing was on. We had chances in other games. Tonight they went in for us.”

Stanley Cup most valuable player Scott Stevens also scored and Martin Brodeur had 23 saves in the very one-sided game.

“The first 10 minutes was almost too good to be true,” Stevens said.

The opening 10 minutes were a horror for Dallas Coach Ken Hitchcock, who has seen his team outscored, 10-1, in its last two games.

Kirk Muller’s first-period goal prevented Dallas from being shut out for the second straight game.

“The identity that we have is we are a territorial, passionate, puck defending team,” Hitchcock said. “We’re not doing that.”

Belfour, who came into the game with a 1.89 goals against average, struggled for the second consecutive game, giving up four goals on nine shots. He has given up 10 goals on 37 shots in less than four periods in his last two starts.

“Tonight we gave up more chances than we normally do and they capitalized on them,” Belfour said. “Normally I like to be the difference and tonight I wasn’t.”

San Jose 2, Detroit 0--Rookie Evgeni Nabokov earned his third shutout with 31 saves at Detroit to help the Sharks to their fifth consecutive victory.

The victory was only the Sharks’ second in 19 regular season games at Detroit’s Joe Louis Arena. It also ended Detroit’s four-game unbeaten streak.

Florida 2, Pittsburgh 2--Milan Kraft scored a short-handed goal in the third period, but the Penguins had to settle for a tie when Alexei Kovalev’s apparent game-winner was disallowed in overtime at Sunrise, Fla.

Kovalev skated in on Trevor Kidd and wristed a high-riser into the net with 1:10 left. Florida’s Anders Eriksson, however, had slid into Kidd and inadvertently unlodged the goal moorings. After a review, the officials waved off the goal.

St. Louis 6, N.Y. Rangers 3--Pavol Demitra tied career highs with three goals and five points and Roman Turek stopped 20 shots at New York as the Blues extended their unbeaten streak to 10 games.

Petr Nedved wrecked Turek’s bid for his fifth shutout of the season when he scored with 8:38 remaining.

Buffalo 2, Washington 2--Miroslav Satan scored with 14:57 left in the third period, and the Sabres survived a flurry of Capital scoring chances in overtime at Washington.

Washington had five shots in the five-minute overtime after getting only five in the third period.

Nashville 3, Toronto 1--Robert Valicevic scored a tie-breaking goal with 1:31 remaining to help the Predators win at Toronto.

The Maple Leafs lost three in a row for the first time this season.

Minnesota 2, Ottawa 2--Darby Hendrickson scored two goals as the Wild rallied from a two-goal deficit at St. Paul, Minn., to snap the Senators’ four-game winning streak.

Edmonton 3, Vancouver 2--Anson Carter scored on a power play at 2:41 of overtime to cap the Oilers’ rally from a two-goal, third-period deficit at Edmonton, Canada.

Phoenix 4, Calgary 2--Keith Tkachuk broke the longest scoring drought of his career with three goals, and the host Coyotes extended their unbeaten streak over the Flames to 13.

Tkachuk had gone 11 games and 58 shots without scoring.

Around the League

Philadelphia Flyer forward Kevin Stevens will be allowed to return to Philadelphia while he completes a court-supervised drug program. Under the deal, approved by an Illinois judge, if Stevens completes up to 18 months of drug tests, court appearances and recovery meetings, the felony drug charge pending against him in Illinois will be dropped, according to a prosecutor. Stevens, 35, was arrested Jan. 23 near St. Louis.