One First Leads to Another as the Wild Finally Wins

It was only fitting that Minnesota’s first draft pick helped win the Wild’s first game.

Marian Gaborik, 18, scored twice in the final 2:28 Wednesday night as the expansion Wild beat the Tampa Bay Lightning, 6-5, in St. Paul. Minnesota is 1-4-1-0.

“I’m glad for Marian, especially because the last couple of days, we kept him on the ice [after practice] to work a little harder,” Coach Jacques Lemaire said. “It’s nice to see him rewarded.”

Gaborik scored 3:05 after Alexander Kharitonov tied it at 4. Gaborik took a pass from Filip Kuba and backhanded it past Kevin Weekes.

Gaborik added an empty-net goal with 57.6 seconds left, which was the final margin after Frederik Modin scored for the Lightning with 11.3 seconds remaining to cut the margin to 6-5.

Jim Dowd and Scott Pellerin had three assists for the Wild, which took advantage of Tampa Bay’s special-teams breakdown to score four goals in the second period.

The Lightning hadn’t given up a power-play goal in 26 chances coming into the game, but in the second period the Wild was perfect on two power-play chances and scored a short-handed goal.

“We made many mistakes. We were not sharp on the penalty-kill,” Lightning Coach Steve Ludzik said. “Minnesota is going to beat a lot of good teams.”

Phoenix 2, Florida 1--Joe Juneau scored 1:15 into overtime, and the Coyotes, notorious for fast starts and playoff flops, set a record for the best six-game start in franchise history by beating the Panthers at Phoenix.

The Coyotes (5-1-0-0) are one-half game better than the 1982-83 team, which was 4-1-1 when the franchise was in Winnipeg.

Sean Burke, facing the Panthers for the first time since they traded him to Phoenix last Nov. 19, stopped 30 shots--26 after he gave up a power-play goal to Bret Hedican 3:03 into the game.

Dallas 2, San Jose 1--Rookie Tyler Bouck scored his first NHL goal in the third period at Dallas to help the Stars hang on for their third consecutive victory.

Jeff Friesen ended Ed Belfour’s bid for his 51st career shutout with 13:49 left on a power-play goal that made it 2-1. Brenden Morrow scored Dallas’ other goal.

Carolina 3, Pittsburgh 2--Martin Gelinas and Rob DiMaio scored in a 35-second span of the second period at Pittsburgh as the Hurricanes ended the Penguins’ three-game winning streak.

Arturs Irbe made 15 saves in the third period for the Hurricanes, who held Jaromir Jagr scoreless for the first time in five games this season.

Carolina’s Ron Francis scored his first of the season and 473rd of his career, tying him with Denis Savard for 35th place on the NHL’s career list.

Colorado 5, Columbus 1--David Aebischer stopped 20 shots in his first NHL start and Peter Forsberg had two goals as the Avalanche remained unbeaten with a victory over the Blue Jackets at Columbus, Ohio.

The Avalanche had more shots in the first two periods (30) than the Blue Jackets faced in any of their first five games. They finished with 41.

Vancouver 4, Calgary 1--Felix Potvin stopped 21 shots and Markus Naslund scored his sixth goal of the season at Vancouver, Canada, as the Canucks won their third consecutive game.

The Canucks improved to 5-2-0-0--their best start since the 1993-94 season, when they began 6-1 record. Potvin came within 4.7 seconds of his second straight shutout before Clarke Wilm scored.

N.Y. Rangers 4, Chicago 2--Valeri Kamensky had a goal and an assist and Kirk McLean made 38 saves at Chicago as the Rangers ended a two-game losing streak.

Notes

Philadelphia Flyer General Manager Bob Clarke says he will make another attempt to convince center Eric Lindros to re-sign with the club when he is cleared to play. Lindros, who has suffered a series of concussions and won’t be ready to play until December, remains a restricted free agent. . . . The NHL suspended Buffalo Sabre defenseman Alexei Zhitnik for four games over a high-sticking incident during Tuesday night’s game at Montreal. Zhitnik hit Andrei Markov in the head. . . . New York Ranger goalie Mike Richter is expected to start Sunday against the Tampa Bay Lightning, following knee surgery that has kept him out of the Rangers’ first five games. . . . The Ottawa Senators rewarded Coach Jacques Martin with a two-year contract extension believed to be worth about $1.2 million annually that keeps him with the team through the 2002-03 season. . . . A federal appeals court in Philadelphia agreed with a lower court’s decision that the NHL and its teams were not responsible for the actions of Alan Eagleson, the former head of the NHL Players’ Assn., who served six months in prison for fraud in using NHL disability insurance money to enrich himself.