NHL Roundup : Lemaire Is a Prophet: Canadiens Lose Again

On New Year’s Eve, after the Montreal Canadiens were tied by Quebec, Coach Jacques Lemaire chastised his team.

“If we keep playing the way we played this game,” Lemaire told his team, which at the time led the Adams Division by eight points, “we are going to get into trouble. We can’t keep on winning with this kind of effort.”

To his chagrin, Lemaire has become a prophet. The Canadiens have not won a game in the new year.

Bryan Trottier scored twice, once when his team was short-handed Tuesday night at Uniondale, N.Y., to lead the New York Islanders to a 3-1 victory. In their last five games, the Canadiens are 0-3-2 and their lead has been cut to four points.

The Canadiens, who have avoided injury most of the season, were without veteran defenseman Larry Robinson, out with a sprained wrist. The slump of the Canadiens has not been the fault of the defense, though. Suddenly, the Canadiens have lost their scoring touch.

The Canadiens fired 31 shots at rookie goaltender Kelly Hrudey, but their only score came halfway through the second period when Mats Naslund scored his 25th goal of the season.

Naslund has represented most of the Canadiens’ offense since Guy LaFleur retired and Steve Shutt was shunted off to the Kings. In the winless streak, the Canadiens have scored 13 goals.

Naslund’s goal cut the Islanders’ lead to 2-1, and it stayed that way until Trottier scored into an empty net with only three seconds remaining.

Philadelphia 5, Vancouver 3--Few rookies have made a more auspicious debut than Todd Bergen. In this game at Philadelphia, the 21-year-old center, just brought up from the American League, scored twice.

His second goal, halfway through the third period, broke a 3-3 tie. Dave Poulin, who set up Bergen for his game-winning goal, completed the scoring with a shot into an empty net with eight seconds remaining.

The victory enabled the Flyers to remain tied with Washington for first place in the Patrick Division.

Edmonton 4, Quebec 0--Wayne Gretzky scored less than two minutes after the opening faceoff at Quebec and added two assists to lead the Oilers.

Andy Moog and Grant Fuhr shared the shutout. Moog stopped 10 shots in the first period, then became ill and had to give way to Fuhr. In the last two periods, Fuhr stopped 18 shots.

Gretzky, who has 42 goals in 40 games, also has 73 assists.

Washington 4, Detroit 2--Mike Gartner scored the tie-breaking goal with 1:23 remaining at Detroit to enable the Capitals to keep pace with the Flyers. Doug Jarvis added an empty-net goal with 45 seconds remaining.

The Capitals trailed, 2-1, going into the last period. Defenseman Scott Stevens tied the game with his eighth goal. It came with two Red Wings in the penalty box.

Buffalo 4, Hartford 4--Mike Foligno capped a dramatic Sabres’ comeback at Buffalo by scoring the tying goal with just nine seconds left in regulation. The Sabres trailed by two goals until Dave Andreychuk scored with just 28 seconds remaining.