Bure, Panthers Back in Playoffs

After leading the Florida Panthers to victories all season, Pavel Bure is leading them into the playoffs.

Bure scored a pair of goals as the Panthers won their third consecutive game and clinched a spot in the postseason for the first time in three seasons with a 4-2 victory Saturday night over the Montreal Canadiens at Sunrise, Fla.

“Pavel has had that effect many times,” Florida Coach Terry Murray said. “To see Pavel come down the ice and score is what we needed. It’s like he was reading anything that you would put down as a game plan.”

The Panthers are four points behind Washington in the Atlantic Division and ninth-place Montreal is struggling to get into the playoffs, trailing Buffalo for the final spot by one point.

Bure leads the NHL with 54 goals. His second goal gave him and brother Valeri of the Calgary Flames 89 this season, breaking the mark for NHL brothers. Dennis and Bobby Hull had 88 in the 1968-69 season.

Toronto 5, New Jersey 3--Sergei Berezin scored twice and the Maple Leafs ended a three-game losing streak and kept alive hopes of winning the Eastern Conference with a victory at home over the Devils. With two weeks left in the season, the Leafs are within five points of the conference-leading Devils with a game in hand.

Washington 4, Ottawa 3--Peter Bondra scored his 21st goal on a short-handed breakaway in the third period to break a tie and lift the Capitals past the Senators at Kanata, Canada.

Calgary 2, Nashville 1--Rookies Jeff Cowan and Sergei Varlamov scored first-period goals and Fred Brathwaite made 26 saves at Nashville to lead the Flames to their second victory in 10 games.

Vancouver 3, Edmonton 2--Markus Naslund scored the game-winner 14:24 into the third period, leading the Canucks to a victory over the Oilers at Edmonton. The Canucks are only a point out of the final playoff spot in the Western Conference.

Around the League

Although NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman would prefer that players wear visors, he intends to leave the matter up to them. “What happened to Bryan Berard is a terrible tragedy,” Bettman told the Toronto Sun, referring to the Maple Leaf defenseman’s eye injury. “But at the end of the day . . . the players are the ones who have the final say over what they wear and what they don’t wear.” . . . The league continued its crackdown on high-sticking by suspending Detroit defenseman Steve Duchesne for two games for an incident in Friday’s game against the Nashville Predators. Duchesne delivered a blow to the head of Nashville’s Ville Peltonen with 4:31 left in the first period. Although he was not assessed a penalty on the play, Duchesne was suspended by the league for handling his stick “in a reckless manner.” . . . The league also suspended Buffalo center Michael Peca for two games for a roughing incident in which he struck Valeri Bure in the head with an elbow in Thursday’s game against Calgary.