Burke Leads Florida To Shutout

January 16, 1999 / 10:38 PM EST / AP

Dino Ciccarelli has been playing hurt for most of the season but when his aching back permits, he usually inflicts pain on the Florida Panthers' opponents.

Ciccarelli, who has missed 33 games due to assorted back injuries, scored a first-period goal for his 1,200th career point and Sean Burke gained his first shutout of the season to lead Florida to a 1-0 victory over the road-weary New York Islanders on Saturday night.

"Dino Ciccarelli is alive and well and still playing for the Florida Panthers," said Panthers coach Terry Murray, whose club gained ground on the first-place Carolina Hurricanes.

The Islanders have lost their last five games all on the road

and are 0-9-1 in their last 10. They haven't defeated the Panthers in Florida since Oct. 31, 1995.

"There is no sense feeling frustrated," said Islanders coach Mike Milbury. "It's not a productive emotion. Not to say it doesn't exist, but it's just not worth spending much time on."

Ciccarelli scored his sixth goal in just his seventh game and became the eighth active player, 28th overall, to reach 1,200 career points. Ciccarelli, 38, has 608 goals and 592 assists.

"I have a lot of individual goals and it's something I'm proud of, but it's the team successes that's more fun," Ciccarelli said. "I'm a firm believer that 90 percent of the goals in this league are ugly and 10 percent are pretty."

Skating on a power play, Ed Jovanovski kept the puck in the zone and shot it toward the net where it deflected off Dave Gagner and Eric Brewer right to Ciccarelli, who was at his customary spot parked outside the crease. He poked it past Felix Potvin for a 1-0 lead at 12:23 of the first period.

"It bounced off my thigh and went back to him and he started wacking away at it," said Brewer, 19, who was a one-year-old when Ciccarelli scored his first NHL goal. "His experience pays off, especially when we're having the trouble we're having."

Burke, who has allowed 10 goals in his last six starts, had 27 saves to record his 17th career shutout. Burke made a stick save on Barry Richter's point-blank shot with 3:03 remaining to preserve the shutout.

"It's never a fluke and never easy, but when you work hard things go your way," Burke said. "Hopefully, they'll continue to go my way."

The Islanders have been blanked in four of their last nine games.

"It's frustrating answering how frustrating this is getting," said Trevor Linden. "I don't know what to say anymore."

Potvin, making his third start in goal since being acquired by the Islanders from Toronto on Jan. 9, is 0-3 with New York.

Despite being outshot 27-19, the Panthers won their first home game in four tries (1-1-2) since beating the Islanders 5-1 on Dec. 28. That game marked the beginning of New York's 10-game winless streak.

With the Panthers scoring first and holding on t win, the Islanders fell to 0-24-1 when allowing the opponent to score first.

"Tonight was ugly, but we'll take the two points," Murray said.