Flames' McLennan Shuts Out Bruins 5-0

<br>Jamie McLennan is making the Calgary Flames' goalie tandem look pretty good. Martin Brodeur keeps proving that the New Jersey Devils need only one man in net. McLennan had been stuck on the Flames'

Friday, December 19th 2003, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

Jamie McLennan is making the Calgary Flames' goalie tandem look pretty good. Martin Brodeur keeps proving that the New Jersey Devils need only one man in net. McLennan had been stuck on the Flames' bench for eight games while Miikka Kiprusoff starred for Calgary. When he did get the call Thursday night, he stopped all 30 Boston shots and blanked the host Bruins 5-0.

``I haven't played much lately but it's been real easy not to play because we've been playing well,'' McLennan said. ``When you get in there you want to contribute because you don't want the level of play to drop off.''

Kiprusoff took over the top duties by going 8-2-1 this season with an NHL-leading .937 save percentage.

Brodeur's shutout numbers are even gaudier.

He posted his eighth of the season and 72nd of his career to help the Devils to a 3-0 road victory over the Atlanta Thrashers, who have been shut out in three straight games.

Brodeur could challenge the record for shutouts in a season, set by George Hainsworth who had 22 in the 44-game season of 1928-29. The post-expansion record is 15 set by Tony Esposito in 1969-70, and New Jersey has 52 games remaining.

Brodeur has four in his past seven games, and his career total is the highest by an active goaltender. He's 31 short of Terry Sawchuk's NHL record.

``Is that what it is?'' Brodeur said of his recent streak. ``We've been playing good hockey. A lot of things can happen to prevent you from getting a shutout.''

In other NHL games, it was Carolina 2, Pittsburgh 1 in overtime; Tampa Bay 5, Philadelphia 4 in overtime; Ottawa 6, Chicago 1; Montreal 5, Nashville 4 in overtime; St. Louis 4, San Jose 2; the New York Rangers 4, the New York Islanders 3; Minnesota 1, Edmonton 1; and Phoenix 4, Los Angeles 4.

Jarome Iginla scored two goals to lead Calgary's offense and help the Flames improve to 7-1-2-1 in their last 10. They scored five goals on their first nine shots and moved into a tie with Colorado for second place in the Northwest Division.

``We buried our chances,'' Flames forward Chris Clark said. ``Nine shots and five goals, that's something that doesn't happen too many times for any team.''

The Bruins replaced Andrew Raycroft with Felix Potvin after the second period. Raycroft allowed five goals on 10 shots.

``We didn't give up a lot of scoring chances but the ones we did were too good of quality,'' Boston coach Mike Sullivan said. ``It was one of those nights where the harder we tried the worse it got.''

Rob Skrlac had his first NHL goal, and Colin White and Scott Gomez added goals for New Jersey, which recovered from a tough 5-4 loss to the Islanders on Tuesday.

``We wanted to bounce back from the way we played on Long Island,'' Brodeur said. ``After a shootout like that, it's nice to come back and have a shutout.''

Hurricanes 2, Penguins 1, OT

At Raleigh, N.C., Rod Brind'Amour and Jeff O'Neill broke long scoring droughts when Carolina scored two late goals to beat Pittsburgh in overtime in the Hurricanes coaching debut of Peter Laviolette.

Lightning 5, Flyers 4, OT

At Philadelphia, Martin St. Louis scored the tying goal late in the third period and added the winner 2:03 into overtime to lift Tampa Bay over Philadelphia.

Tampa Bay snapped a four-game losing streak while sending Philadelphia to its third consecutive home loss and stretching the Flyers' winless streak to five.

Canadiens 5, Predators 4, OT

At Montreal, Sheldon Souray scored 35 seconds into overtime for his first career three-goal game, lifting the Canadiens.

Mike Ribeiro had assists on all four of Montreal's man-advantage goals. The Canadiens were 4-for-5 on the power play.

Nashville is winless in five (0-2-1-2) since a franchise-record six-game winning streak.

Blues 4, Sharks 2

At St. Louis, Scott Mellanby scored two goals and Keith Tkachuk had three assists to help the Blues extend their winning streak to six.

The Blues are 7-0-1 in their last eight games, winning four times by one goal and three in overtime.

Rangers 4, Islanders 3

At New York, Mike Dunham turned aside 23 shots and four Rangers scored in a victory over the visiting Islanders.

Petr Nedved, Mark Messier, Matthew Barnaby and Tom Poti scored for the Rangers, who lead the all-time series with the Islanders 85-84-19.

Senators 6, Blackhawks 1

At Ottawa, Marian Hossa scored two goals and set up another to lead the Senators over Chicago.

Martin Havlat had a goal and two assists, and Daniel Alfredsson scored his 200th NHL goal and added an assist. Ottawa got 27 saves from Ray Emery, making his second NHL start.

Mark Bell scored for Chicago, which has won just once in 18 games.

Wild 1, Oilers 1

At Edmonton, Alberta, Brad Isbister scored with 1.9 seconds left in regulation to lift the Oilers into a tie.

Minnesota's Manny Fernandez, who made 30 saves, nearly earned his second shutout over Edmonton this season. It also would have been the Wild's first four-game winning streak.

Former Oilers player Sergei Zholtok scored for the Wild, 4-1-2 in their last seven.

Kings 4, Coyotes 4

At Los Angeles, Ladislav Nagy tied it with 1:10 left in regulation and Shane Doan punctuated his 600th NHL game with a short-handed goal to help Phoenix overcome a three-goal deficit.

Jan Hrdina and Jeff Taffe scored power-play goals for the Coyotes, who tied a game in the final two minutes of regulation for the fifth time this season.

Kings captain Mattias Norstrom scored with 4:54 remaining in regulation to end a 113-game scoring drought.