Belfour catches Esposito on shutout list; DiPietro beats Leafs

Hockey Betting Lines

02/14/2007 -

If Rick DiPietro accomplishes all that Ed Belfour has, the 15-year deal the New York Islanders made with their young goalie could turn out to be a bargain.

DiPietro turned in another strong performance Tuesday, making 39 saves in the Islanders' 3-2 shootout victory at Toronto. He did it on the same night Belfour tied Hall of Famer Tony Esposito for eighth place on the career shutout list with No. 76 in the Florida Panthers' 1-0 blanking of the Montreal Canadiens.

It took until the 37th game of the 41-year-old Belfour's 19th season to post his first shutout. This one came in Montreal, where Esposito started his career before becoming a star with the Chicago Blackhawks.

``It's definitely an honor to be tied with Tony, one of my heroes,'' said Belfour, who began his career with Chicago in 1988, four years after Esposito retired.

Belfour is in his first year with Florida after stints with Chicago, San Jose, Dallas and Toronto. He has 15 wins and a goals-against average well under 3.00. The Manitoba native shows no signs of slowing down.

It was his first shutout in 86 games, dating to an April 3, 2004 win at Ottawa while playing for the Toronto Maple Leafs.

``This guy's unbelievable as far as taking care of his body, as far as stretching and understanding his body and knowing what he has to do,'' Panthers coach Jacques Martin said. ``It's nice to see him get some results.''

In other NHL games, it was Boston 3, Edmonton 0; Carolina 2, Los Angeles 1; Tampa Bay 5, Phoenix 3; San Jose 6, St. Louis 5; Colorado 2, Anaheim 0; and Calgary 4, Atlanta 1.

Belfour made a sprawling pad save on Steve Begin midway through the third period and survived a late flurry to make defenseman Jay Bouwmeester's late second-period goal stand up.

Cristobal Huet made 24 saves for the Canadiens, who lost their fourth in a row, but couldn't match Belfour. Montreal is 8-15-1 since its season-high, five-game winning streak, and lost to Florida for the third time in four games.

``It's like walking in quicksand. You take one step forward and three steps back,'' Canadiens coach Guy Carbonneau said. ``You have to work twice as hard to get somewhere. It seems like that's what we're doing right now.''

DiPietro and the Islanders are enjoying some better times.

The 25-year-old netminder, in the first season of his landmark 15-year, $67.5 million deal, anchored the defense, and Viktor Kozlov and Frans Nielsen scored in the shootout to lift the Islanders over the Maple Leafs .

DiPietro stopped 16 shots in the third period while his teammates mustered only one shot on goalie Andrew Raycroft. The game was scoreless between the second period and the tiebreaker, when DiPietro denied Alexei Ponikarovsky and Nik Antropov in the shootout.

That was enough to give the Islanders their first win in Toronto in 12 games (1-10-1) and lift them into a tie with the Maple Leafs for ninth place in the East - two points behind Montreal and the cutoff line in the Eastern Conference playoff race.

``I don't think we've won here in five years, and these points are so important,'' DiPietro said. ``It's a tough race. Toronto is in the same boat as we are. We're trying to fight our way up. There's a lot of teams in front of us.''

Trent Hunter and Miroslav Satan scored in regulation for the Islanders.

Pavel Kubina and Bates Battaglia scored for the Maple Leafs, 11-13-4 at home this season. Only Philadelphia, the NHL's worst team, has fewer home victories with five.

``We had good enough chances to win the hockey game, but Rick made some great saves. Give him credit,'' Toronto captain Mats Sundin said. ``He played a really great game.''Hurricanes 2, Kings 1

At Raleigh, N.C., Scott Walker scored the go-ahead goal in the second period to lead host Carolina past Los Angeles.

Ray Whitney also scored for the Hurricanes, who had lost five of seven. David Tanabe added two assists, and Cam Ward made 21 saves.

Alexander Frolov scored for the Kings, who have lost 13 of 16.Bruins 3, Oilers 0

At Boston, Brandon Bochenski and Marco Sturm scored power-play goals 62 seconds apart in the first period and Tim Thomas stopped 32 shots for the Bruins.

Patrice Bergeron assisted on the first two goals, then left the game in the third period with an unspecified lower body injury. Sturm added an empty-netter with 2:12 left, with an assist from Bochenski.Lightning 5, Coyotes 3

At Tampa, Fla., Vincent Lecavalier had two goals and an assist, and Brad Richards scored a tiebreaking power-play goal early in the third period for the Lightning. Lecavalier has a career-high 37 goals this season.

Richards put the Lightning ahead 4-3 with his 20th goal of the season, reaching the mark in five of his six NHL seasons.

Martin St. Louis had a goal and two assists for the Lightning, who have won 13 of 16. Eric Perrin snapped a 27-game goal-scoring drought.

Michael Zigomanis, Oleg Saprykin and Derek Morris scored for the Coyotes, 4-10 in their past 14 games.Sharks 6, Blues 5

At St. Louis, Joe Thornton and Jonathan Cheechoo each had a goal and three assists to lead the Sharks.

Mike Grier and Patrick Marleau both had a goal and an assist for San Jose, which has won the first two games of its season-high eight-game road trip. Ryane Clowe and Matt Carle also scored for the Sharks.

Bill Guerin had his seventh NHL hat trick for St. Louis and first since March 6, 2003, to reach 25 goals this season.

The Sharks led 5-1 and carried a 6-3 advantage into the third period before holding off the Blues.Avalanche 2, Ducks 0

At Denver, Peter Budaj stopped 39 shots in posting his second shutout of the season and Milan Hejduk had a goal and an assist for Colorado.

Anaheim, which came into the game with the second-best mark in the Western Conference, has lost three straight. The Ducks haven't scored in two contests, a span of 139 minutes, 16 seconds.

Paul Stastny added a goal for the Avalanche, who won for the second time in six games.Flames 4, Thrashers 1

At Calgary, Alberta, Daymond Langkow scored twice and Jarome Iginla added a goal and two assists. Alex Tanguay also scored for Calgary, which moved into first place in the Northwest Division.

Denis Hamel, claimed off waivers from Ottawa on Saturday, scored for Atlanta.

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