Boston punches in four third-period goals to beat the New Jersey Devils.
By The Associated Press

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. – Rookie Andrew Raycroft made 31 saves and the Boston Bruins scored four third-period goals to rally for a 5-2 victory over the New Jersey Devils on Saturday night.

Patrice Bergeron, Sergei Samsonov, Glen Murray and Joe Thornton tallied in the final period as the Bruins won their fifth straight road game for rookie coach Mike Sullivan. Martin Lapointe also scored for Boston, which is 1-0-1 against the Stanley Cup champions.

Patrik Elias and Jamie Langenbrunner scored for New Jersey, which is winless at home this season (0-3-1), losing the last three.

Bergeron, the youngest player in the NHL at 18, tied the game at 2-all with an odd goal 26 seconds into the period. P.J. Alexsson intercepted a pass around the board by Devils goaltender Martin Brodeur and centered a pass in front. It hit off defenseman Paul Martin and Bergeron shot the loose puck into an open net for his second goal.

Samsonov’s go-ahead goal capped a great give-and-go play in the Devils zone with rookie Sergei Zinovjev. Samsonov skated into the zone, dropped the puck for Zinovjev and then went to the net, where the rookie found him all alone at 5:45.

Murray stretched the lead to 4-2 at 8:15, beating Brodeur in front after taking a pass from behind the net by Thornton.

Thornton capped the outburst by scoring on a power-play rebound at 13:33.

Raycroft kept the Bruins in the game, stopping 23 of 25 shots in the first two periods, including a great chance by Brian Gionta late in the second period with New Jersey ahead 2-1.

New Jersey, which scored three power-play goals in a season-opening 3-3 tie at Boston, used its special teams to take a 2-1 first period lead.

Elias gave the Devils the lead by tipping a shot by Scott Gomez past Raycroft on an early power play. Langenbrunner put New Jersey back in front with a short-handed goal with 1:58 left in the period.

In between the goals, Lapointe scored on a power play for Boston.

Notes: D Scott Niedermayer had two assists. …Bruins F Michal Grosek played in his 500th NHL game. …Devils D Colin White had nine penalty minutes. No Devil had had more than nine total in the first six games. …Zinovjev was playing in his first NHL game. The Bruins were 2-for-4 on the power play. The Devils were 1-of-5 with the extra man.

Maple Leafs 4, Capitals 1

TORONTO – Mats Sundin scored his first goal of the season and 300th with Toronto as the Maple Leafs won their third straight with a 4-1 victory over the struggling Washington Capitals on Saturday night.

Criticized for not recording a point in his first five games, Sundin gave Toronto a 2-0 lead in the second. The center also scored 135 goals in four seasons with the Quebec Nordiques.

Alexander Mogilny, Toronto’s leading scorer last year, and Bryan McCabe, a top defenseman, contributed in their first game back after being sidelined with injuries.

Mogilny, out for five games with a strained groin, had two assists, and McCabe, who had arthroscopic surgery on his right knee, gave Toronto a 1-0 lead at 1:29 of the second.

Toronto goalie Ed Belfour made 38 saves en route to his 404th win to move past Grant Fuhr for sixth on the career wins list. He robbed Mike Grier of a breakaway goal in the second. Fans chanted ‘Eddie! Eddie!’ in the final minutes.

Jaromir Jagr scored for the Capitals, who are 0-6-1 since opening the season with a 6-1 win over the New York Islanders.

Flyers 4, Hurricanes 4

PHILADELPHIA – Mark Recchi scored a short-handed goal late in the third period as the Philadelphia Flyers rallied from an early two-goal deficit and tied Carolina 4-4 Saturday night.

Recchi took a pass from Eric Desjardins and beat Jamie Storr with a wrist shot from outside the faceoff circle at the 16:50 mark for his fourth goal of the season.

Niclas Wallin scored two goals and Storr made 28 saves in his first start of the season as Carolina finished a four-game road trip unbeaten at 1-0-3-0. Radim Vrbata added a goal and an assist, and Danny Markov also scored for the Hurricanes.

Wallin opened the scoring with his first goal of the season in the first period on a slap shot through the legs of Philadelphia goaltender Jeff Hackett. Wallin scored again in the third period on a nearly identical shot.

The Flyers erased a two-goal deficit with a pair of scores in a 41-second span late in the second period.

Panthers 3, Thrashers 2

ATLANTA – Olli Jokinen scored a third-period goal and backup goalie Steve Shields made 33 saves as the Florida Panthers handed the Atlanta Thrashers their first regulation loss of the season, 3-2 Saturday night.

Viktor Kozlov and Mike Van Ryn also scored for Florida, which has yet to score more than three goals in a game.

Shields started for the first time this season in place of Roberto Luongo, who had faced a league-high 282 shots through the first eight games.

Goals by Florida’s Ilya Kovalchuk 7:37 into the third and Vyacheslav Kozlov with 2:32 left brought the Panthers within a goal.

It was the first time this season the Thrashers did not collect at least a point in a game.

Islanders 7, Penguins 2

UNIONDALE, N.Y. – Mariusz Czerkawski and Trent Hunter each had a pair of goals as the New York Islanders won for the third time in four games by beating the Pittsburgh Penguins 7-2 Saturday night.

Janne Niinimaa, Jason Blake and Sean Bergenheim also scored for New York. Garth Snow finished with 18 saves for his second straight win.

Rico Fata and Alexei Morozov scored for the Penguins, who have just one win in their first seven games (1-4-2-0). Sebastien Caron went the entire way, and made 31 saves.

After Hunter gave the Islanders a 1-0 lead just over five minutes into the game, New York scored twice in the period’s final 1:48 to take command. Czerkawski tipped in a shot off a pass from Alexei Yashin to make it 2-0, and Hunter scored his second with 33.6 seconds left to put the Islanders up three.

