Belfour’s Emotional Night Works Against Stars in Loss

The Detroit Red Wings knew Ed Belfour was going to be very excited, probably too excited, for his first game back in goal after a bizarre week.

So they made those emotions work against him and the Dallas Stars.

Sergei Fedorov caught Belfour out of position for an early power-play goal and Martin Lapointe added another with a man advantage as the Red Wings, who have the NHL’s best special teams unit, pulled out a 3-2 victory Friday night at Dallas.

“We wanted to get him going,” said Lapointe, whose long rivalry with the goalie was rekindled with Belfour chucking him in the back just before his goal and later a shouting match. “We knew we wanted to stay in front of him. It doesn’t take too much to get him revved up and get him off his game.”

Belfour last played in a 4-2 loss at Detroit. Before the next game, which he wasn’t scheduled to play, Belfour argued with Coach Ken Hitchcock, then flew home to Dallas from Boston. He was suspended for the next two days, costing him about $134,000, and sat out three games.

Backup Marty Turco won all three.

“I had a few butterflies at the beginning of the game, but I seemed to settle down as I went on,” said Belfour, who made 25 stops. “It’s time to move on. I’ve learned from it. It’s been a tough week. But there have been also a lot of good things behind the scenes.”

Pittsburgh 4, New York Islanders 3--Mario Lemieux and Kip Miller scored before the Islanders had a shot at Pittsburgh and the Penguins finally beat a team with a losing record.

The Penguins, 5-2 since Lemieux came out of retirement, ran the Islanders’ losing streak to a season-high seven games. Pittsburgh also won for the first time in its last seven games against sub-.500 teams, a stretch in which it had three ties.

Colorado 5, Minnesota 0--Joe Sakic had a goal and two assists at St. Paul, Minn., as the Avalanche dealt the Wild its worst home loss in its inaugural season.

Patrick Roy stopped all 21 Minnesota shots to record his third shutout of the season. Shjon Podein and Ray Bourque each added two assists for the Avalanche.

Toronto 3, Phoenix 2--Mats Sundin, Gary Roberts and Dimitri Yushkevich scored as the Maple Leafs shook up their top line and won at Toronto for the first time in more than a month.

Toronto dismantled its No. 1 line of Sundin, Roberts and Jonas Hoglund in favor of Sundin, Hoglund and Nik Antropov, and the result was the team’s fourth victory in 14 games.

Chicago 3, Columbus 1--Dean McAmmond’s backhander provided the go-ahead goal at Columbus, Ohio, to give the Blackhawks their first win this season after trailing while heading into the third period.

Chicago was 0-17 in games in which it trailed going into the third period.

Montreal 3, Atlanta 0--Mathieu Garon shut out the Thrashers for the second time this season and the Canadiens did all their scoring in the second period at Atlanta.

Philadelphia 3, Tampa Bay 0--In dealing the Lighting its fifth loss in six games, Roman Cechmanek made 21 saves and extended his unbeaten streak to 11 games in the Flyers’ victory at Tampa, Fla.

Carolina 2, Florida 2--Jeff O’Neill scored two goals for the Hurricanes, but it was Pavel Bure’s goal with 22 seconds left in regulation that lifted the Panthers to a tie at Sunrise, Fla.

Vancouver 3, Edmonton 2--Rookie Henrik Sedin scored at 9:42 of the third period to give the Canucks a victory at Edmonton.

Around the League

Buffalo captain Michael Peca, who has not played this season during a contract dispute, told General Manager Darcy Regier that he no longer wants to play for the Sabres and is done talking about it, Peca’s agent, Don Meehan, said. . . . New York Ranger goalie Mike Richter will sit out today’s game at Boston after having fluid drained from his left knee this week, the Rangers said. . . . Defenseman Gord Murphy returned to the Atlanta Thrashers’ lineup after sitting out 60 games while recovering from a shoulder injury. . . . The Nashville Predators traded defenseman Rory Fitzpatrick to the Edmonton Oilers for future considerations.