NHL Roundup : Maple Leafs Silence Hextall, Whip Flyers, 7-4

After the Calgary Flames beat the Philadelphia Flyers, 3-2, Friday night, All-Star goaltender Ron Hextall said the Flames were lucky.

But after the lowly Maple Leafs beat the Flyers, 7-4, Saturday night at Toronto, Hextall had nothing to say.

Miroslav Frycer and Ed Olczyk each scored twice for the Maple Leafs, who won their second in a row after winning only once in 22 games.

Hextall, who was sensational in the All-Star game, stopped all 10 Toronto shots in the first period, but was beaten 7 times on 18 shots in the last 40 minutes.

After the loss to the Flames, Hextall said: “They got a couple of lucky breaks, a couple of lousy goals. Every goal they got was lucky, even the one on the power play. On that one, (Dave) Poulin broke his stick in the corner and that gave them a two-man advantage.”

The victory was only the 17th in 58 games for the Maple Leafs, but with Minnesota losing, they pulled into fourth place in the Norris Division. If the playoffs were to begin now, the Leafs would qualify.

Despite their second consecutive defeat, the Flyers continued to pile up an advantage in shots on goal. Against Calgary on Friday night, they had a 36-15 margin. In this one, they fired 53 shots at Ken Wregget. The Leafs had 30.

St. Louis 5, Detroit 3--For the time being, at least, the Blues have halted the Red Wings’ runaway in the Norris Division.

With Tony McKegney scoring twice and assisting on another goal at St. Louis, the Blues cut the Red Wings’ lead to seven points, still the largest in the league.

Detroit had won four in a row and was unbeaten in the last six. The Wings, unbeaten in their first six meetings with the Blues this season, trailed, 3-0, early in the second period, then fought back to tie early in the final period.

But, Rick Meagher scored his 14th goal at 4:37 to put St. Louis ahead to stay.

Hartford 4, Montreal 1--Lindsay Carson broke a second-period tie at a Montreal, and the Whalers went on to hand the Canadiens their fourth defeat in a row, longest losing streak of the season.

After falling behind, 2-1, the Canadiens applied heavy pressure on Whaler goaltender Mike Liut. He made 12 of his 32 saves in the final period. The Whalers didn’t put the game away until they scored twice in the last 90 seconds.

The Canadiens, who are 20-11-9 against Liut, remained three points behind Adams Division leader Boston.

Vancouver 6, Boston 5--After their stirring win in Edmonton Friday night, the Bruins went into the last period at Vancouver, Canada, with a 5-4 lead and a chance to fatten their division lead.

But Jim Benning scored while his team was short-handed midway through the last period to get the Canucks even, and Doug Wickenheiser won it with 3:29 left in regulation.

Quebec 7, Minnesota 3--Sizzling Peter Stastny scored a goal and assisted on four others at Bloomington, Minn., as the Nordiques dropped the slumping North Stars into last place in the Norris Division.

Stastny, the Nordiques’ leading scorer, has 21 points in the last 12 games.

The North Stars, winless in their last five games (0-4-1), pulled to within 3-2 early in the final period, but Peter Stastny set up Randy Moller for his second goal of the season to put the game out of reach.