NHL Roundup : Wamsley Makes a Stand as Blues Beat Sabres, 4-1

The surprising St. Louis Blues used a tight-checking defense to beat the Sabres, 4-1, Friday night at Buffalo and stretch their Smythe Division lead to eight points.

Earlier in the day, the Blues completed a trade with Hartford in which they obtained Mark Johnson and goaltender Greg Millen for goaltender Mike Liut.

Millen was on hand to watch the Blues’ other goalie, Rick Wamsley, turn in a sharp performance. Wamsley, after facing only 11 shots in the first two periods, was severely tested in the last 20 minutes.

The former Montreal Canadien stopped 12 shots in the last period, several of them in spectacular fashion. He lost his shutout in the second period when Dave Andreychuk scored his 26th goal of the season at 3:47.

Minnesota 4, Chicago 1--Injuries that deprived the Black Hawks of both regular goaltenders helped the North Stars end an eight-game winless streak at Bloomington, Minn.

With both Warren Skorodenski and Murray Bannerman suffering from stomach injuries, Coach Bob Pulford was forced to use Warren Pang, a rookie just called up from Milwaukee.

The North Stars wasted no time in ruining Pang’s debut. Before the game was two minutes old, Curt Giles and Dirk Graham worked a two-on-one, with Giles knocking the puck into the open net.

Steve Payne scored the next two goals, and the Black Hawks fell eight points behind St. Louis in the Smythe race.

Pang faced 22 shots.

Edmonton 6, Quebec 3--Jari Kurri and Mark Napier scored 26 seconds apart in the middle of the first period at Edmonton to get the Oilers off to another victory. Wayne Gretzky scored his 61st goal later in the game.

It was the Oilers’ third win in a row over the Nordiques, but the visitors finally ended a scoreless streak of 133 minutes against the champions when Brent Ashton scored late in the second period. It snapped a string of 15 consecutive Oiler goals against Quebec.

New York Rangers 8, Pittsburgh 3--Peter Sundstrom had a hat trick at Pittsburgh, and the Rangers sent the slumping Penguins tumbling six points behind in the race for the final playoff spot in the Patrick Division.