Panthers Get a Victory for Their New Coach

The Florida Panthers made a coaching change and, for a change, came away with a home victory.

Marcus Nilson, Ray Whitney and Pavel Bure scored and Roberto Luongo made 24 saves as Florida beat Boston, 3-0, Friday night at Sunrise, Fla., in Duane Sutter’s debut as Panther coach.

Sutter replaced Terry Murray on Thursday. Murray and his brother, General Manager Bryan, were fired with Florida 6-18-7.

“I’m pleased with the players’ effort more than anything,” Sutter said. “I know I was pretty rusty on the bench and I’ve still got a little cleaning up to do from the rust.”

Florida scored a goal in each period to end an 0-5-1 skid and get its first home victory since Nov. 25. The Panthers are only 3-12-3 at home.

“We were pumped up for the new coach,” Whitney said. “That’s the start we needed. Now we have to continue the effort.”

Luongo, just 2-12-2 this season, recorded his third career shutout, second with the Panthers.

Chicago 3, Detroit 2--Jaroslav Spacek scored at 2:25 of overtime to give the Blackhawks the victory at Chicago.

Igor Larionov celebrated his return to the Red Wings with a power-play goal and an assist. Larionov, the NHL’s oldest active player at 40, was reacquired by the Red Wings from Florida on Thursday for defenseman Yan Golubovsky.

Calgary 5, Vancouver 0--Fred Brathwaite made 25 saves at Calgary for his first victory in over two months.

Valeri Bure and Marc Savard each had two goals and Dave Lowry also scored for the Flames.

Colorado 3, Nashville 1--Milan Hejduk scored twice and Patrick Roy stopped 17 shots and had two assists as Colorado won its fourth straight home game at Denver.

It was the fourth multigoal game of the season for Hejduk, who has four goals in his last three games. He also recorded his third game-winning goal in four outings.

Buffalo 2, Ottawa 0--Dominik Hasek stopped 34 shots at Buffalo for his fourth shutout of the season as the Sabres handed the Senators their third consecutive loss.

Vaclav Varada and Miroslav Satan scored for Buffalo. The Senators are winless in five games.

Hasek, who has 49 career shutouts, got his first victory in his last 10 games against Ottawa.

Phoenix 2, Minnesota 2--Jim Dowd’s goal early in the third period allowed Minnesota to tie the Coyotes at St. Paul, Minn.

Columbus 3, Carolina 1--Mike Maneluk scored two goals for the first time in his career as the Blue Jackets won at Columbus, Ohio.

New York Islanders 5, Atlanta 2--Mariusz Czerkawski and Mark Parrish each scored twice as the Islanders stopped a three-game losing streak with a victory over the Thrashers at Uniondale, N.Y.

New Jersey 4, Washington 2--Scott Niedermayer scored on a wrap-around after a long third-period rush and Chris Terreri had 26 saves in a rare start in a matchup of division leaders at East Rutherford, N.J.

Around the League

Mario Lemieux’s return to the Penguins doubled the audience ESPN usually gets for an NHL game. Wednesday night’s game produced a 1.02 rating and was seen in about 810,000 homes. . . . Defenseman Dale Purinton of the Rangers was assigned to Hartford of the AHL for two weeks of conditioning. . . . Dallas put right wing Jamie Langenbrunner on the injured reserve list and recalled center Greg Leeb from Utah. . . . Nashville defenseman Drake Berehowsky was suspended for one game by the NHL after being assessed with a match penalty against the Mighty Ducks on Thursday.