Primeau Turns Up the Heat on Red Wings

Keith Primeau scored against his former team and the Carolina Hurricanes rewarded the first sellout crowd in their 58-game history, defeating the Detroit Red Wings, 3-0, at the Coliseum on Saturday night in Greensboro, N.C.

Ray Sheppard added a goal and an assist and Arturs Irbe got his third shutout of the season as Carolina dealt the Red Wings their first shutout on the road in nearly eight years.

The Hurricanes, who ended the Red Wings’ four-game unbeaten streak, also got a goal from Kent Manderville. Sami Kapanen added two assists and Kevin Dineen and Marek Malik had one each.

But the difference for the Hurricanes was Primeau, who was traded from Detroit on Oct. 9, 1996. He set the tone early with some aggressive first-period play, and he put the Hurricanes ahead to stay less than six minutes into the game when he flipped in a feed from Kapanen.

“I’ve since moved on, as have they,” Primeau said. “Tonight was just another competition.”

Phoenix 2, Ottawa 0--Nikolai Khabibulin stopped 42 shots and Jyrki Lumme scored the game-winner in the second period at Kanata, Canada.

Teppo Numminen scored an empty-net goal for Phoenix, undefeated in four games (3-0-1). The win gave the Coyotes 37 points, one more than the idle Dallas Stars for top spot in the NHL. Phoenix is 5-1 against the Eastern Conference this season.

Khabibulin earned his third shutout of the season on a night when the Senators had their second highest shot total.

New Jersey 5, Colorado 3--Bobby Holik took it upon himself to provide the spark missing from the Devils.

He scored two third-period goals, including the game-winner at East Rutherford, N.J., to lead the Devils against the Avalanche.

Philadelphia 3, Toronto 0--John LeClair scored his 20th goal and John Vanbiesbrouck made 23 saves as the Flyers ended the Maple Leafs’ seven-game home winning streak.

Valeri Zelepukin and Eric Lindros also scored for Philadelphia (13-9-5). Lindros, with his fifth goal in his last three games, leads the NHL in scoring with 39 points. LeClair, who tied Chicago’s Tony Amonte for the league lead in goals, also had an assist for 36 points.

Buffalo 4, Boston 1--Miroslav Satan scored two goals and Dominik Hasek stopped 36 shots for his league-leading 15th win in a matchup of two surging teams in Boston.

The win extended the Sabres’ unbeaten streak to seven games (6-0-1) and halted Boston’s at eight. The Bruins had been on a 6-0-2 streak.

Pittsburgh 4, St. Louis 3--Alexei Kovalev scored twice and Jaromir Jagr had a goal and an assist, leading the visiting Penguins.

Pittsburgh scored four goals in a 1:39 span to lead 4-2 after the first period. Kovalev scored his first goal of the game at 9:05 when he stole the puck from defenseman Al MacInnis in the Blues’ end and beat Grant Fuhr.

Fuhr was making his first appearance in 11 games after suffering a strained groin.

Calgary 4, Florida 2--Theo Fleury scored the deciding goal and rookie Jean Sebastien Giguere had 36 saves to lead the Flames at Sunrise, Fla.

Viktor Kozlov had a goal and an assist, while Dino Ciccarelli scored the 607th goal of his career, tying him with Mark Messier for eighth place on the all-time scoring list.

Montreal 2, Nashville 2--Despite Jonas Hoglund’s third goal in three games, the visiting Canadiens’ winless streak stretched to six straight.

The Canadiens, 0-4-2 in that stretch, managed the tie despite being outshot, 43-27.

Tampa Bay 2, N.Y. Islanders 1--Benoit Hogue’s fluke goal with 47.3 seconds left in overtime at Uniondale, N.Y., gave the Lightning a rare road win.

Hogue tried to center a pass from behind the net, and the puck hit defenseman Scott Lachance’s right knee and got past goalie Tommy Salo for just the Lightning’s second win in 14 games.

San Jose 2, Washington 1--Jeff Friesen’s two power-play goals less than five minutes apart in the second period made the difference for the Sharks at San Jose.

Before the game, Washington Coach Ron Wilson scratched center Dale Hunter from the lineup. The healthy scratch ended Hunter’s consecutive-game streak at 306.

The injury-riddled Capitals have lost nine of 11.

NHL Notes

Mark Recchi’s current league-high streak of 570 straight games ended when the Canadiens’ forward was scratched because of pneumonia. Recchi had not missed a game since March 31, 1991 in the Penguins’ season finale, ranking him eighth on the NHL’s all-time list of consecutive games played. . . . The Flyers reunited their “Legion of Doom” line, acquiring Mikael Renberg from the Lightning in a four-player trade. Renberg, traded to the Lightning in 1997, rejoins Eric Lindros and John LeClair in Philadelphia. The Flyers also get center Daymond Langkow and sent forwards Chris Gratton and Mike Sillinger to the Lightning.