Thomas Leads N.J. To Victory

Steve Thomas continued to do his best to make New Jersey fans forget playoff MVP Claude Lemieux by scoring twice to lead the host New Jersey Devils to a 4-1 victory over the Winnipeg Jets on Thursday night.

Denis Pederson scored his first NHL goal in his first game and Martin Brodeur stopped 29 shots as the Stanley Cup champions won for the second time in as many games.

Mike Eastwood scored for the Jets, who played most of the game without center Alexei Zhamnov, who sprained his right knee in a collision with Devils defenseman Scott Stevens 1:35 into the contest.

New Jersey dominated most of the opening two periods, outshooting the Jets 29-13 in opening a 3-0 lead.

Thomas, who was acquired just before the season in a trade for the disgruntled Lemieux, put New Jersey ahead 2:29 into the game, knocking the rebound of a Stephane Richer shot past Jets goalie Tim Cheveldae.

Pederson, who was called up from Albany on Monday because of an injury to Bobby Holik, took a pass from Mike Peluso and beat Cheveldae from between the circles at 12:12.

Devils 4, Jets 1

Winnipeg 0 1 0 - 1

New Jersey 2 1 1 - 4

First period-1, New Jersey, Thomas 1 (Richer, Dowd), 2:29. 2, New Jersey, Pederson 1 (Peluso), 12:12.

Second period-3, New Jersey, Thomas 2 (Albelin, MacLean), 9:59 (pp). 4, Winnipeg, Eastwood 2 (Drake, Darren Shannon), 17:16.

Third period-5, New Jersey, Smith 1, 19:22 (en).

Shots on goal-Winnipeg 3-10-17-30. New Jersey 12-17-5-34.Power-play opp.-Winnipeg 0 of 5; New Jersey 1 of 6.Goalies-Winnipeg, Cheveldae 0-2-0 (33 shots-30 saves). New Jersey, Brodeur 2-0-0 (30-29).A-10,392 (19,040).

Blackhawks 5, Penguins 1

Chicago

Jeff Shantz scored shorthanded and Patrick Poulin had two goals as Chicago won its home opener over Pittsburgh.

Gary Suter and Bernie Nicholls also scored for the Blackhawks, who got 28 saves from Ed Belfour.

Lemieux ruined Belfour’s shutout bid by scoring shorthanded with 8:11 remaining, tying Jean Beliveau for 20th place on the NHL’s all-time points list, but otherwise struggled. Lemieux nevertheless has eight points in three games after missing most of the last two seasons with a back injury.

Pittsburgh 0 0 1 - 1

Chicago 2 1 2 - 5

First period-1, Chicago, Shantz 1 (Chelios), 5:28 (sh). 2, Chicago, Suter 2 (Nicholls, Amonte), 11:35 (pp).

Second period-3, Chicago, Nicholls 1 (Krivokrasov, Murphy), 13:46.

Third period-4, Chicago, Poulin 1 (Roenick, Amonte), 6:41. 5, Pittsburgh, Lemieux 3 (Sandstrom, Mironov), 11:49 (sh). 6, Chicago, Poulin 2 (Shantz), 19:34.

Shots on goal-Pittsburgh 9-8-12-29. Chicago 14-8-8-30.Power-play opp.-Pittsburgh 0 of 5; Chicago 1 of 5.Goalies-Pittsburgh, Barrasso 1-1-0 (30 shots-25 saves), Chicago, Belfour 2-0-0 (29-28).A-21,359 (20,500).

Blues 3, Stars 1

Dallas

Grant Fuhr turned aside 35 shots to record his 292nd career victory and Brian Noonan snapped a 1-1 tie with a second-period power-play goal as St. Louis continued its domination of Dallas.

The Blues were outshot 36-19 but they beat Stars goalie Andy Moog three times on their first 13 shots en route to their 13th victory in 16 meetings with the Stars.

Meanwhile, St. Louis got strong goaltending from the 32-year-old Fuhr, who allowed seven goals in two periods last season in his previous visit to Reunion Arena while a member of the Los Angeles Kings.

Only Moog has more career victories than Fuhr among active goaltenders with 313. Fuhr and Moog were the goaltenders on the Edmonton Oilers’ Stanley Cup championship teams in 1984, ‘85 and ‘87. The Blues signed Fuhr as a free agent in the off-season.

St. Louis 1 2 0 - 3

Dallas 1 0 0 - 1

First period-1, Dallas, Modano 2, 2:55 (sh). 2, St. Louis, Chasse 1 (Laperriere, Gilbert), 6:57.

Second period-3, St. Louis, Noonan 1 (Creighton, Courtnall), 4:23 (pp). 4, St. Louis, Pronger 1 (Hull), 12:57 (sh).

Third period-None.

Shots on goal-St. Louis 7-8-4-19. Dallas 12-15-9-36.Power-play opp.-St. Louis 1 of 11; Dallas 0 of 9.Goalies-St. Louis, Fuhr 2-1-0 (36 shots-35 saves). Dallas, Moog 0-2-0 (19-16).A-13,491 (16,924).

Lightning 3, Canadiens 1

St. Petersburg, Fla.

