Belfour Has 50 Saves in Maple Leafs’ Win

Ed Belfour made a season-high 50 saves as the Toronto Maple Leafs beat the New Jersey Devils, 2-1, on Saturday night at Toronto.

“You can’t be happy. We had a lot of quality chances,” Devil goalie Martin Brodeur said. “We have a hard time putting the puck in the net and that’s the reason why we aren’t winning some of these games. We should be winning 3-1, 4-1, 5-1 maybe.”

Travis Green scored the go-ahead goal in the third period for the Maple Leafs, who had only 19 shots.

“Eddie was the reason why they hung around,” Brodeur said. “I don’t think they played that well. They can’t be happy about 51 shots in their own building.”

Belfour, whose previous season high was 38 saves in a shutout against New Jersey on Dec 5., robbed Joe Nieuwendyk of a goal with a kick save in the second period. Fans chanted “Ed-die! Ed-die!” after the stop and in the final minutes of the third.

“It’s never easy when you face that many shots,” Belfour said. “I made a few good saves in close. I saw the puck well.”

Columbus 2, Phoenix 0 -- Marc Denis made 23 saves for his second shutout of the season and Mike Sillinger and Sean Pronger scored first-period goals at Columbus, Ohio.

Two men sustained minor injuries and were taken to a hospital after falling about 15 feet from the stands onto a concrete walkway during the second period.

Colorado 6, San Jose 1 -- Steven Reinprecht scored three goals and Patrick Roy made 40 saves at San Jose. The Avalanche scored three goals in their first five shots.

The Sharks lost consecutive games for the first time since Ron Wilson took over as coach Dec. 6.

Calgary 3, Minnesota 2 -- Martin Gelinas scored two goals at Calgary as the Flames remained undefeated under Coach Darryl Sutter.

Sutter has led the Flames to three victories and a tie since taking over the team a week ago.

Edmonton 5, Montreal 4 -- Ryan Smyth scored his second goal of the game with a minute left in overtime at Edmonton, Canada.

Chicago 3, Nashville 3 -- Jason York scored with 3:38 left in the third period to give the Predators a tie at Nashville.

St. Louis 5, Tampa Bay 1 -- At St. Louis, Petr Cajanek and Martin Rucinsky scored short-handed goals on consecutive shots to start the second period, matching the St. Louis Blues’ season total for the first 39 games.

Pittsburgh 3, New York Islanders 2 -- Martin Straka scored 42 seconds into overtime at Pittsburgh. It was Straka’s first overtime goal in 501 regular-season games with the Penguins.

Buffalo 2, Ottawa 1 -- Ales Kotalik scored his second goal of the game with 40.9 seconds left in overtime at Ottawa, Canada.

Carolina 4, Boston 2 -- Jeff O’Neill scored two power-play goals at Boston to help the Hurricanes end a four-game losing streak.

Washington 2, New York Rangers 2 -- Matthew Barnaby’s power-play goal with 3:37 left lifted the Rangers into a tie at New York.

Vancouver 3, Florida 2 -- Todd Bertuzzi scored twice and set up Markus Naslund’s winner with 9:09 left at Vancouver, Canada.