Coyotes Have Dallas Seeing Stars With Home-Ice Victory

Daniel Briere scored for the sixth consecutive game and Keith Tkachuk got his third goal in three games as the Phoenix Coyotes finally defeated the Dallas Stars at home, 5-2, Sunday night.

Jeremy Roenick had three assists and Tkachuk two as Phoenix matched its longest winning streak of the season at four.

Dallas had gone 4-0-1 in its last five games at Phoenix and hadn’t lost at America West Arena since March 17, 1999.

Briere has seven goals and three assists in the eight games since he was recalled from Springfield of the American Hockey League on Jan. 7.

Stan Neckar, Teppo Numminen and Landon Wilson also scored against Ed Belfour, who has given up 10 goals in his last two games. The Coyotes scored four goals in the second period, two in a 37-second span, to take a 5-1 lead.

Pittsburgh 4, Chicago 0--Mario Lemieux scored his 11th goal in the 12th game of his comeback to help the Penguins at Chicago.

With the Penguins ahead, 2-0, Lemieux gave the sellout crowd--only Chicago’s third at home this season--what they came to see.

When Kevin Stevens’ shot hit the post and bounced to the other side, Lemieux was in the right spot to push it in with 31 seconds remaining in the second period and help the Penguins give the Blackhawks their third loss in 15 games.

Nashville 3, St. Louis 1--The Predators finally are making themselves feel right at home, putting together consecutive home victories for the first time since October and only their seventh in 25 games.

Even more impressive is the fact that the Predators, who hadn’t won consecutive home games since Oct. 13-14, defeated Boston and St. Louis without top goal scorer Scott Walker, out with a slightly separated shoulder.

Columbus 3, Tampa Bay 1--David Vyborny made club history by scoring 27 seconds into the third period to help the Blue Jackets win at Columbus, Ohio.

The goal was the fastest at the start of a period in the expansion team’s short history. It also ended a 35-minute drought for both teams in a game that featured sloppy play and missed opportunities.

Calgary 4, Detroit 2--Playing before a crowd of 17,139--their eighth sellout of the season and fifth in six games--the Flames rode some spectacular third-period goaltending from Mike Vernon to improve to 6-1-1 in their last eight at home.

Vernon finished with 34 saves, including 16 in the third period, to win his first game since Dec. 19.

New York Islanders 4, Atlanta 4--Yves Sarault scored twice, including the game-tying goal on a breakaway with 9:37 to play, enabling the Thrashers to tie the Islanders at Atlanta.

New Jersey 4, Minnesota 2--Alexander Mogilny scored two of New Jersey’s three second-period goals at St. Paul, Minn., as the Devils improved their record over the last 15 games to 10-1-4.

Around the League

St. Louis Blues defenseman Chris Pronger, last season’s MVP, is scheduled to undergo knee surgery Tuesday and will be sidelined four to six weeks, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported. . . . Right wing Wayne Primeau of the Tampa Bay Lightning was suspended, pending a hearing by the league, for slashing defenseman Wade Redden of the Ottawa Senators. Primeau was taken to a hospital with a concussion after fighting Redden during the third period Saturday night. The suspension resulted from Primeau receiving an instigator minor, a fighting major, a 10-minute misconduct, a match penalty for an attempt to injure and a game misconduct after the fight. Redden received a fighting major.