Coyotes' Joseph Moves Up NHL Wins List

Curtis Joseph is humbled by his place in NHL history. The Coyotes' goalie earned his 49th shutout and 438th victory with a 2-0 win over Carolina on Thursday night. <br/><br/>Joseph passed Hall of Famer

Friday, January 5th 2007, 6:21 am

By: News On 6

Curtis Joseph is humbled by his place in NHL history. The Coyotes' goalie earned his 49th shutout and 438th victory with a 2-0 win over Carolina on Thursday night.

Joseph passed Hall of Famer Jacques Plante for sole possession of fifth place on the NHL's career wins list, and followed his shutout over San Jose last week with another perfect performance.

``They are inventors and the greatest legends of the game, so if I can creep into the same company somehow, I'm very honored,'' Joseph said.

Next up for CuJo: Terry Sawchuk, who's fourth with 447 wins.

``With Curtis being fresh, he's playing better now than he did even last year,'' Gretzky said. ``Last year, he was good at times. This year, right now, he's much more solid, much more in a zone.''

Joseph made 29 saves and Yanic Perreault and Ed Jovanovski each scored to lead the Coyotes to their season-best fourth straight win.

``As long as the puck's staying out, that's good news,'' Joseph said. ``There's a renewed optimism among this club, for sure. ... Guys blocking shots, a little bit of a swagger, and you need to have that. We're winning games on the road, we're winning close games and we weren't doing that earlier in the year.''

In other NHL games, it was: San Jose 9, Detroit 4; the New York Rangers 3, Philadelphia 2; Washington 5, Montreal 1; Toronto 10, Boston 2; New Jersey 4, the New York Islanders 3; St. Louis 2, Chicago 0; Tampa Bay 3, Minnesota 2; Dallas 6, Edmonton 5 in a shootout; and Calgary 5, Florida 4 in overtime.

Cam Ward stopped 26 shots for the Hurricanes, who were blanked for the sixth time this season and were booed by the RBC Center crowd when they couldn't manage a shot on goal during a third-period power play. Carolina has been held scoreless in consecutive games for the first time since November 2003.

``They had a step on us, and they shouldn't,'' Hurricanes right wing Justin Williams said. ``We have a puck-chasing, offensive-minded team, and no one should have the upper hand or a step up on us. There are no words to describe the disappointment we feel right now. We're a much better team than we're showing.''

The defending Stanley Cup champions also have followed their season-best five-game winning streak with losses in four of their last five.

Sharks 9, Red Wings 4

Patrick Marleau had a goal and three assists while becoming San Jose's career scoring leader, and Joe Thornton contributed four assists during their rally from a three-goal deficit to beat visiting Detroit.

The Red Wings played without veteran defenseman Chris Chelios, who is indefinitely sidelined while he deals with the stabbing deaths of two employees in his Detroit sports bar. They also didn't have top-line forward Pavel Datsyuk, who missed his second game with an upper-body injury.

Mike Grier scored two of the Sharks' franchise-record six power-play goals.

Rangers 3, Flyers 2

Martin Straka's sixth NHL hat trick pushed him over the 20-goal mark for the sixth time and carried host New York.

Straka scored in each period for the roller-coaster Rangers, who have won three straight following a seven-game losing streak.

Philadelphia had its longest winning streak of the season end at three despite the first goal of the season by Eric Meloche.

Capitals 5, Canadiens 1

Dainius Zubrus and Alexander Semin each scored twice, Alex Ovechkin had three assists, and host Washington ended its five-game losing streak.

Zubrus put Washington ahead 2-1 in the first period with two goals in less than 2 1/2 minutes _ both with help from reigning rookie of the year Ovechkin _ and Lawrence Nycholat and Semin scored 56 seconds apart in the second period.

Maple Leafs 10, Bruins 2

Alex Steen had a hat trick and two assists to help Toronto cruise at Boston.

With the Leafs trailing 2-1 after the first period, Toronto scored five goals in the second period.

Matt Stajan scored two third-period goals while Steen and Chad Kilger closed out the scoring for Toronto, which last scored 10 goals in 1998.

Devils 4, Islanders 3

Zach Parise scored two goals and Martin Brodeur made 40 saves to lead host New Jersey.

Sergei Brylin and Patrik Elias also scored for the Atlantic Division-leading Devils, who have won four of their last five.

Trent Hunter, Andy Hilbert and Mike Sillinger got goals for the Islanders, losers of a season-high five straight.

Blues 2, Blackhawks 0

Lee Stempniak and Dennis Wideman each scored for host St. Louis.

The Blues have not given up a goal in the first period since Andy Murray became coach 12 games ago. The streak matches the NHL record which was set in 1974 by the Los Angeles Kings.

Lightning 3, Wild 2

Martin St. Louis and Vincent LeCavalier scored for Tampa Bay, which ended Minnesota's eight-game home winning streak.

Defenseman Dan Boyle also scored for the Lightning, who won for only the second time in five games and improved to 6-10-1 in their last 17.

Mark Parrish and Pavol Demitra scored for the Wild.

Stars 6, Oilers 5, SO

Sergei Zubov and Jussi Jokinen scored in a shootout as visiting Dallas overcame a late tying goal by Edmonton.

The Stars rallied from a 4-1 deficit, but needed the shootout heroics after Ales Hemsky tied the game for Edmonton with 2 seconds left in regulation.

Jere Lehtinen, Phillippe Boucher, Niklas Hagman, Mathias Tjarnqvist and Patrik Stefan had regulation goals for the Stars.

Petr Nedved scored in his first game for Edmonton. Hemsky, Ryan Smyth, Joffrey Lupul and Shawn Horcoff also had goals for the Oilers.

Flames 5, Panthers 4, OT

Mark Giordano scored 4:30 into overtime to give host Calgary a win in a game marred by an injury to leading scorer Jarome Iginla.

Calgary scored when Stephane Yelle won a face-off from Jozef Stumpel and drew the puck back to Dion Phaneuf. He then fed a pass across to Giordano, who fired a hard slapshot past Alex Auld.