NHL Roundup : Capitals Shut Out Islanders

The Washington Capitals are the best defensive team in the National Hockey League. If they can find a little more offense they might be good enough to win the Stanley Cup.

The stout defense, featuring Clint Malarchuk in goal, stopped the unbeaten streak of the New York Islanders Saturday at Uniondale, N.Y., and provided a 3-0 victory.

It was the seventh win in the last eight games for the Capitals and gave them four victories in five games on the just concluded trip.

Ironically, the only loss was at the Forum when the Kings chased Malarchuk and scored four goals in two periods.

In his other three appearances on the trip, Malarchuk had shutouts. On Feb. 19 at Winnipeg, Malarchuk, who leads the league with four shutouts, beat the Jets, 6-0, with 29 saves. The next night he beat Minnesota, 3-0, with 33 saves. In this one, he faced 28 shots.

Big, tough defenseman Rod Langway is the key to the defense, which has yielded 188 goals in 63 games. The only defensive slump came when Langway missed nine games because of a back injury.

It’s a luxury when Langway scores. He shocked the Islanders, who had gone 4-0-3 in their previous seven games, when he scored his third goal of the season before the game was four minutes old. It was the 10th goal since 1984 for Langway.

That was all Malarchuk needed, but Bengt Gustafsson scored on a power play five minutes later and Michael Pivonka scored the final goal late in the game.

“I hoped we’d be one of the clubs to get hot down the stretch, “ Coach Bryan Murray said. “The way Clint is going, we may be. He is really quick and he’s a classic standup goalie. He’s really hot right now.”

It was the first time the Islanders were shut out at Nassau Coliseum in almost two years.

Boston 7, Minnesota 4--In their Saturday matinees at Boston Garden this season, the Bruins have usually needed a wake-up call.

The North Stars sounded the alarm, not once, but twice. They scored two goals in the first 34 seconds. After that, Geoff Courtnall and Cam Neely took charge and the Bruins salvaged the victory. Courtnall had a hat trick and Neely, just back after missing four games with a knee injury, scored twice.

The North Stars, who also had a 3-1 lead in the first period, have the worst record in the NHL (17-37-9).

Montreal 6, Winnipeg 0--Bob Gainey, long known as one of the best defensive forwards in the NHL, had the first hat trick of his 15-year-career in this game at Montreal.

Hot-shooting Stephane Richer had two more goals, and goalie Brian Hawyard stopped 23 shots as the Canadiens retained first place in the Adams Division and extended their unbeaten streak to five games.

Before his outburst, Gainey had only six goals this season. Richer now has 39. Richer has seven goals and five assists in the last five games, a good reason why the Canadiens are on a streak and are the first NHL team to reach 80 points.

St. Louis 6, Toronto 2--Playmaker Bernie Federko set up five goals at St. Louis, and the Blues continued to close in on slumping Detroit in the Norris Division.

The Blues, 11 points behind last week, have pulled to within seven points.

Federko set up Brian Benning’s goal in the second period that proved to be the winning goal, then assisted on goals by Mark Hunter and Doug Evans in the last period to make it a one-sided victory.

Quebec 5, Detroit 4--The Nordiques are battling back into the playoff picture in the Adams Division at the expense of the Red Wings.

After scoring a surprise victory at Detroit Friday night, the Nordiques came back at Quebec to make it two in a row. Gaetan Duchesne and Mike Eagles scored 78 seconds apart in the third period to lift the Nordiques to the victory.

The Red Wings, who appeared to be breezing to the title in the Norris Division, have lost four in a row. The skid began last week when they blew a 5-1 lead to Philadelphia and lost, 11-6.