Blackhawks Shake Blues

A fluke goal by Chicago defenseman Jon Klemm was the difference as the Blackhawks snapped St. Louis’ franchise-record 10-game winning streak.

Jocelyn Thibault made 25 saves as Chicago defeated St. Louis, 2-1, Friday night at Chicago.

Peter White’s breakaway goal midway through the second period stood up as the game-winner for Chicago, 11-3-1 in its last 15 games.

“Tonight was as tough a hockey game as we’ve played in,” said Blackhawk Coach Brian Sutter, whose team moved four points ahead of the Blues in the Central Division. “We got a lucky bounce tonight.”

As he crossed the red line, Klemm lofted a dump-in toward the corner of the zone. St. Louis defenseman Chris Pronger deflected the puck with a high stick and it slid past goalie Brent Johnson to open the scoring with 4:49 left in the first for a 1-0 lead.

“I wasn’t even aiming the puck at the net,” Klemm said. “I was dumping the puck to the other side. For some reason Pronger put his stick up above his shoulder and it caught Johnson off guard.”

Johnson had 25 saves and saw his 10-game winning streak end.

“That was a bad goal to give up, but it counts,” Johnson said. “By the time I looked, it was just coming down over my pad and dropped down behind me.

“Hopefully, we can get another streak going; they come to an end like that. Chicago played well in their own barn.”

*

Buffalo 4, Tampa Bay 1--Taylor Pyatt scored twice and Martin Biron made 21 saves to lead the Sabres to a victory over the Lightning at Buffalo, N.Y.

Pyatt got the first multi-goal game of his two-year career. Curtis Brown and Maximum Afinogenov also scored for Buffalo and Tim Connolly had two assists.

Tampa Bay, midway through a four-game trip, has lost three of four.

Lightning goalie Nikolai Khabibulin, who began the game with the NHL’s best save percentage, stopped 29 of 33 shots.

*

Carolina 1, Florida 1--Ron Francis scored the 503rd goal of his career in the second period at Raleigh, N.C., as the Hurricanes tied the Panthers in their NHL-leading 19th overtime game.

Carolina, 5-5-9 in overtime, outshot the Panthers, 40-21, in regulation, but couldn’t solve goalie Roberto Luongo.

Sandis Ozolinsh’s goal was the fastest against the Hurricanes this season as he burned his former team on his first shift 25 seconds into the game. It was his first goal in six games since being traded from the Hurricanes to the Panthers on Jan. 16.

*

Detroit 4, Phoenix 1--Steve Yzerman moved into a tie for seventh place on the all-time goal scoring list and also had an assist as the Red Wings won at Detroit.

Yzerman’s goal, his 13th of the season, came with 48 seconds left in the first period, breaking a 1-1 tie.

Yzerman’s goal tied him with Mark Messier of the New York Rangers on the career list. Both have 658 goals.

Manny Legace, making only his 12th start of the season in goal, picked up the victory for the Red Wings, who are 7-1-2 in their last 10 games.

*

Vancouver 6, Toronto 1--Brendan Morrison scored twice and Todd Bertuzzi and Brent Sopel each had a goal and an assist as the Canucks won at Vancouver, Canada.

Ed Jovanovksi and Trevor Letowski also scored for the Canucks, who won their fourth consecutive and improved to .500 (24-24-4-1) for the first time this season.

The Phoenix Coyotes acquired left wing Brian Savage, a third-round draft pick and future considerations from the Montreal Canadiens for left wing Sergei Berezin.

Savage had 14 goals and 15 assists in 47 games with Montreal this season.

In his only season with the Coyotes, Berezin had seven goals and nine assists in 41 games.

*

Also, the Coyotes acquired Andrei Nazarov from the Boston Bruins for a fifth-round pick in the 2002 draft.

Nazarov, 27, better known in Boston for his fists than his scoring touch, had no goals and two assists with 145 penalty minutes in 47 games this season.