Hull’s Return Produces More Pain for Sabres

It was eerily familiar, right down to Brett Hull sitting in the same locker describing how he scored a big goal against the Buffalo Sabres.

The only difference was this wasn’t triple overtime, and the Stanley Cup wasn’t on the line.

In his first visit back to Buffalo since scoring the disputed Cup-clinching goal some 17 months earlier, Hull scored with 4:58 left in regulation to secure the Dallas Stars a 2-2 tie with the Sabres on Wednesday night.

“Yeah, [the goal’s] not quite as big but, good for us right now because we’ve been having a little trouble lately,” Hull said. “It was a great game.”

After Sabre goalie Dominik Hasek stopped Jere Lehtinen’s shot from the right circle, the rebound went directly to Hull who, standing to the left of the net, flipped it in off Hasek’s pad.

“I just felt where the puck was, that the best spot for me was off that post and it came right to me,” Hull said.

Hasek was still kicking himself for losing his goal stick leading to Hull’s goal.

“I made a mistake,” Hasek said. “After I lost my stick, I couldn’t make the save I wanted to make. I gave the puck exactly on Brett Hull’s stick, and he was wide open.”

Philadelphia 2, Toronto 1--Mark Recchi returned after missing nine games with a concussion and scored his first goal of the season in overtime as the Flyers defeated the Maple Leafs at Toronto.

It was Recchi’s first game since Oct. 21. He sustained a concussion opening night, played three of the next seven, then sat out the next nine.

Detroit 4, San Jose 1--Mathieu Dandenault scored his first two goals of the season to lead the Red Wings over the Sharks at Detroit.

The Sharks had lost just once in 11 games. Goalie Evgeni Nabokov was 9-0-2 in his last 11 starts.

Florida 4, Carolina 1--Greg Adams scored in his 1,000th career game and rookies Denis Shvidki and Marcus Nilson added goals 1:16 apart as the Panthers defeated the Hurricanes at Raleigh, N.C.

The injury-riddled Panthers, playing without seven regulars, snapped their six-game winless streak for their NHL-low second victory in 16 games.

New York Rangers 3, Minnesota 2--Theo Fleury scored his fourth short-handed goal of the season to start a three-goal spurt in the second period as the Rangers rallied to defeat the Wild at St. Paul, Minn.

Fleury, off to the best start in his 13-year NHL career, scored the tying goal and assisted on the eventual game-winner as the Rangers won the opener of a three-game road trip.

Atlanta 1, Nashville 0--Milan Hnilicka stopped all 37 Predator shots for his first career shutout and Yannick Tremblay scored the game’s only goal as the Thrashers earned their first home win this season.