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Firing Burns Typical Move In Pro Sports

From Wire Reports

NHL

It may not have made as big an impact in the United States as Don Nelson’s firing by the Knicks, but in Canada the torching of Toronto Maple Leafs coach Pat Burns was huge news. Burns, who had four successful years as coach of the Montreal Canadiens before taking the Leafs to the conference finals in each of his first two years, was a victim of the reality that it’s easier to fire the coach than a whole team.

“Toronto had already made a lot of changes,” noted Blackhawks defenseman Chris Chelios, who played for Burns in Montreal, “and when things go wrong, you’ve either got to send players out or change coaches. I’m sure he won’t have a problem getting a job anywhere else. He’s well-respected around the league and he is a good coach.”

Leafs president Cliff Fletcher summoned Burns to his hotel room Monday morning in Denver after Toronto’s eighth straight loss and delivered the news, but it was withheld from the Toronto media for nearly 24 hours.

Word finally leaked after Burns wrote a farewell message to his players on the bulletin board in the locker room at Maple Leaf Gardens. Fletcher has said all along that the current team is the most talented he has yet assembled in Toronto, but the players had not played to that level.

Meanwhile, Terry Crisp of the Tampa Bay Lightning and Marc Crawford of the Colorado Avalanche are the two leading candidates to replace Nick Beverley, who was named the interim coach for the balance of the season.

Bruins 3, Flyers 2 Boston

Don Sweeney scored his fourth goal of the season with 2:38 left Saturday, giving Boston a come-from-behind victory over Philadelphia.

Sweeney took a drop pass from Sandy Moger and drove the puck past Garth Snow. The Bruins moved within a point of Montreal for the eighth and final playoff spot in the NHL’s Eastern Conference.

Philadelphia 1 1 0 - 2 Boston 0 1 2 - 3

First period-1, Philadelphia, LeClair 33 (Lindros), 1:24. Second period-2, Philadelphia, Falloon 20 (Lindros, Svoboda), 5:44. 3, Boston, Chynoweth 2 (T.Sweeney, Ranford), 19:00. Third period-4, Boston, Elik 10 (Bourque, Donato), 4:55 (pp). 5, Boston, D. Sweeney 4 (Moger), 17:22.

Shots on goal-Philadelphia 8-13-16-37. Boston 9-10-14-33.Power-play opp.-Philadelphia 0 of 5; Boston 1 of 7.Goalies-Philadelphia, Snow 8-7-4 (33 shots-30 saves). Boston, Ranford 23-27-7 (37-35).A-17,565 (17,565).

Rangers 6, Capitals 1 Landover, Md.

Alexei Kovalev scored two of New York’s five power-play goals as the Rangers ended a season-high five-game winless streak by beating Washington.

Mark Messier added a goal and two assists for the Rangers, who were 0-3-2 in their previous five games.

NY Rangers 2 2 2 - 6 Washington 0 0 1 - 1

First period-1, New York, Kovalev 17 (Graves, Messier), 12:48 (pp). 2, New York, Karpovtsev 2 (Leetch, Robitaille), 15:03 (pp). Second period-3, New York, Messier 43 (Kovalev, Karpovtsev), :57 (pp). 4, New York, Kovalev 18 (Robitaille, Leetch), 8:37 (pp). Third period-5, New York, Lacroix 1 (Messier), 4:57. 6, Washington, Berube 2 (Pivonka, Konowalchuk), 7:28 (pp). 7, New York, Gernander 1 (Momesso, Lidster), 16:33 (pp).

Shots on goal-New York 5-9-5-19. Washington 7-5-13-25.Power-play opp.-New York 5 of 8; Washington 1 of 8.Goalies-New York, Healy 17-10-10 (25 shots-24 saves). Washington, Kolzig 4-8-2 (19-13).A-18,130 (17,181).

Devils 4, Pengins 3 (OT) Pittsburgh

Steve Thomas scored his second goal of the game 21 seconds into overtime as New Jersey extended its unbeaten streak to seven games by beating Pittsburgh.

