NHL Roundup : Semenko Is a Scoring Punch in Whaler Debut

When tough Torrie Robertson, the Hartford Whalers’ enforcer, suffered a broken leg late last month in a fight with Montreal’s Shayne Corson, the Whalers needed a new tough guy.

They managed to obtain big, rugged Dave Semenko from Edmonton last week. Semenko originally came into the league as the protector of Wayne Gretzky.

The 6-3, 200-pouind Semenko was a force in his debut with the Whalers Wednesday night at Hartford, Conn., but not in the way anticipated. He scored his first two goals of the season to lead the Whalers to a 4-3 victory after they had spotted the lowly Buffalo Sabres an early 2-0 lead.

Semenko’s first goal tied the score, 2-2, late in the second period, and his other goal put the Whalers ahead to stay at 7:45 of the final period.

“It feels like my whole body is burning,” said Semenko, who played in only five games this season for the Oilers. “The game was five minutes too long for me. I need to get used to playing again.”

Edmonton 5, Quebec 3--Wayne Gretzky was a little better than usual in this game at Edmonton. In addition to a natural hat trick--three consecutive goals--he had a short-handed goal and assisted on the other Edmonton goal.

Gretzky scored on the Oilers’ first shot of the game, at 1:28, and in the next 11 minutes scored twice more to give Edmonton a 3-0 lead. He increased his record for hat tricks to 41, four of them this season.

Late in the second period, Gretzky scored on a breakaway while killing a penalty. He leads the league with 31 goals and 80 points in 33 games.

New Jersey 3, Toronto 2--The Devils reached a milestone when Doug Sulliman fired a 50-footer 35 seconds into overtime that eluded Toronto goalie Ken Wregget.

The victory at East Rutherford, N.J., marked the first time in the history of the franchise that the Devils have been over .500 this far into a season. The Devils, clinging tenaciously to fourth place in the Patrick Division, are 15-14-2. The Devils did not win for the 15th time last season until their 42nd game.

Sulliman gave credit to his shooting coach, goalie Alain Chevrier, who stopped 32 shots.

“Chevy has been working with me on shooting technique,” Sulliman said. “He thinks if you get a shot off just over the goalie’s stick and on the net, it has a good chance to go in. It makes sense.”

The Devils sent the game into overtime when Mark Johnson scored on a 35-footer with 4:40 left in regulation.

New York Rangers 6, Washington 1--Center Mike Ridley had the first hat trick of his career in this game at New York to help the Rangers sink the Capitals deeper into the cellar in the Patrick Division.

The Capitals are 10-16-6 and trail division-leading Philadelphia by 20 points. After 32 games last season, the Capitals were 20-8-4 and were considered one of the solid threats to win the Stanley Cup.

Chicago 5, Winnipeg 1--Wayne Presley and Bill Watson scored seven seconds apart in the second period at Chicago as the Blackhawks handed the slumping Jets their sixth loss in a row.

Goaltender Bob Sauve stopped 28 shots to register the victory.

Detroit 5, Vancouver 4--Red Wing captain Steve Yzerman scored the go-ahead goal in the second period, then set up Doug Shedden for another goal as Detroit won at Vancouver, Canada.

Yzerman gave the Red Wings a 2-1 lead at 4:37 of the second period, and Shedden converted Yzerman’s passout at 5:10 against Canuck goaltender Richard Brodeur.