Monday, October 27, 2003
He climbed into a tie for No. 4 in NHL career goals in Detroit's win.
DETROIT (AP) -- Brett Hull made more noise on the ice than off.
Hull scored his 717th goal to move into a fourth-place tie on the NHL's career list as the Detroit Red Wings beat the Columbus Blue Jackets 4-1 on Wednesday night.
The usually talkative Hull did not speak to reporters after the game, but did visit with former Red Wing Gordie Howe.
"The milestones keep clicking by," Red Wings coach Dave Lewis said. "I don't think he's done yet either."
Hull tied Phil Esposito on the career list. Wayne Gretzky is the leader with 894, followed by Howe (801) and Marcel Dionne (731).
At associate coach Joey Kocur's urging, Detroit put center Pavel Datsyuk on a line with Hull and Brendan Shanahan. Datsyuk matched Hull with a goal and an assist and Shanahan added three assists.
"That line was very effective," Lewis said.
Tomas Holmstrom had a power-play goal, Ray Whitney added a short-handed tally against his former team, and Manny Legace made 18 saves in his first game of the season.
"I played pretty solid," Legace said. "Thank God it wasn't 100 shots. The guys let me see the shots."
Nash tallies
Rick Nash scored for Columbus, 9-0-1 in its last 10 games against the Red Wings.
"I thought we played a real solid 60 minutes," Blue Jackets coach Doug MacLean said.
The Red Wings scored twice in 23 seconds early in the second period to take a 2-0 lead. Hull put a cross-crease pass from Datsyuk into an open net for his first goal of the season, and Datsyuk scored at 5:55.
"We've been talking about scoring more five-on-five goals," Shanahan said. "And on one shift we get a couple."
Detroit has been outscored 9-5 during five-and-five play.