Devils Turn Their Attention to West

The New Jersey Devils have been beating up on Eastern Conference competition this season. Now they’re starting to take care of teams in the West.

Brian Rolston, Jay Pandolfo and Sergei Brylin all scored in the game’s first 7:28 and New Jersey held off a third-period Dallas rally for a 5-2 victory at Dallas in a meeting of two of the NHL’s elite teams.

The Devils entered the game in first place in the Atlantic Division, but they were 0-2-1 against the Western Conference before Wednesday.

New Jersey scored on three of its first five shots, and starting goalie Ed Belfour was pulled by Dallas Coach Ken Hitchcock after the third goal.

Edmonton 3, Colorado 0--Former Mighty Duck goalie Mikhail Shtalenkov stopped 26 shots for his fourth career shutout as the Oilers won at Edmonton, Canada.

It was Edmonton’s first home victory over Colorado since the Avalanche moved from Quebec--a span of nine regular-season games (0-7-2).

New York Rangers 5, Buffalo 4--Petr Nedved returned to the Rangers in a five-player trade with Pittsburgh, but Dixon Ward and the Sabres spoiled the moment with the victory at Buffalo, N.Y.

Ward had his first career hat trick with two goals in the first period and another in the second.

Toronto 5, Vancouver 1--The Maple Leafs, who are 9-1-1 against the Western Conference since moving to the East this season, got two goals from Frederick Modin and one each from Mike Johnson, Steve Thomas and Dimitri Yushkevich in the game at Toronto.

Vancouver is the only Western Conference team to beat Toronto this season.

New York Islanders 4, Philadelphia 2--Tommy Salo stopped 44 shots as the Islanders snapped the Flyers’ four-game winning streak with the victory at Uniondale, N.Y.

Bryan Berard scored the game-winner at 11:57 of the third period on a power-play goal.

Nashville 4, Calgary 3--Tom Fitzgerald had the game-winner in the third period as the Predators scored three consecutive goals to beat the Flames at Nashville, Tenn.

Washington 5, Pittsburgh 4--Peter Bondra, who earlier reached the 500-point level, scored on a slap shot from the top of the right circle with 3:48 remaining to give the Capitals the victory at Washington.

Bondra had two goals and an assist for 502 career points and Chris Simon had a goal and two assists for the Capitals.

Carolina 3, San Jose 0--Keith Primeau scored two goals and goaltender Trevor Kidd recorded his 14th career shutout in the game at Greensboro, N.C.

Boston 1, Florida 0--Sergei Samsonov scored a power-play goal late in the second period and goaltender Byron Dafoe made 26 saves at Sunrise, Fla., as the Bruins extended their road unbeaten streak to five games at 4-0-1.