NHL Roundup : Ruff’s Four Goals Spark Sabres to 6-2 Victory

When the Buffalo Sabres were beaten, 7-3, by the Nordiques Tuesday night at Quebec, the Sabres’ coach, Jim Schoenfeld, was so frustrated he threw a water bottle at referee Terry Gregson.

In the rematch Sunday night at Buffalo, left wing Lindy Ruff made sure that Schoenfeld didn’t have anything to get upset about.

Ruff became only the second player in club history to score four goals in a game to lead the Sabres to an easy 6-2 victory that ended the Nordiques’ eight-game unbeaten streak.

A former defenseman converted to a forward to give the club better forechecking up front, Ruff broke the game open with what is referred to as a pure hat trick when he scored three times in the second period. He added another in the third period. The only other Sabre to score four times in a game was Richard Martin, and he did it on four different occasions.

The league still hasn’t handed down a ruling on what penalty Schoenfeld will be given. The coach wasn’t as accurate as Ruff. He missed the referee.

The Sabres ended a winless string of four games. After a scoreless first period, Mike Ramsey gave the Sabres a lead. Then Ruff went to work. He scored his 10th goal of the season at 7:29 of the second period, tipping in a shot by Mike Foligno. Just two minutes later on a power play, Ruff deflected a Gil Perreault pass into the net. With three minutes left in the period, Ruff skated in alone on goalie Clint Malarchuk and beat him to give the Sabres a commanding 4-1 lead.

“Nobody on our team works harder than Lindy,” Schoenfeld told the Associated Press. “It’s great to see a player reap the rewards of all that trying.”

Ruff has 13 goals this season. His high in a six-year career is 16. “I don’t beat guys down the ice to score,” Ruff said. “My goals are almost always from around the crease.”

The Sabres, who moved out of last place in the tight Adams Division race with the victory, dominated the game throughout. They outshot the Nordiques, 37-24.

St. Louis 3, New Jersey 2--The Devils may never go through a more frustrating experience. They dominated throughout until the final 5 1/2 minutes and led, 2-1, at East Rutherford, N.J. Even as time ran out, they seemed certain of at least carrying the Blues into overtime.

As the clock ran out in regulation, Rob Ramage, from 50 feet out on the ice, fired the puck in the direction of the Devils’ goal. There was only one second remaining when the puck trickled past goalie Glenn Resch into the net. Resch was screened on the shot and never saw the puck.

On the tying goal, a 40-footer by Joey Mullen, the puck bounced off Resch’s glove into the net.

Pittsburgh 5, New York Rangers 2--Mario Lemieux scored a goal and set up three others at New York to lead the Penguins, and goaltender Gilles Meloche stopped 38 shots in a brilliant performance.

The victory put the improved Penguins just one point behind the Rangers in the battle for fourth place in the Patrick Division.

Meloche was at his best in the third period when he stopped 17 shots.

Edmonton 5, Vancouver 3--In less than 22 minutes of action in this game at Edmonton, Oiler defenseman Charlie Huddy scored twice and doubled his output for the season.

After assisting on the first goal, Huddy scored halfway through the first period, then made it 3-0 Edmonton before the second period was two minutes old.

Wayne Gretzky assisted on three Oiler goals. He has 60 assists in 32 games. If he continues at that pace, Gretzky will have 150 assists. He holds the record with 135.

Andy Moog stopped 29 shots for the Oilers, who extended their unbeaten string at home to 10 games.

Toronto 3, Winnipeg 3--Scott Arniel’s second goal of the game with 12 minutes remaining in regulation at Winnipeg gave the Jets a tie. The Jets had 45 shots, including the only two in overtime.

Chicago 6, Detroit 4--Defenseman Doug Wilson broke a 4-4 tie with a goal in the last 2 1/2 minutes at Chicago, and teammate Denis Savard completed a hat trick just 12 seconds later.

Savard’s first goal came on a penalty shot. His quick shot went between goalie Greg Stefan’s pads.