Roy Shuts Out His Jet Lag for Victory

Patrick Roy still complained about jet lag in the aftermath of the Winter Olympics.

The Phoenix Coyotes might think otherwise after Roy stopped 27 shots for his 40th shutout as Colorado completed a back-to-back sweep with a 3-0 victory Thursday night at Denver.

“I was surprised because, to tell you the truth, I felt lousy the last three days and was thinking how am I going to play this game,” said Roy. “Last night was pretty good, but I was getting up at 1 a.m. and 4 a.m. the first two days I was back here.”

Roy, 17-1-2 with three shutouts lifetime against the Coyotes, was aided by Colorado’s penalty-killing unit. Phoenix was 0 for 9 on its power play.

“There is no doubt the penalty killing was the key to the game,” Roy said. “We’ll see a lot of power plays for a while until guys adjust to the new rules.”

Colorado is 9-1-1 in its last 11 meetings with the Coyotes and has won five in a row.

San Jose 3, St. Louis 1--Jeff Friesen scored his 21st goal at San Jose as the Sharks beat the Blues, who lost goaltender Grant Fuhr in the second period because of a knee injury.

Fuhr strained a ligament in his right knee while stretching to stop a shot. He came out of the game with 7:29 left in the second period, having allowed three goals.

Mike Ricci and Stephane Matteau added goals for the Sharks, who broke a two-game losing streak and moved ahead of idle Edmonton into eighth place in the Western Conference. Geoff Courtnall scored his 23rd goal for St. Louis, who play the Kings at the Great Western Forum on Saturday.

New York Rangers 5, Toronto 2--Wayne Gretzky had three assists at Toronto in John Muckler’s coaching debut with the Rangers.

Muckler, who replaced the fired Colin Campbell during the Olympic break, watched his new team score more than three goals for the first time in 14 games.

Gretzky notched his 140th three-assist game.

Boston 1, Buffalo 1--With Dominik Hasek taking a post-Olympic break, Boston’s Byron Dafoe and Buffalo’s Steve Shields put on a goaltending clinic at Boston.

Dafoe stopped 20 Sabre shots, losing his shutout bid when Alexei Zhitnik’s shot was deflected through his legs with 42 seconds to play. Shields made 32 saves, giving up only Ted Donato’s goal with 7.5 seconds left in the second period.

New Jersey 4, Tampa Bay 1--Dave Andreychuk and Bobby Holik scored power-play goals to help the surging Devils at Tampa, Fla.

New Jersey has won five in a row and is unbeaten (5-0-1) in six.