European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - January 26, 1994, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Wednesday january 26, 1994 sports the stars and stripes Page 31 Pant Fife is make it 4 in Row by the associated press it was Back to work for the nil Fol lowing the All Star break and business As usual for the Florida panthers we re confident with a Lead and our goaltenders have played Tough said Florida s Scott Mellanby following Mon Day night s 8-3 Victory Over the Montreal canadians. No one knows it More than the defend ing Stanley cup Champion canadians who Are 0-3-1against the first year expansion team. The panthers won their club record fourth straight and stretched their recent unbeaten Streak to six games 4-0-2. Tonight it was just a matter of twist ing the knife and turning it and turning and turning said former Canadien Brian Skrudland who scored a goal an assisted on another. This is a big step Ping Stone for our organization. Our Mes Sage has to be  the panthers scored three goals in club record Span of 1 49 of the second period and five goals Overall in the period. Their eight goals were also a fran Chise record. The panthers 20-17-8 scored six in a 6-5 win Over the los an Geles Kings on dec. 8. Mellanby led the panthers with two goals and an assist making him the first original Panther to notch 20 goals. An Drei Lomakin also scored twice giving him 12, and Jesse Belanger had his Llyn goal and two assists. The canadians loss prevented the from moving into first place in the North East division both coaches started their backup goaltenders instead of their respective All Star goaltenders Florida s John Vanbiesbrouc and Montreal s Patric Kroy. Florida s Mark Fitzpatrick won his first game at Home and is unbeaten in his last five starts 4-0-1. Montreal goalie Andre Racicot 2-6-2 was the loser. In other games monday lightning 4, sabres 0 Tampa Bay goaltender Daren Pupp Amade 23 saves for his third shutout of the season and Danton Cole scored twice As Buffalo s Doug dodger uses his stick to push Tampa s pct Klimt right against the net As goalie Dominik Ilasco watches. The lightning Defeated the visiting sabres. Petr Klima and roman hamrlik each had two assists for Tampa Bay which has won seven of nine. Bruins 2, whalers 1 Adam Oates had a goal and an assist As the Bruins beat the whalers at Hartford. Cam Neely also scored As the Bruins kept Hartford wingless in six straight games 0-5-1. The whalers also extended their wingless Streak against the Bruins to eight games 0-7-1. Devils 6, stars 2 defens Eman Scott Niedermayer scored twice during a run of five straight goals Ashe devils beat the stars. Scott Stevens and Claude Lemieu each had a goal and three assists and Valeri Zel Pukin added a goal and an assist for the devils who improved to 7-3-0over their last 10 games and 4-1 in their last five Road games. The stars lost for the fourth time in five games. Niedermayer snapped a 2-2 tie at 16 18of the second period batting a rebound into an open net while the devils too advantage of a delayed penalty against the stars. Canucks 5, oilers 4, of Pavel Burc scored his third goal of the game 54 seconds into overtime to lift the canucks Over the oilers. Bure blasted a slap shot from the  past Edmonton goaltender Bill ran Ford to end the game Early in the overtime period. Martin Gelinas and Trevor Linden also scored for the visiting canucks. Flames 3, Kings 3 Jari Kerri scored with three second remaining in regulation As the Kings tied the flames. The third of four Neutral site no games scheduled for Phoenix was played in front of 14,684 at America West Arena the largest crowd Ever to watch hockey game in Arizona. Blues 3, mighty ducks 2, of at Anaheim Brett Hull scored once before setting up the tying goal by Rookie Jim Montgomery and the game Winner by Kevin Miller 70 seconds into overtime. Sosa gets big raise new York a chicag cubs outfielder Sammy Sosa received a nearly four fold salary increase monday when he agreed to a $2.95million, one year contract. Sosa who made $745,000 last season had sought $3.2 Mil lion in arbitration and the cubs had offered $2.7 Mil lion. Last year he became the first cub to hit 30 Sosa homers and steal 30 bases in the Sam year. He hit .261 with 33 homers 93 Bis and 36 stolen bases. Relievers Rob Dibble and Dere Lilliquist also agreed to one year deals leaving 71 players remaining i arbitration. Dibble and the Cincinnati reds agreed at $2.45 million a Cut of$50,000. Dibble who can earn an additional $100,000 in performance bonuses had 19 saves in 1993 but was 1 4 with a 6.48 Era. He missed most of May because of a broken Bone in his non pitching Arm and missed the last seven games of the season because of muscle weakness in his shoulder. Lilliquist and the Cleveland Indian agreed at. $1.35 million nearly twice the $750,000 he made last season. Lilliquist who will be 28 next month was4-4 last year with 10 saves and a 2.25 Era. He appeared in 56 games including two starts. Lilliquist s 10 saves were the most for an indians left hander since 1980, when Sid Monge had 14. Over the weekend outfielder Rob Ducey and the Texas rangers agreed at $275,000, a raise of $50,000. Ducey who hit .282 last season with two Hom ers and nine Bis in 85 at bats had asked for $850,000, and the rangers had offered $235,000. Tigers fire pm Detroit a Mike hitch decided Jerry Walker did t fit in with his management team so he fired the de troit tigers general manager on Mon Day. At a hastily called late afternoon new conference hitch replaced Walker on an interim basis with Joe Klein the team scouting director. Hitch said the Surprise shakeup came about because of what he termed a Lack of communication. I want to emphasize that this is was not an easy decision hitch said. But i Felt that it had to be made in the Best interests of the  hitch founder of the Little Caesars pizza Chain also owns the Detroit red wings of the nil. Key managers fro Little Caesars were moved into both sports organizations. When i bought the Detroit redwings in 1982we did it with the idea that we wanted the right people to get the Job done hitch said. We pretty much made wholesale changes. I thought we could integrate the two operations when we bought the tigers. But there was a clash of cultures. It just did  Walker the former director of scouting for the tigers replaced Joe Mcdonald shortly after hitch bought the team late in the 1992 season. You got a lot of situations where peo ple did t see Eye to Eye hitch said. I just did t  hitch said he had a lengthy meeting with Walker on Friday. They met again Early monday and hitch told Walker he was finished. Or. Hitch made a decision and no the focus of the organization is where does the organization go and not what happened to me Walker said in a statement. He is the owner and i re Spect his right to make the decision for what he thinks is Best for the Organiza  Klein 49, will run the team As Walker did with the help of assistant general manager Gary Vitto. The idea is Tor Vitto a longtime hitch aide to act As a Bridge Between the bal club and the owner