Czerkawski made it 4-0 9:53 into the second with an open shot from the right side. The goal was Czerkawski’s seventh of the season, two more than he had in 43 games for Montreal last season.

Rangers 3, Red Wings 1

NEW YORK – Petr Nedved scored for the second straight game as the New York Rangers beat Detroit 3-1 Saturday night for their first victory over the Red Wings in four years.

Bobby Holik and Mark Messier also scored for the Rangers, who had lost seven straight games to the Red Wings since their last win over Detroit on Oct. 30, 1999. The drought at home was even longer as Detroit had won seven in a row at Madison Square Garden, dating to March 1997.

Mike Dunham was sharp again for the Rangers, making 23 saves. Dunham is 2-0-2 so far on New York’s six-game homestand – the longest of the season.

Messier sealed the win with an empty-net goal with 19 seconds left.

Senators 6, Canadiens 2

MONTREAL – Marian Hossa had three assists to help the Ottawa Senators extend their winning streak to four with a 6-2 victory over the Montreal Canadiens on Saturday night.

Jason Spezza, Radek Bonk and Daniel Alfredsson each had a goal and an assist for Ottawa, which beat Montreal for the second time in a little more than two weeks.

Vaclav Varada, Peter Schaefer and Martin Havlat also scored, and Patrick Lalime made 23 saves.

Sheldon Souray had his first career two-goal game for the Canadiens, who hadn’t allowed more than one goal in a game while winning five of six since a season-opening 5-2 loss in Ottawa.

Stars 3, Blue Jackets 2

COLUMBUS, Ohio – Bill Guerin assisted on three third-period goals as the Dallas Stars rediscovered their offense and beat the Columbus Blue Jackets 3-2 Saturday night.

Jason Arnott, Philippe Boucher and Rob DiMaio scored for the Stars, who had gone 160 minutes and 41 seconds without a goal before Arnott tied the game at 1-all midway through the third period. DiMaio’s goal with 2:24 left was the difference. Columbus goaltender Marc Denis protested that he was pulled down as DiMaio shot from the top of the right circle.

Rick Nash and Andrej Nedorost scored for the Blue Jackets. Nash ended Columbus’ scoreless run at 110 minutes and 16 seconds, scoring on a 5-on-3 rush in the second period.

Marty Turco had 25 saves for the Stars. Denis finished with 31, giving up three goals in the third period on nine shots after stopping 22 shots in the opening 40 minutes.

Lightning 3, Wild 2

TAMPA, Fla. – Cory Stillman scored a tiebreaking short-handed goal early in the third period as undefeated Tampa Bay overcame a two-goal deficit to beat the Minnesota Wild 3-2 Saturday night, the Lightning’s franchise-best sixth straight win to open the season.

Stillman scored from the low right circle off a pass by Tim Taylor during a two-on-one at 1:14.

Brad Richards and Vincent Lecavalier also scored for the Lightning, who are the first team since the 1996-97 Dallas Stars to open the season with six straight wins.The NHL record for consecutive wins to start the season is 10, set by the 1993-94 Toronto Maple Leafs.

Avalanche 5, Predators 3

NASHVILLE, Tenn. – Milan Hejduk scored two goals within two minutes in the second period and had an assist, and Peter Forsberg added a goal and two assists as the Colorado Avalanche held off the Nashville Predators 5-3 Saturday night.

It was the sixth straight win for the Avalanche on the Predators’ home ice. Colorado now is 12-4-5-0 against Nashville all-time.

Colorado scored first for the sixth time in seven games when Teemu Selanne put the puck under Tomas Vokoun’s glove off a rebound of John-Michael Liles’ shot from the high slot with 3:13 left in the first.

Nashville had hoped returning home would help snap its first losing skid of the season.

but the Predators lost their third straight when Colorado scored three goals within six minutes in the second period.

The Predators did make it close by scoring two goals on just four shots in the third as Adam Hall scored at 7:29 putting a shot past David Aebischer’s glove from the slot. Scott Walker scored his first of the season with 3:39 left to pull Nashville within 4-3.

But they couldn’t get off another shot on goal, and Steve Konowalchuk clinched the victory with his first goal this season on an empty-netter with 3.1 seconds left.

Alex Tanguay set up Hejduk’s first with a drop pass in the right circle, and Hejduk scored over Vokoun’s shoulder 6:15 into the second for a 2-0 lead. Forsberg then found Hejduk in the slot on a power play at 8:03, and Hejduk again scored over Vokoun’s right shoulder for a 3-0 lead.

Scott Hartnell scored through Aebischer’s legs at 8:51 for the Predators to make it 3-1.

But Forsberg, who had his seventh career hat trick in Thursday night’s 6-1 victory over Edmonton, gave Colorado a 4-1 lead as he skated through traffic and the left circle before scoring on a backhander at 12:15.

Nashville had been trying to add to the best home start in franchise history (3-1-0). But the Predators struggled offensively and went 0-for-5 on the power play after losing left wing Andreas Johansson in the first following a check by Colorado defenseman Rob Blake.

Johansson will be re-evaluated on Monday.

Notes: Colorado left wing Paul Kariya missed his second straight game because of a sprained wrist. … Tanguay, who had a career-high four assists Thursday night, had two against Nashville to extend his point streak to five games. He has two goals and seven assists in this stretch. … Nashville defenseman Tomas Koucek skated in his 100th NHL career game. … Nashville defenseman Marek Zidlicky went pointless after becoming the first in franchise history to score points in each of his first six games with the team.

AP-ES-10-25-03 2234EDT