Backup Goalie Turco Stars Again for Dallas

If Ed Belfour is known as “Crazy Eddie,” the Dallas Stars might have to start calling Marty Turco “Marvelous Marty.”

Turco stopped 31 shots for his third consecutive victory in place of Belfour and Brett Hull scored two goals Wednesday night as the Dallas Stars defeated the Atlanta Thrashers, 3-2, at Atlanta.

Belfour left the team in Boston on Saturday after a disagreement with Coach Ken Hitchcock and was suspended. The 35-year-old goalie rejoined the team Tuesday, but was a backup against Atlanta.

Turco defeated the Boston Bruins on Saturday and followed it up two nights later with a victory over the New York Rangers at New York. The 25-year-old rookie is unbeaten in his last five starts.

“I know how good he is,” Hull said of Turco. “I know as a good shooter what a good goalie he is. It doesn’t surprise me the way Marty has been playing the last three games, he’s been very consistent.”

Turco will have to wait a little longer for his next win as Belfour is expected to start Friday night against the high-scoring Detroit Red Wings.

“Who doesn’t want to play?” Turco said. “Anybody would want to play, especially a goalie when he gets in a rhythm. You like to play every night, but I know my job is to play as well as I can when called upon.”

Hull, who has five goals and three assists in his last six games, has matched his season total for all of last season with 24 goals. He is on a pace to score 50.

Ottawa 5, Vancouver 1--Magnus Arvedson and Shawn McEachern each scored two goals to lead the Senators at Vancouver, Canada.

Nashville 5, Edmonton 2--Rookie Denis Arkhipov had a goal and an assist and Robert Valicevic scored the go-ahead goal midway through the third period for the Predators at Edmonton, Canada.

Minnesota 3, Washington 0--Manny Fernandez stopped 17 shots and Scott Pellerin had a goal and an assist at St. Paul, Minn.

New Jersey 5, Phoenix 1--Alexander Mogilny scored two goals and Bobby Holik broke out of a 17-game scoring drought with two goals at East Rutherford, N.J., as the Devils extended their unbeaten streak to 10 games.

Boston 2, Montreal 1--Joe Thornton and Don Sweeney scored and Sergei Samsonov assisted on both goals at Montreal as the Bruins won consecutive games for only the second time this season.

Tampa Bay 3, Toronto 1--Ryan Johnson, Brian Holzinger and Fredrik Modin scored at Toronto to help the Lightning end a five-game losing streak, giving new Coach John Tortorella his first victory.

Colorado 4, Columbus 2--Joe Sakic added to his league-leading points total with a goal and an assist to lead the Avalanche at Columbus, Ohio.

The Avalanche have won all five meetings this season with the two expansion teams, beating Columbus four times and Minnesota once by a combined score of 19-6.

Sakic lead the league with 59 points.

Around the League

Roger Neilson, the longtime NHL coach fighting cancer, said that lymph nodes removed from his groin area showed no signs of cancer. “I’ve got some good news,” the Ottawa assistant coach said during the Senators’ morning practice. “All the nodes they took out were not infected. Let’s hope they got it all.” . . . Detroit Red Wing Coach Scotty Bowman, NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman and Nashville Predator General Manager David Poile are the recipients of the 2001 Lester Patrick Award for outstanding service to hockey in the United States. . . . Boston Bruin defenseman Darren Van Impe is expected to be sidelined the rest of the regular season after surgery on his left shoulder.