Shanahan Points the Way for Detroit

Brendan Shanahan’s first goal Saturday at Detroit gave him 1,000 career points. His next goal and assist helped give the Red Wings their fifth consecutive victory.

Shanahan scored twice in the first period, and the Red Wings defeated the Dallas Stars, 5-2.

Detroit leads the league with 69 points.

“It’s humbling to be in the room with the players and the coaches we have,” Shanahan said. “It’s a nice feeling. More important, we got the win.”

Detroit improved to 21-4-2 at home this season.

Dominik Hasek made 16 saves for the Red Wings, Marty Turco 30 for Dallas.

Mike Modano’s second goal of the game, with about seven minutes to play in the second period, pulled the Stars within 4-2. But Dallas couldn’t put the puck past Hasek in the final period.

Igor Larionov’s empty-net goal capped the scoring.

“We know they’re a great team, so you’ve got to make sure you come to play well,” Detroit’s Luc Robitaille said. “We weren’t happy with our start the last game. We wanted to make sure we had a better start tonight.”

St. Louis 4, Pittsburgh 1--Scott Mellanby scored two goals at Pittsburgh to spoil Mario Lemieux’s first game in nearly two months.

Cory Stillman and Keith Tkachuk scored less than two minutes apart in the third period and the Blues weathered an early Pittsburgh flurry.

Lemieux went scoreless in his first game since Nov. 14 following a season-long problem with a hip, but couldn’t help the slumping Penguins sustain a dominating first period in which they led, 1-0.

The Blues won their fifth in a row.

Buffalo 2, New Jersey 1--Martin Biron made 28 saves and Miroslav Satan and Chris Gratton scored at Buffalo.

Gratton’s goal with 40 seconds left in the second period, on a slap shot from the right boards that sailed over the left shoulder of goalie Martin Brodeur, proved the winner.

The shot was the Sabres’ first of the period.

Gratton’s goal came 1:13 after Bruce Gardner scored his first goal as a Devil.

New York Islanders 5, Boston 4--Mariusz Czerkawski had two goals and an assist, and Alexei Yashin had four assists for the Islanders at Boston.

Dave Scatchard, Mats Lindgren and Oleg Kvasha scored for the Islanders, who had a 4-1 lead in the first period and held on for their fourth victory in the last 10 games.

Bill Guerin, Sergei Samsonov, Rob Zamuner and Martin Lapointe scored for Boston.

Toronto 1, Montreal 1--Mats Sundin scored midway through the second period, giving the Maple Leafs the tie at Toronto.

Marcel Hossa scored and Jose Theodore made 38 saves for the Canadiens, who haven’t won consecutive games since winning five in a row in mid-November.

Curtis Joseph stopped 28 shots for the Maple Leafs, who have only one loss in their last seven games.

Columbus 5, Chicago 4--Mike Sillinger had two goals and an assist for the Blue Jackets at Columbus, Ohio.

Deron Quint, Rostislav Klesla and Grant Marshall scored for Columbus, which matched its season high for goals in a game.

Ray Whitney had three assists and Espen Knutsen two.

Eric Daze had a goal and two assists, Tony Amonte a goal and an assist and Michael Nylander had two assists for the Blackhawks.

Ottawa 2, Tampa Bay 1--Ottawa’s Jani Hurme stopped Martin St. Louis’ penalty shot with 5.3 seconds left to preserve the victory at Tampa, Fla.

The penalty shot was awarded after Hurme knocked the net off its moorings.

Hurme made 33 saves and Ottawa beat the Lightning for the seventh consecutive time. He is 6-0-0 with two shutouts in his career against Tampa Bay.

Radek Bonk scored the go-ahead goal on a power play in the second period.

Washington 1, Florida 0--Jeff Halpern scored in the first-period at Sunrise, Fla., and Ollie Kolzig made 25 saves for his second shutout this season.

The Panthers lost their third in a row.

Halpern scored his fifth goal this season at 2:18 of the period.

Alone in front of the net, he swatted in a short pass from Chris Simon, who stripped the puck away from defenseman Robert Svehla just to the left of goaltender Roberto Luongo.

Luongo made 34 saves.

Colorado 2, Edmonton 2--Patrick Roy made 32 saves and Colorado rallied from a two-goal deficit to tie the Oilers at Edmonton, Canada.

Edmonton maintained its one-point lead over second-place Colorado in the Northwest Division.

Milan Hejduk tied the score 39 seconds into the third period. Ville Nieminen also scored for the Avalanche.

Mike Comrie and Georges Laraque scored for the Oilers.

Vancouver 7, Carolina 1--Trevor Letowski had a goal and two assists, and seven players scored for the Canucks at Vancouver, Canada.

Vancouver scored one short-handed goal and three power-play goals in winning for the fifth time in eight games.