Yzerman, Red Wings Feel Special Again

Steve Yzerman has passed so many personal milestones during his career that they don’t usually excite him. Wednesday night was different.

Yzerman moved past Bryan Trottier, his boyhood hero, for 10th place on the NHL career point list as the Detroit Red Wings routed the visiting St. Louis Blues, 6-2.

Yzerman’s goal and assist gave him 1,426 points. That’s one more than Trottier, whom Yzerman admired so much growing up that he took his jersey number, 19.

Yzerman tied Trottier with an assist on Vyacheslav Kozlov’s goal, the last of Detroit’s four first-period goals. He then moved ahead of his hero in the last minute of the second period when he beat Blues goalie Rich Parent to complete an end-to-end rush that gave the Red Wings a 6-0 lead.

Detroit led, 4-0, after one period thanks to the “Grind Line” of Kris Draper, Joe Kocur and Kirk Maltby.

Kocur scored the first two goals and Maltby had three first-period assists for the Red Wings, who have won two in a row after a four-game losing streak. Draper scored the third goal.

Phoenix 2, Dallas 0--Jimmy Waite turned aside 38 shots as the Coyotes continued their best start in the 20-year history of the franchise, handing the Stars their first home defeat of the season.

Keith Tkachuk and Jyrki Lumme scored for Phoenix, 7-2-2 overall and 5-0-2 in its last seven games. The Coyotes haven’t lost since Oct. 22.

New Jersey 3, Montreal 0--Scott Niedermayer scored on a penalty shot and set up another goal to lead the Devils past the Canadiens at East Rutherford, N.J.

Goalie Martin Brodeur stopped 24 shots as the Devils won for the fifth time in six games and ended the Canadiens’ three-game winning streak.

Krzysztof Oliwa and Sergei Brylin joined Niedermayer in scoring their first goals of the season and stretching New Jersey’s unbeaten streak at home against Montreal to 10 games (8-0-2).

Toronto 3, Edmonton 2--Goaltender Curtis Joseph made 32 saves at Toronto and was spectacular in the third period in the Maple Leafs’ victory.

The Oilers outshot the Leafs, 20-2, but could score only once in Joseph’s second victory in two games against the Oilers this season.

Daniil Markov, Alyn McCauley and Steve Thomas scored in a 3:40 span of the second period for the Maple Leafs, who broke a three-game winless streak and moved over the .500 mark.

Andrei Kovalenko and Rem Murray had goals for the Oilers, who went 0 for 5 on the power play.

Florida 4, New York 1--Ed Jovanovski and Robert Svehla scored their first goals of the season in the Panthers’ victory at Sunrise, Fla.

Jovanovski broke a 1-1 tie by scoring with 21.4 seconds left in the second period, and Svehla gave the Panthers a two-goal cushion by scoring 3:33 into the third.

Oleg Kvasha and Ray Whitney also scored for Florida.