Turco Sparkles Again for Stars

Ed Belfour is set to rejoin the Dallas Stars. His quick about-face might be because he saw a youngster ready to steal his job.

Marty Turco drew the assignment of filling in for Belfour, the Stars’ No. 1 goalie, who left the team in a dispute with Coach Ken Hitchcock. In his 10th and 11th NHL games Turco stopped all but one of 71 shots.

Turco, 25, stymied the New York Rangers on Monday night, giving up only a third-period goal among 38 shots, as Dallas earned a hard-fought 2-1 victory at New York.

“He’s taking advantage of it,” Hitchcock said of Turco. “The last four he’s played well and it’s good to see. We miss Eddie, but we needed to have a performance by Marty to keep us solid and strong in these areas and keep us winning and he did that.”

In his last five games, Turco stopped 130 of 133 shots. He denied 64 in a row before Eric Lacroix scored his second goal of the season 5:39 into the third period.

“The way this team plays is the way it needs to play to win,” Turco said. “It was a road game and we needed to play well defensively and guys came back and really worked hard to clear my rebounds.”

Pittsburgh 5, Washington 3--The Mario Lemieux comeback show hit the road, and it’s still a smash hit.

In his first road game since ending his 3 1/2-year retirement, Lemieux won a faceoff to set up Ian Moran’s game-winning goal with 12:39 to play as the Penguins defeated the Capitals at Washington.

Lemieux had two assists, giving him at least two points in each of his five games.

Philadelphia 2, St. Louis 1--Keith Primeau tipped a loose puck past Roman Turek at 3:01 of overtime for his second goal of the game and 16th this season as the Flyers defeated the Blues at St. Louis.

Vancouver 2, Nashville 1--Todd Bertuzzi broke a scoreless tie with 1:28 to play in the second period and Bob Essensa stopped 16 shots for the Canucks at Vancouver, Canada.