Pavelich Scores Two Goals as the Rangers Win, 5-4, Move Closer to Playoffs

Mark Pavelich scored twice on power plays and assisted on two other goals Tuesday night at New York to lead the Rangers to a 5-4 victory over Pittsburgh and move them a step closer to the playoffs.

It was only the second victory in the last eight games for the Rangers, but the victories have come at the right time. This win put the Rangers seven points ahead of the Penguins in the fight for the last playoff spot in the Patrick Division. The Rangers have six games left, the Penguins seven.

Although Pavelich’s brilliant play helped the Rangers jump out to a 5-1 lead, the Penguins, losers of five in a row, gave them a scare. The Penguins fought back to pull within one on Warren Young’s 37th goal of the season with 13 1/2 minutes remaining.

To make it tougher for the Rangers, they allowed the Penguins to have a manpower advantage for 3 1/2 minutes near the end of the game.

Mario Lemieux also had his 37th goal. He and Young have both broken Mike Bullard’s record for goals by a rookie.

“In the last three or four games,” defenseman Ron Greschner, who made his 150th career goal, “we have had early leads and we blew them. It sure looked as if we were going to do it again. We have made it a difficult season because of our own carelessness.”

Detroit 5, Minnesota 1--John Ogrodnick scored goals 1:43 apart at Detroit and set a club record for most goals--54--in a season. The victory moved the Red Wings into third place in the Norris Division, one point ahead of the North Stars.

Ogrodnick has led the Red Wings in scoring in each of his five full seasons.

The game drew 16,630 to enable Detroit to set a season attendance record of 679,124. The previous record was 669,705 set last season. The Red Wings have only one more home game.

Edmonton 7, New York Islanders 5--The Islanders bring out the best in the Oilers. In this game at Uniondale, N.Y., the Oilers cut loose with a barrage of goals for the first time in more than a month.

The Oilers, who ended the Islanders’ hopes for a fifth consecutive Stanley Cup by beating them, 4-1, in the championship round last spring, had won only three of their previous 11 games.

Then, they fell behind, 4-1, in the first period, with Mike Bossy’s 56th goal accounting for the fourth goal. But, in less than five minutes of playing time, the Oilers wiped out the lead.

From then on they outplayed the Islanders. Dave Hunter’s goal late in the second period gave the Oilers the lead for good. Jari Kurri scored his league-leading 69th goal into an empty net with one second left. Earlier Wayne Gretzky scored his 67th.

Quebec 4, Buffalo 3--Michel Goulet’s 50th goal of the season gave the Nordiques a 4-1 lead in the third period at Quebec, and they withstood a furious Buffalo rally.

In scoring 50 for the third time, Goulet enabled the Nordiques to remain tied with Montreal for first place in the Adams Division.

The Sabres, winless in their last nine regular-season games at Quebec, fell three points behind in the tightest division race remaining.

The Sabres thought they had tied the game on a goal by Lindy Ruff with 49 seconds remaining, but referee Bryan Lewis ruled that Ruff received the puck on a hand pass, which is illegal.

Montreal 5, Boston 3--Lucien DeBlois scored a short-handed goal late in the second period at Montreal, and the Canadiens remained in a tie with Quebec for first place. The Canadiens have one more game to play than Quebec.

After the Bruins opened the scoring on a goal by Tom Fergus, the Canadiens scored three goals in a row. The Bruins, on goals by Geoff Courtnall and Ken Linseman tied it up.

The Bruins were working on a power play when DeBlois chased down a pass by Mike McPhee and beat Pete Peeters for the decisive score.