Stars Still Shine After Belfour Bolts

Ed Belfour left the Dallas Stars after the goalie and Coach Ken Hitchcock had a “disagreement over Belfour’s participation in Saturday’s pregame optional practice.”

The Stars issued a statement before Saturday night’s 4-0 victory over the Boston Bruins at Boston stating that General Manager Bob Gainey would not comment until the team is finished collecting information. The statement said Gainey has requested that Hitchcock not comment.

“Right now, it is out of our control,” said the Stars’ captain, Derian Hatcher. “It is between Bob Gainey and Eddie, but it is safe to say that for the rest of this road trip, Marty Turco is our No. 1 goalie.”

Turco started against the Bruins, recorded the first shutout of his career and has won his last three starts.

To replace Belfour, the Stars recalled Rick Tabaracci under emergency conditions from Utah of the International Hockey League.

“If you have any brains at all,” Star forward Brett Hull said, “then you know dealing with this stuff completely blindsided us.”

Belfour, who played Thursday night in the Stars’ 4-2 loss to the Detroit Red Wings at Detroit, is 16-11-4 with seven shutouts and a 2.13 goals-against average. Belfour helped the Stars win the Stanley Cup in 1999, and won the Vezina Trophy for the Chicago Blackhawks in 1991 and 1993 as the NHL’s top goalie.

“This team has gone through a lot of adversity over the past few years and will continue to because it is a part of the game,” Hitchcock said. “We are pretty lucky right now because, in Tabaracci, we have the hottest goalie in the IHL who is joining us.”

Belfour was embroiled in controversy last March when he was arrested for disorderly conduct.

“When things like that happen, teams get more prepared,” Bruin forward Bill Guerin said. “Instead of a distraction, it could have been a spark.”

New Jersey 5, New York Rangers 5--Brian Rafalski’s second goal of the game at New York, with 1:30 to play in regulation, allowed the Devils to overcome three goals by the Rangers’ Jan Hlavac and extend their unbeaten streak against the Rangers to 21 games.

Washington 3, Toronto 2--Sergei Gonchar scored the go-ahead goal after assisting on the tying goal in the third period at Toronto.

After Gonchar’s shot went off Toronto goalie Curtis Joseph, Jeff Halpern batted in the rebound to tie the score at 2-2 at 6:55 of the third period. Only 45 seconds later, Gonchar one-timed the puck over Joseph’s shoulder.

Colorado 2, Carolina 2--Jeff O’Neill scored two goals for the Hurricanes and Peter Forsberg broke out of a scoring slump with a goal and an assist for the Avalanche at Raleigh, N.C.

Colorado had to stave off a four-on-three situation in the final 32 seconds to extend its unbeaten streak to five games. Avalanche rookie goalie David Aebischer stopped three shots in the final 10 seconds to preserve the tie.

Phoenix 2, New York Islanders 1--Ossi Vaananen and Trevor Letowski scored less than two minutes apart late in the third period to rally the Coyotes past the Islanders at Uniondale, N.Y.

Afterward, Claude Lemieux, 35, said he has agreed to an extension that will pay him the league’s minimum salary for another month and keep him with the Coyotes.

Lemieux and the Coyotes were facing a Jan. 15 deadline that would trigger a $2-million contract if he were still on the team’s roster. If he did not agree to the extension, it appeared Phoenix was ready to waive Lemieux, who recently signed as a free agent.

Ottawa 4, Montreal 3--Alexei Yashin of the Senators scored three goals at Ottawa for the sixth hat trick of his career.

Yashin, who sat out all last season in a contract dispute, broke a 3-3 tie by beating Canadien goalie Jose Theodore with a shot from the right faceoff circle with less than nine minutes to play.

Senator fans, who usually boo Yashin regardless of his performance, gave him a standing ovation and showered the ice with at least a dozen baseball caps after his 13th goal of the season.

“It’s nice to see some people still like me,” Yashin said.

Philadelphia 2, Atlanta 2--Keith Primeau scored his 200th NHL goal with 7:36 to play in the third period to give the Flyers a tie at Philadelphia.

Buffalo 2, Nashville 0--Martin Biron made 29 saves for his second consecutive shutout, and Chris Gratton and Stu Barnes scored goals at Nashville.

St. Louis 5, Minnesota 1--Pierre Turgeon and Dallas Drake each had a goal and an assist at St. Louis as the Blues ended the Wild’s eight-game unbeaten streak.

With a victory or tie, the Wild would have matched an NHL record for the longest unbeaten streak by an expansion team set by the Florida Panthers during the 1993-94 season.

San Jose 3, Florida 1--Owen Nolan had two goals and an assist to lead the Sharks at San Jose.

Vancouver 4, Columbus 3--Markus Naslund scored two goals and Ed Jovanovski had a goal and an assist for the Canucks at Vancouver, Canada.