SUNRISE, Fla. – Valeri Bure scored two goals to help the Florida Panthers snap a five-game home winless streak with a 6-3 victory over the Pittsburgh Penguins on Friday night.
Stephen Weiss, Niklas Hagman, Mike Van Ryn and Olli Jokinen also scored, and Roberto Luongo made 18 saves for the Panthers.
Milan Kraft had two goals for Pittsburgh, which played without Mario Lemieux. Rico Fata added a goal for the Penguins, and Marc-Andre Fleury stopped 40 shots.
Bure’s second goal put Florida ahead 4-3 with 6:39 left, and Van Ryn followed with a power-play goal with 4:16 to go.
Blue Jackets 4, Thrashers 2
COLUMBUS, Ohio – David Vyborny had his first three-goal game and the Columbus Blue Jackets ended a seven-game winless streak with a 4-2 victory over Atlanta on Friday night.
Vyborny’s hat trick came in his 244th NHL game. He had a short-handed empty-netter in the final minute for his third goal.
The Blue Jackets were 0-6-0-1 in their last seven games.
Maple Leafs 1, Devils 1
EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. – Gary Roberts scored a power-play goal with 4:42 remaining to give the Toronto Maple Leafs a 1-1 tie with the New Jersey Devils on Friday night.
Roberts carried the puck out of the left corner and whipped a backhander past goalie Corey Schwab.
Ed Belfour made 21 saves for Toronto to help the Maple Leafs improve to 2-0-1 in their last three games.
Blackhawks 2, Predators 1
NASHVILLE, Tenn. – Jocelyn Thibault made 31 saves in Chicago’s 2-1 victory over Nashville on Friday night, the Blackhawks’ first road victory of the season.
Thibault allowed only Scott Hartnell’s goal with 27 seconds remaining. Bryan Berard had a second-period goal for Chicago, and Steve Poapst scored into an empty net with 1:01 left.
Berard scored his first goal of the season at 8:03 of the second, firing a wrist shot between goalie Tomas Vokoun’s legs.
After Poapst made it 2-0 with his empty-netter, Hartnell scored off a rebound to end Thibault’s shutout bid. The Predators had 13 shots in the third period, 25 in the last two periods.
Sabres 2, Canadiens 1
BUFFALO, N.Y. – Mika Noronen made 36 saves, and Daniel Briere and Ales Kotalik scored second-period goals in the Buffalo Sabres’ 2-1 victory over the Montreal Canadiens on Friday night.
Buffalo is 5-2-1 in its last eight games, while Montreal has lost six of seven and has been outscored 24-7 during that span.
Saku Koivu, Montreal’s leading scorer last season, made his first appearance of the season after missing 13 games because of a knee injury. He played on a line with Donald Audette and Richard Zednick.
Briere opened the scoring with a power-play goal at 4:37 of the second period.
He took a pass behind the goal line from Chris Drury, skated toward the side of the net and jammed the puck underneath goalie Jose Theodore.
The Sabres have scored
Comments are no longer available on this story