Petr Klima scored twice as Tampa Bay continued its home-ice domination of Montreal.

The victory improved the Lightning’s home record against Montreal to 5-0-1 in their four-year history. They also hold a 6-3-1 overall series advantage.

Trying to snap back from embarrassing 7-1 and 6-1 losses to start the season, Montreal outshot Tampa Bay 17-11 in the first period.

Montreal 1 0 0 - 1

Tampa Bay 1 2 0 - 3

First period-1, Tampa Bay, Klima 2 (Bradley), 4:38 (pp). 2, Montreal, Savage 2 (Turgeon, Quintal), 10:48 (pp).

Second period-3, Tampa Bay, Klima 3 (Gratton, Hamrlik), 10:13. 4, Tampa Bay, Cullen 1 (Selivanov, Cross), 18:45.

Third period-None.

Shots on goal-Montreal 17-9-9-35. Tampa Bay 11-13-6-30.Power-play opp.-Montreal 1 of 10; Tampa Bay 1 of 9.Goalies-Montreal, Roy 0-3-0 (30 shots-27 saves). Tampa Bay, Puppa 1-0-1 (35-34).A-15,139 (28,000).

Bruins 6, Sharks 6

San Jose, Calif.

Adam Oates had two goals and two assists as Boston maintained its perfect record against San Jose with a tie.

Steve Heinze added two goals for the Bruins, who have a 5-0-2 record against the Sharks. Dave Reid scored the night’s final goal, tying the game for Boston with 8:53 left in the third period.

Craig Janney had a goal and three assists to tie a San Jose record for points in a game. Shawn McEachern had a career-high four points for Boston with a goal and three assists.

Boston 2 1 3 0 - 6

San Jose 3 2 1 0 - 6

First Period-1, San Jose, Janney 1 (Whitney), 1:21. 2, Boston, Hienze 1 (Reid, Oates), 2:42. 3, Boston, Oates 1 (McEachern, Sweeney), 4:49 (pp). 4, San Jose, Baker 1, 8:01 (sh). 5, San Jose, Donovan 2 (Whitney, Janney), 15:36.

Second Period-6, Boston, Heinze 2 (McEachern), 6:50. 7, San Jose, Dahlen 1, 8:38. 8, San Jose, Donovan 3 (More, Janney), 12:08.

Third Period-9, Boston, Oates 2 (Borque, McEachern), :28. 10, San Jose, Ragnarsson 2 (Janney), 1:17. 11, Boston, McEachern 2 (Oates, Neely), 3:00. 12, Boston, Reid 2 (Donato, Leach), 11:07.

Overtime-None.

Shots on goal-Boston 11-10-15-1-37. San Jose 9-8-7-1-25. Power-play Opportunities-Boston 1 of 6; San Jose 0 of 2. Goalies-Boston, Lacker,1-0-2 (25 shots-19 saves). San Jose, Irbe, 0-1-1 (37-31).A-17,190 (17,190).

Kings 7, Canucks 7

Inglewood, Calif.

Vitali Yachmenev scored twice and Wayne Gretzky had a goal and three assists as Los Angeles skated to a tie with Vancouver.

The Kings rebounded from a four-goal deficit with six consecutive goals over the final two periods to take a 7-5 lead.

But they blew the lead on a critical holding penalty against Sean O’Donnell at 17:13 of the third period. That gave Vancouver its fifth power-play opportunity of the game and Russ Courtnall scored 12 seconds later to tie it up.

Vancouver 3 2 2 0 - 7

Los Angeles 1 3 3 0 - 7

First Period-1, Vancouver, Mogilny 1, 2:01. 2, Los Angeles, Gretzky 1 (Blake, Yachmenev), 4:52 (pp). 3, Vancouver, Bure 1 (Hedican, Ridley), 7:22. 4, Vancouver, Bure 2 (Courtnall), 16:26 (sh).

Second Period-5, Vancouver, Linden 2 (Mogilny, Babych), 1:51. 6, Vancouver, Babych 1 (Lumme, Linden), 5:23 (pp). 7, Los Angeles, Blake 1 (Druce, Granato), 15:23. 8, Los Angeles Yachmenev 3, (Gretzky, Khristich), 19:22. 9, Los Angeles, McSorley 2 (Gretzky, Khristich), 19:37.

Third Period-10, Los Angeles, Tocchet 2 (Perreault, Tsygurov), 3:10. 11, Los Angeles, Yachmenev 4 (Gretzky, Khristich), 5:05. 12, Los Angeles, Tocchet 3 (Kurri), 12:21. 13, Vancouver, Oksiuta 1 (Linden, Mogilny), 16:40. 14, Vancouver, Courtnall 2 (Brown, Mogilny), 17:25 (pp).

Overtime-None.

Shots on goal-Vancouver 16-14-11-5-46. Los Angeles 18-17-12-2-49. Power-play Opportunities-Vancouver 2 of 5; Los Angeles 1 of 7. Goalies-Vancouver, McLean 0-1-1 (49 shots-42 saves). Los Angeles, Storr (18-14), Dafoe 2-0-1 (1:51 second, 28-25). A-13,486 (16,005).