NHL Roundup : Whalers Romp Past Sabres, 9-0

The Hartford Whalers, unable to generate much of an offense, are off to their usual slow start in the National Hockey League. They have been especially weak at home.

It seemed about time for an explosion, and the Buffalo Sabres were the victims.

With rookie goaltender Peter Sidorkiewicz playing another stellar game, the Whalers, who have been averaging just over 2.6 goals per game, romped to a 9-0 victory Tuesday night at Hartford, Conn.

Kevin Dineen and Sylvain Cote each scored twice as the Whalers broke the game open after a tight first period by scoring 4 goals in each of the last two periods.

It was only the fifth victory in 13 games at home for the Whalers, who had lost 6 of their previous 7 games at the Civic Center. The victory put them just one point behind the third-place Sabres in the Adams Division.

The Whalers, who were 7-12-1 after 20 games, have improved to 11-14-1.

“We had a forgettable season last year,” said Dineen, who now has 13 goals. “The way we started out, it looked as though we were going to have another bad one. But the last few games, we have started to play the way we can.”

Sidorkiewicz, 25, from Poland, improved to 6-5-1 while registering his first shutout. He has beaten the Sabres twice.

Coach Ted Sator of the Sabres, whose team equaled its worst defeat, called the loss “a professional debacle” and took full blame. “I’m responsible,” he said. “I have a job of putting a team on ice that’s going to come out and perform. When a team gets you 9-0, it should tell you something.”

The Whalers, playing without their injured No. 1 goalie, Mike Liut, enjoyed their most impressive performance.

“We had to start playing better at home,” Sidorkiewicz said. “I’m just glad I made a contribution.”

Pittsburgh 7, Chicago 6--The Blackhawks’ run of bad luck continues.

With 10 seconds left in regulation in a tied game at Pittsburgh, Chicago had a power play. But Pittsburgh’s Randy Hillier intercepted a pass and shot the puck to the streaking Dave Hannan, who scored with just 5 seconds remaining. It was the eighth consecutive loss for Chicago.

Each team had a short-handed goal earlier in the game.

Penguin star Mario Lemieux scored his 25th goal and had 4 assists to spark the leaders of the Patrick Division.

The Penguins blew an early 3-0 lead.

Washington 4, Philadelphia 3--The Capitals, knowing they must come up with scoring from someone other than talented Mike Gartner, rode to victory at Landover, Md., without the injured player.

Mike Ridley scored 3 goals and Kelly Miller the other.

Ridley, a former New York Ranger, has 8 goals in the last 7 games .

The Flyers had been unbeaten in their previous 4 games.

Boston 4, New York Islanders 3--Only the woeful expansion team of 1972-73 had a worse start than this Islander team.

Rob Sweeney’s power-play goal with just 7 minutes remaining at Uniondale, N.Y., gave the frustrated Islanders their eighth loss in a row. The Islanders, winners only once in the last 12 games, are 7-18-2.

The Islanders came into the last period with a 3-2 lead, but, as they have done often lately, they fell apart in the last period.

St. Louis 3, Minnesota 0--Goalie Greg Millen recorded his third consecutive shutout by stopping 23 shots at St. Louis.

Millen also set a club record by extending his scoreless string to 181 minutes.

The only goal needed was Brett Hull’s 11th of the season, halfway through the game.

The North Stars’ Kari Takko stopped 39 shots.

Calgary 3, Quebec 2--It was a game between the best team in the NHL (the Flames) and the team with the worst record in the Adams Division at Calgary.

The Flames (20-4-4) prevailed, but not without a struggle. Al MacInnis scored with 5 minutes remaining in regulation to break a 2-2 tie.

It extended the Flames’ unbeaten streak to 12 and gave them a 12-0-3 record at home.

New York Rangers 5, Vancouver 3--Defenseman Michel Petit scored midway through the third period to give the New York the win over the slumping Canucks.

Petit, traded to the Rangers a year ago by Vancouver, rifled a high wrist shot past the screened Canuck goalie, Kirk McLean, at 11:56 to break a 3-3 tie.

The Rangers broke a two-game losing streak to remain tied with the Pittsburgh Penguins for first place in the Patrick Division.

Ulf Dahlen, Granato, Marcel Dionne and Brian Mullen scored the other New York goals.