Ed Jovanovski, the No. 1 pick in the 1994 NHL draft, scored his first career goal midway through the third period Saturday night to help the Florida Panthers beat the Hartford Whalers 5-3.
Florida, which had dropped behind Philadelphia in the Atlantic Division after losing two straight, took a 3-1 lead in the second period, then received the eventual winning goal from Jovanovski, one of three 19-year olds in the league.Radek Dvorak, Mike Hough and Scott Mellanby scored consecutive goals to give the Panthers a two-goal lead midway through the second period and Rob Neidermayer added a goal late in the third. Jeff O'Neill, Robert Kron and Brendan Shanahan scored for the Whalers.
Islanders 4 Devils 1
Patrick Flatley's first goal of the season triggered a three-goal first period and the New York Islanders went on to a 4-1 victory over the New Jersey Devils only hours after firing general manager Don Maloney.
Zigmund Palffy and Bob Sweeney also had first-period goals to give the Islanders their second straight win, the first time this season they've accomplished that feat.
The Islanders, who went into the game with the second-worst record in the league (5-15-3), fired Maloney earlier in the day and replaced him with Darcy Regier as the acting GM. There was speculation that either Regier or coach Mike Milbury would take over as fulltime general manager this week.
Boston 6, Buffalo 4
Jozef Stumpel scored one goal and assisted on two others to run his point-scoring streak to eight games as the Boston Bruins defeated the Buffalo Sabres 6-4.
Goaltender Scott Bailey, who gave up five goals in less than a period and a half to Pittsburgh on Thursday, returned to the Boston net and stopped 21 shots.
Dominik Hasek faced 32 shots in the Buffalo net.
Red Wings 11, Canadiens 1
Vyacheslav Kozlov had his first career four-goal game as the Detroit Red Wings defeated the Montreal Canadiens 11-1 for their fourth straight victory.
Sergei Fedorov had a goal and four assists and Igor Larionov had a goal and three assists as the Red Wings embarrassed the Canadiens before their home crowd with five goals in each of the first two periods. Together, Detroit's five Russian players had 15 points.
Blackhawks 2, Jets 2, tie
Jeremy Roenick scored with 34 seconds left in the third period, giving the Chicago Blackhawks a 2-2 tie with the Winnipeg Jets.
Alexei Zhamnov had scored with 53 seconds left in the third to give the Jets a 2-1 lead. The Blackhawks pulled goaltender Ed Belfour for the extra attacker to help earn the tie.
Blues 7, Oilers 3
Shayne Corson and Brett Hull each had two goals as the St. Louis Blues beat the Edmonton Oilers 7-3 for their third straight victory.
Rangers 4, Senators 2
Pat Verbeek scored three goals and assisted on a fourth as the New York Rangers beat the struggling Ottawa Senators.
Mighty Ducks 4, Maple Leafs 4
Mats Sundin capped a three-goal third period as the Toronto Maple Leafs rallied to tie the Anaheim Mighty Ducks 4-4.
Doug Gilmour, Mike Gartner and Benoit Hogue also scored for the Maple Leafs, who trailed 4-1 entering the final period.