NHL Playoffs Roundup : Flyers, Black Hawks and North Stars Advance

Tim Kerr broke a National Hockey League playoff record with four straight goals within a span of 8 minutes 16 seconds of the second period Saturday night at New York to lead the Philadelphia Flyers to a 6-5 victory over the Rangers. The win put the Flyers into the second round of the NHL playoffs.

The Chicago Black Hawks and Minnesota North Stars also advanced, while the Buffalo Sabres, Calgary Flames and New York Islanders took advantage of home ice to avert elimination. The Montreal Canadiens won at Boston to take a 2-1 lead in their best-of-five series with the Bruins.

That set up four games tonight--Quebec at Buffalo, Winnipeg at Calgary, Washington at the Islanders and Montreal at Boston. The home teams trail, 2-1, in all four series.

Kerr, who had 54 goals in the regular season, became the first player in Stanley Cup history to score four goals in a period. The record for goals in a playoff game is five, held by three players.

“It’s good to get on the road--it relaxes me,” said Kerr, who had only one goal in the two games at Philadelphia. “I was in the right place at the right time tonight, and the puck found the holes.”

Calgary 4, Winnipeg 0--Hakan Loob had two goals and one assist and Rejean Lemelin had 33 saves for the Flames at Calgary.

The loss for the Jets was their first since March 6, when they were beaten by the Montreal Canadiens.

Minnesota 2, St. Louis 0--Gilles Meloche stopped 27 shots for the North Stars at Bloomington, Minn.

Minnesota, which finished fourth in the Norris Division, 24 points behind St. Louis, opens its best-of-seven division final series at Chicago on Thursday.

Chicago 8, Detroit 2--Steve Larmer, Darryl Sutter and Denis Savard scored less than three minutes apart in the second period as the Black Hawks completed a series sweep at Detroit.

The 9-5, 6-1 and 8-2 scores gave Chicago an NHL record for most goals in a preliminary Stanley Cup series. The previous mark was set by Minnesota in 1981, when the North Stars outscored Boston, 20-13.

Montreal 4, Boston 2--Rookie Steve Rooney, who was married earlier in the day, scored 1:07 into the game, and Mats Naslund and Bobby Smith added first period power-play goals for for the Canadiens at Boston.

Boston, which has lost 17 of 19 playoff series to Montreal, including the last 15 straight going back to 1943, got its first score when Charlie Simmer took a Ken Linseman pass from behind the net and scored from four feet out.

N.Y. Islanders 2, Washington 1--Bryan Trottier and Brent Sutter scored third-period goals for the Islanders at Uniondale, N.Y.

Trottier’s goal gave him 150 career playoff points, tying him with Stan Mikita for fourth place on the all-time scoring list.

Buffalo 6, Quebec 4--Dave Andreychuk scored the go-ahead goal for the Sabres late in the third period at Buffalo.