NHL Roundup : Flyers Stay Out of the Cellar With Victory Over Rangers

It is a little surprising for the Philadelphia Flyers to be fighting to keep out of last place, but Thursday night they did just that.

The Flyers scored four times in the first two periods at Philadelphia and skated to a 5-3 victory over the New York Rangers. The win put the Flyers four points ahead of the last-place Rangers and into a tie with the Washington Capitals for fourth place in the Patrick Division.

In his previous game, Flyer goaltender Ron Hextall became the second National Hockey League goalie to score a goal. In this game, he hardly saw the puck.

Hextall, the league’s leading goalie last season, faced only 22 shots in 60 minutes.

Hextall gave up a goal to Walt Poddubny before the game was two minutes old, but the Flyers quickly tied it against former teammate Bob Froese. A 65-foot shot by Kjell Samuelson broke the tie late in the second period, and the Flyers were in charge the rest of the way.

St. Louis 5, Minnesota 4--Mark Hunter scored on a power play late in the second period at Bloomington, Minn., and the Blues held on to climb out of the cellar in the Norris Division.