SUNRISE, Fla. — Ed Belfour is just happy to be considered in the same breath as Terry Sawchuk.

The 40-year-old Toronto Maple Leafs goalie tied Sawchuk for second place on the NHL's career victories list with a 2-1 win over the Florida Panthers on Monday night.

"It's just unbelievable to be in the same ballpark as him," said Belfour, who has 447 wins. "I just wish he was alive to meet him."

Belfour knows all about Sawchuk, who was a member of Toronto's last Stanley Cup winner, in 1966-67, when he shared goaltending duties with Johnny Bower.

"I had a chance to read his biography," Belfour said. "He was a fierce competitor, very acrobatic and obviously very brave, not wearing a mask most of his career. I'm just honored to be tied with him."

Belfour made 34 saves and will stand alone behind all-time leader Patrick Roy (551) with his next win.

In the only other NHL game, Detroit goaltender Jimmy Howard stopped 22 shots in his NHL debut, including a breakaway by Eric Belanger to lead the Red Wings to a 5-2 victory over the Los Angeles Kings.

At Florida, Bryan McCabe scored the winning goal on a 5-on-3 power play midway through the third period. His slap shot from just above the right circle beat Roberto Luongo to the high stick side at 10:18 of the third with Florida's Gary Roberts and Juraj Kolnik in the penalty box.

It was McCabe's 10th goal, adding to his league-leading points total (33) for defenseman.

"We had 1:15 ... 1:20, so we knew, 'Let's be patient here, let's wait for the right play'" McCabe said. "We moved the puck around and got lucky. I got a clear shot."

Stephen Weiss' power-play goal tied it at 1 with 1:33 left in the second period. Weiss dived for a rebound of Lukas Krajicek's shot and put the puck past Belfour for his seventh goal.

"We deserved a better result," Weiss said. "Three of four times we had pucks laying on the goal line, in the crease, and we didn't seize on it."

Darcy Tucker gave the Maple Leafs a 1-0 lead with his ninth goal at 11:59 of the second period. Positioned all alone to Luongo's left, Tucker put home a pass that deflected off Jeff O'Neill's stick.

Tucker, who missed the Maple Leafs' previous two games following the birth of his son, has scored in three of his last four games.

Belfour made the Maple Leafs' two goals hold up as Florida lost for the 14th time in 15 games.

"He was the difference in a game where you might think he would be pressured because of the statistical relevance of it," Toronto coach Pat Quinn said.

At Los Angeles, defenseman Chris Chelios ended a 57-game goal drought to lead Detroit over the Kings, and helping make Howard's debut a success.Howard was promoted from Grand Rapids of the AHL after former Kings goalie Manny Legace sprained his left knee in Friday's 3-1 loss at Anaheim and was placed on injured reserve."The first 5 minutes, I was nervous," said Howard, a second-round draft pick in 2003 who spent the previous two seasons at the University of Maine."I was definitely jumpy out there and my legs just didn't feel right, but then I seemed to settle down and just tried to play my game. The first shot came, it was a deflection and I got it with my pad. From there on I felt really good out there.Mathieu Schneider got the go-ahead goal during a power play in the second period. Steve Yzerman also scored with the man advantage and Henrik Zetterberg added a third-period goal, helping extend Detroit's winning streak against Los Angeles to nine games. Nicklas Lidstrom scored into an empty net with 1:43 left to make it 5-1.Joe Corvo scored on a penalty shot, and Sean Avery added a goal with 51 seconds left for the Kings.