Advertisement

NHL Roundup : Odd Goal Gives Win to Capitals

Share

The Washington Capitals have been concerned about the reluctance of Bengt Gustafsson to shoot.

The playmaking center has had numerous chances to score from close range but has been passing off to teammates in less favorable positions.

In the last two games, Gustafsson has changed his role.

He scored a controversial goal with 2:22 left Friday night at Landover, Md., to break a tie and lead the Capitals to a 5-3 victory, snapping Buffalo’s 6-game unbeaten streak.

Advertisement

Tuesday night, he took the puck away from Philadelphia defenseman Gord Murphy and skated the length of the ice for a goal that beat the Flyers, 4-3.

On the game-winning shot against the Sabres, he split the defense and banged a shot that struck the pad of falling goaltender Jacques Cloutier and popped into the air. Cloutier reached back and gloved it. But goal judge Roger Reinke turned on the light, ruling that it was over the goal line when Cloutier gloved it.

The angry Sabres banged the glass protecting the judge, but the decision was not changed. Kelly Miller scored into an empty net to complete the scoring.

The Sabres had fought back from a 2-0 deficit to take a 3-2 lead. But Mike Gartner knocked in a rebound to bring the Capitals even just 1:33 before Gustafsson scored.

Hartford 4, Detroit 3--Ray Ferraro climaxed a strong third-period comeback at Hartford, Conn., enabling the Whalers to end an 8-game winless streak.

The Whalers trailed, 3-1, going into the final period. Brian Lawton, scoring his first goal since coming from the Rangers, cut the lead to 3-2 early in the period. A little past the middle of the period the Whalers’ Paul McDermott tried a crossing pass it hit the skate of the Red Wings’ Bob Probert and went in to tie the score.

Advertisement

The winning goal came with 6:18 left in regulation. A few minutes later, Probert went in on a breakaway, but goalie Mike Liut made the save to prevent the tie.

St. Louis 5, Minnesota 5--On a night when the Blues retired the jersey of former star Brian Sutter, now the team’s coach, St. Louis scored twice in the final 18 seconds of regulation time to earn a tie.

After Mark Habscheid scored into an empty net with 33 seconds left to give the North Stars a 5-3 lead, the Blues’ Todd Ewen cut the lead to 5-4 with 18 seconds left.

Shortly after the next faceoff, Brett Hull scored on a slap shot with just 4 seconds remaining.

Advertisement