Pittsburgh’s eight-game home winning streak ended as the Devils improved to 5-0-2 in the last seven games. New Jersey is 5-0-10 in overtime this year.

New Jersey 2 1 0 1 - 4 Pittsburgh 2 1 0 0 - 3

First Period-1, Pittsburgh, Nedved 36 (Francis, Jagr), 1:21 (pp). 2, Pittsburgh, Lemieux 55 (Francis, Mironov), 6:19. 3, New Jersey, Thomas 21 (Sykora, Guerin), 7:34. 4, New Jersey, MacLean 18 (Chambers, Sullivan), 16:13 (pp).

Second Period-5, Pittsburgh, Smolinski 22 (Lemieux, Jagr), 3:04. 6, New Jersey, Guerin 19, 12:21.

Third Period-None.

Overtime-7, New Jersey, Thomas 22 (Brylin, Niedermayer), :21.

Shots on goal-New Jersey 15-17-6-2-40. Pittsburgh 9-8-3-0-20.Power-play opp.-New Jersey 1 of 7; Pittsburgh 1 of 5.Goalies-New Jersey, Brodeur 27-22-10 (20 shots-17 saves). Pittsburgh, Barrasso 23-11-2 (40-36).A-17,253 (17,181).

Islanders 4, Jets 2 Winnipeg, Alberta

Ex-Spokane Chief Bryan McCabe scored the go-ahead goal in the second period as New York rallied to beat Winnipeg.

Derek Armstrong, Zigmund Palffy and Alexander Semak also scored for the Islanders, who are 12th in the Eastern Conference. Keith Tkachuk and Dallas Drake scored for Winnipeg, which was missing Alexei Zhamnov and Eddie Olczyk, two-thirds of its top line.

NY Islanders 0 3 1 - 4 Winnipeg 1 1 0 - 2

First period-1, Winnipeg, Tkachuk 41 (Tverdovsky, Turcotte), 1:54 (pp). Second period-2, New York, Armstrong 1 (Severyn), 6:06. 3, Winnipeg, Drake 10 (Korolev, Eastwood), 9:42. 4, New York, Palffy 35 (Clark, Schneider), 11:52 (pp). 5, New York, McCabe 3 (Armstrong, Luongo), 18:43 (pp). Third period-6, New York, Semak 19, 8:59.

Shots on goal-New York 10-15-8-33. Winnipeg 16-8-16-40.Power-play opp.-New York 2 of 5; Winnipeg 1 of 7.Goalies-New York, Fichaud, 6-4-0 (40 shots-38 saves). Winnipeg, Khabibulin, 20-14-1 (33-29).A-12,647. (17,181).

Maple Leafs 4, Flames 3 Toronto

Toronto stopped a 10-game winless streak, its longest slide in five years, by beating Calgary behind three goals from Kirk Muller.

Calgary 2 0 1 - 3 Toronto 2 1 1 - 4

First period-1, Toronto Muller 10 (Sundin, Jonsson), 6:37. 2, Toronto Muller 11 (Andreychuk, Ellett), 11:00 (pp). 3, Calgary Evason 7 (Kruse, McCarthy), 16:12. 4, Calgary Titov 22 (Sullivan), 17:10 (sh). Second period-5, Toronto, Gartner 29 (Sundin, Jonsson), 15:45 (pp). Third period-6, Toronto, Muller 12 (Sundin, Gartner), 3:55 (pp). 7, Calgary, Titov 23 (Roberts, Patrick), 15:07.

Shots on goal-Calgary 11-14-15-40. Toronto 11-9-17-37.Power-play opp.-Calgary 0 of 4; Toronto 3 of 6.Goalies-Calgary, Tabaracci 15-11-3 (37 shots-33 saves), Kidd (17:56 third, 0-0), Tabarraci (18:07 third). Toronto, Potvin 22-22-10 (40-37).A-15,746 (17,181).

