Red Wings smother Avalanche

Shanahan joined an illustrious group of players

Click here for Saturday's NHL results

Brendan Shanahan scored his 500th career goal as the Detroit Red Wings beat the Colorado Avalanche 2-0.

Detroit's Shanahan opened the scoring in the third period which turned ugly soon after.

Colorado netminder Patrick Roy and Detroit's Kirk Maltby scuffled before Roy's counterpart, Dominik Hasek, skated end-to-end to join the fray.

Brett Hull provided the insurance goal with a slap shot past Roy with 6:57 left in the third period.

Colorado remained just three points ahead of San Jose in the battle for the second seed in the Western Conference.

Shanahan became the fourth member of the Red Wings with 500 goals, joining Hull, Steve Yzmerman and Luc Robitaille.

"It's certainly an honour to be with those guys," Shanahan said.

"I'm glad it wasn't a cheap goal. It was against a big rival and ended up being the winner.

"It was a big game and it makes it more meaningful."

In Columbus, Ohio, Washington Capitals won 5-2 over the Columbus Blue Jackets.

Ulf Dahlen scored twice and Olaf Kolzig stopped 27 shots for the visitors.

The Boston Bruins, meanwhile, won for the fourth straight game with a 3-1 victory over the Florida Panthers.

The victory moved the Bruins back into sole possession of first place in the East.

In Los Angeles, the Kings moved into first place in the Pacific Division with a 3-0 win over the San Jose Sharks.

The Nashville Predators beat the Montreal Canadiens 5-1 in Tennessee.

In East Rutherford, New Jersey, the Carolina Hurricanes won 4-2 over the New Jersey Devils.

Mark Parrish scored with 4:08 remaining to give the New York Islanders a 2-1 victory over the Minnesota Wild.

The Islanders moved two points ahead of seventh-place New Jersey in the Eastern Conference.

In Ottawa, Dany Heatley scored 1:41 into overtime and Frederic Cassivi made 50 saves as the Atlanta Thrashers triumphed 3-2 over the Ottawa Senators.

In Pittsburgh, Alexei Kovalev scored twice in the third period as the Pittsburgh Penguins rallied for a 4-4 tie with the Philadelphia Flyers to marginally improve their fading play-off hopes.

In danger of missing the post-season for the first time since 1990, the Penguins were outplayed for most of the first two periods and trailed 3-1.

But Kurt Manderville and Kovalev scored in the first minute of the final period to tie the game.

In Toronto, the Maple Leafs dealt the Buffalo Sabres' play-off hopes a blow with a 2-0 victory.

Alexander Mogilny added an insurance goal early in the third for the Leafs, who pulled within one point of first-placed Boston in the Northeast Division.

In Edmonton, the Edmonton Oilers scored three times in the opening period to ease past the Calgary Flames by a 3-1 margin.

---

Saturday's NHL results:

New Jersey 2-4 Carolina
NY Islanders 2-1 Minnesota
Pittsburgh 4-4 Philadelphia
Colorado 0-2 Detroit
Los Angeles 3-0 San Jose
Columbus 2-5 Washington
Nashville 5-1 Montreal
Ottawa 2-3 Atlanta
Toronto 2-0 Buffalo
Florida 1-3 Boston
Edmonton 3-1 Calgary

Back to top