Yzerman’s 1,000th Assist Is a Winner for Detroit

Detroit’s Steve Yzerman wasn’t impressed with his milestone point.

Yzerman collected his 1,000th assist on Mathieu Dandenault’s game-winning goal 59 seconds into overtime, which gave the Red Wings a 3-2 victory over the Ottawa Senators on Sunday night at Detroit.

Yzerman became the ninth player in league history to notch 1,000 assists.

“I look at it that I’ve played a long time on a good team with a lot of good players and it’s slowly added up,” Yzerman said, “so I don’t really look at it as a real great achievement.”

Yzerman had the puck along the boards, sent it to Igor Larionov, who threw it at the net, and Dandenault jammed the puck in from the right side.

Many of the Red Wings--including Yzerman--had gone to the dressing room, but the referees reviewed the play before calling it a goal.

“I was thinking, ‘Don’t do this to me,’” Dandenault said, “I don’t get that many.”

It was Dandenault’s sixth goal this season.

“I can’t say anything about that goal because I had no idea where that puck was,” Ottawa goaltender Jani Hurme said.

Martin Havlat scored Ottawa’s goals.

He opened the scoring at 6:37 of the first period when he took the puck around the net and shot it past Dominik Hasek.

Detroit rookie Pavel Datsyuk tied the score at 11:25 of the first period.

Havlat put Ottawa ahead, 2-1, on a power play at 16:36 of the second period.

Luc Robitaille tied the score, 2-2, at 2:03 of the third period with his 612th career goal.

Hurme, playing Detroit for the first time in his career, made 36 saves and Hasek had 20 to improve to 22-7-5 lifetime against Ottawa.

Chicago 3, Dallas 2--Steve Sullivan scored the game-winner early in the third period and had an assist at Chicago.

Sullivan whipped Michael Nylander’s centering feed past Ed Belfour at 1:19 of the third period, just moments after Belfour had stopped Nylander on a close-in chance.

Kyle Calder and Tony Amonte scored for the Blackhawks, who extended their unbeaten streak to four games (3-0-1).

Joe Nieuwendyk, playing his 1,000th game, and Brenden Morrow scored for Dallas, which lost its second in a row.

Jocelyn Thibault stopped 24 shots to win his 100th game as a Blackhawk.

Dallas’ Ed Belfour had 21 saves.

Calder’s power-play goal opened the scoring at 7:11 of the first period.

Calder redirected Alex Zhamnov’s feed past Belfour despite being knocked down by Richard Matvichuk.

Morrow was credited with a power-play goal that tied the score, 1-1, with 1:40 left in the first period.

His centering attempt to Mike Modano deflected off the skate of Chicago defenseman Jaroslav Spacek and into the net.

Nieuwendyk gave the Stars a 2-1 lead at 4:36 of the second when he deflected in Darryl Sydor’s feed.

Amonte tied the score, 2-2, at 10:22 of the second period.

After Boris Mironov fired from a sharp angle, Amonte banged the rebound through Belfour’s pads and barely into the net.