NHL Roundup : Canadiens Show the Whalers, 4-1

Bobby Smith and Petr Svoboda scored power-play goals in the second period Wednesday night at Hartford, Conn., to lead Montreal to a 4-1 victory and make the Canadiens the only National Hockey League team with a winning record on the road.

The fourth consecutive overall victory by the Canadiens, who are 4-3-1 on the road, may have knocked some of the smugness out of the Whalers. After Hartford had trounced the Edmonton Oilers, 6-2, Saturday night, they made no bones about what they intended to do to the Stanley Cup champion Canadiens. Montreal had eliminated Hartford in the playoffs last season, needing a full seven games.

“They think they’re a lot better than us because they won the Cup,” the Whalers’ Stewart Gavin had told Jeff Jacobs of the Hartford Courant. “I hate them. I think after we beat them, we’ll prove that the playoffs could easily have gone our way.”

Even Jack Evans, the normally cautious Hartford coach, was confident. “Montreal hasn’t lost in the division yet,” he said. “Of course, we plan to rectify that.”

The Canadiens are still unbeaten in the Adams Division, where they have won five and tied two.

After a scoreless but bruising first period, the Whalers moved in front on Ray Ferraro’s goal five minutes into the second period.

But penalty problems soon put the Whalers in a hole, and they never got out. Smith took a pass from Claude Lemieux to score on a power play to tie it. Two minutes later, rookie Shayne Corson put Montreal ahead to stay. On another power play late in the period, Svoboda fired a 50-footer past goalie Mike Liut.

After Ferraro’s goal, Montreal goalie Patrick Roy kept the Whalers under control.

The Whalers, who expect to win the division, trail the Canadiens by eight points.

New Jersey 4, Detroit 3--Doug Sulliman scored with 1:17 remaining at Detroit to give the Devils another victory and extend their unbeaten streak to five games.

New Jersey moved into third place in the tough Patrick Division, just four points out of first place. The Devils are 10-7-2. A year ago, when they amassed 59 points, the most in their history, they were 8-10-1 after 19 games.

Detroit, losers of four in a row, took a 3-2 lead early in the final period. But Pat Verbeek scored his 13th goal to tie it midway through the period, and with time running out, Sulliman took a pass from Claude Loiselle and scored from close range.

Edmonton 5, New York Rangers 4--The once-powerful Oilers used to put teams like the Rangers away early in home games, but now they just keep struggling.

After building a 4-1 lead, the Oilers blew it and had to win on Glenn Anderson’s goal at 1:05 of overtime.

A short-handed goal by Paul Coffey at 2:33 of the third period made it 4-1, but the Rangers scored three goals in the next 12 minutes to send it into overtime.

Wayne Gretzky scored his 16th goal of the season in the first period. He needs three more goals to reach 500 in his career with the Oilers.

Toronto 2, Philadelphia 2--The Maple Leafs spotted the Flyers a two-goal lead, then battled back for the tie at Toronto.

They cut it close, though. There were only 85 seconds left in regulation when Wendel Clark scored his 12th goal of the season.

Steve Thomas scored Toronto’s first goal when he beat Flyer goalie Ron Hextall in the first minute of the third period.

The tie enabled the Flyers to take a two-point lead in the Patrick Division.

Boston 4, Buffalo 4--Norm Lacombe scored with fewer than six minutes remaining at Buffalo to give the Sabres a tie.

It was the fourth consecutive game in which the Bruins, who opened a 3-1 lead, went into overtime. They came out of the four games with a 1-1-2 record.

St. Louis 7, Minnesota 5--Rick Meagher’s short-handed goal, his second of the game, capped a three-goal second period at St. Louis that carried the Blues to victory.

The Blues, unbeaten in their last six games (5-0-1), defeated the North Stars Tuesday night at Bloomington, Minn.