Canadiens 3, Senators 2 Montreal

Vladimir Malakhov scored one goal and set up another as Montreal beat Ottawa, the Senators’ sixth straight loss.

Ottawa 0 0 2 - 2 Montreal 1 0 2 - 3

First period-1, Montreal, Rucinsky 27 (Malakhov, Damphousse), 11:04 (pp). Second period-None. Third period-2, Montreal, Malakhov 5 (Quintal, Koivu), 5:19 (pp). 3, Montreal, Turgeon 31 (Rucinsky, Damphousse), 7:53 (pp). 4, Ottawa, Bonk 11 (Chorske, Elyniuk), 9:20. 5, Otawa, Duchesne 9 (Bonk, Alfredsson), 13:36 (pp).

Shots on goal-Ottawa 2-5-6-13. Montreal 8-15-13-36.Power-play opp.-Ottawa 1 of 7; Montreal 3 of 8.Goalies-Ottawa, Rhodes 4-15-2 (36 shots-33 saves). Montreal, Thibault 18-13-3 (13-11).A-17,959 (17,181).

Avalanche 7, Canucks 5 Vancouver, British Columbia

Peter Forsberg assisted on four goals and Colorado withstood a hat trick by Trevor Linden to defeat Vancouver.

Colorado 2 2 3 - 7 Vancouver 0 3 2 - 5

First period-1, Colorado, Yelle 6 (Rychel, Wolanin), 8:09. 2, Colorado, Lemieux 32 (Forsberg, Sakic), 17:17 (pp). Second period-3, Colorado, Ozolinsh 11 (Forsberg, Deadmarsh), 1:57. 4, Vancouver, Linden 27 (Tikkanen, Mogilny), 5:54 (pp). 5, Vancouver, Linden 28 (Murzyn, Gelinas), 6:27. 6, Vancouver, Linden 29 (Mogilny, Hedican), 10:48. 7, Colorado, Wolanin 7 (Kamensky, Forsberg), 13:39. Third period-8, Colorado, Simon 11 (Ricci, Ozolinsh), 2:12. 9, Vancouver, Gelinas 26 (Linden, Lumme), 3:14 (sh). 10, Colorado, Kamensky 31 (Klemm), 4:17 (pp). 11, Colorado, Lemieux 33 (Forsberg), 15:09 (pp). 12, Vancouver, Ronning 19, 16:40.

Shots on goal-Colorado 12-11-9-32. Vancouver 9-19-11-39.Power-play opp.-Colorado 3 of 5; Vancouver 1 of 6.Goalies-Colorado, Fiset 20-5-7 (39 shots-34 saves), Vancouver, McLean 13-15-9 (32-25).A-18,422 (17,181).

Rangers 6, Capitals 1 Landover, Md.

Alexei Kovalev scored two of New York’s five power-play goals as the Rangers ended a season-high five-game winless streak by beating Washington.

NY Rangers 2 2 2 - 6 Washington 0 0 1 - 1

First period-1, New York, Kovalev 17 (Graves, Messier), 12:48 (pp). 2, New York, Karpovtsev 2 (Leetch, Robitaille), 15:03 (pp). Second period-3, New York, Messier 43 (Kovalev, Karpovtsev), :57 (pp). 4, New York, Kovalev 18 (Robitaille, Leetch), 8:37 (pp). Third period-5, New York, Lacroix 1 (Messier), 4:57. 6, Washington, Berube 2 (Pivonka, Konowalchuk), 7:28 (pp). 7, New York, Gernander 1 (Momesso, Lidster), 16:33 (pp).

Shots on goal-New York 5-9-5-19. Washington 7-5-13-25.Power-play opp.-New York 5 of 8; Washington 1 of 8.Goalies-New York, Healy 17-10-10 (25 shots-24 saves). Washington, Kolzig 4-8-2 (19-13).A-18,130 (17,181).