Hull a Star Against Blues

Brett Hull scored twice in his first regular-season game against his former St. Louis teammates, helping the Dallas Stars to a 7-3 victory over the Blues Tuesday night at Dallas.

Hull’s power-play deflection late in the first period put the Stars in front, 3-2. He added his eighth goal on a breakaway late in the second period to push Dallas’ advantage to 6-3.

Brian Skrudland’s second-period goal snapped a 3-3 tie to give the Stars the lead for good as Dallas ran its unbeaten streak to six (4-0-2) and improved to 11-2-2 at home.

Joe Nieuwendyk also had two goals as the Stars had their biggest scoring outburst in exactly a year. On Dec. 15, 1997, the Stars beat the Buffalo Sabres, 8-4.

Hull, who starred for the Blues for 10 seasons before signing a three-year, $17-million free-agent deal with the Stars over the summer, missed Dallas’ first trip to St. Louis on Nov. 21.

“It was very strange to play against those guys,” Hull said. “It’s hard to play against a bunch of guys after you’ve battled with them for all those years. I was nervous before the game and had trouble sleeping. I’m glad it’s over.”

Pittsburgh 3, Tampa Bay 2--After performing impressively to get his team into overtime, Lightning goalie Corey Schwab gave up an easy goal when Kevin Hatcher scored on a wrist shot from the right circle with 1:43 left in overtime to give the Penguins a victory at Pittsburgh.

It was the Lightning’s 13th loss in 15 games. Tampa Bay is 2-13 since its 6-2-1 streak ended on Nov. 10.

Carolina 3, Edmonton 0--Glen Wesley scored his 100th career goal and Arturs Irbe recorded his second consecutive shutout to lead the Hurricanes at Greensboro, N.C.

It was the sixth victory in the last nine games for the Hurricanes.

Meanwhile, the Oilers are winless in their last seven games and fell to 0-3-2 in the fifth of a seven-game trip.

Irbe stopped 29 Edmonton shots for his 17th career shutout, second in a row and fourth of the season, matching his career best, set in 1994-95 with San Jose.

N.Y. Islanders 1, San Jose 0--After seven consecutive losses, the Islanders stopped the lethargic Sharks at San Jose.

New York goalie Tommy Salo faced only 13 shots, including just one in the third period, to get his fifth shutout of the season. It tied Salo for the NHL shutout lead with Buffalo’s Dominick Hasek.

Mike Watt scored the lone goal midway through the second period.