NHL Roundup : Nordiques Stay Hot and Rally Past Flames, 4-3

Robert Picard broke a tie with a shorthanded goal in the second period, and Peter Stastny added a power-play goal in the third as the Quebec Nordiques surprised the Calgary Flames, 4-3, Saturday night at Quebec for their third straight victory.

Mario Gosselin stopped 35 shots for the Nordiques, who beat the powerful Flames for the first time in 3 games and achieved their longest winning streak of the season.

“We’re getting ahead early and we’re not having to make up deficits,” Gosselin said. “And we’re playing better when we have a lead. We’re not pulling back and letting the other team take the game away from us.”

The Nordiques went 9 games without a victory before embarking on their winning streak.

Mark Hunter scored at 18:40 of the final period to get the Flames close, but Gosselin held them off in the final 80 seconds.

Quebec took a 2-0 lead on goals by Mario Marois and Michel Goulet in the first period, but the Flames got even on goals by Theoren Fleury and Joel Otto before the period ended.

Pittsburgh 7, Edmonton 4--Mario Lemieux scored 2 goals and had 5 assists as the Penguins downed the Oilers at Edmonton, Canada.

“It was just one of those games where everything went in,” said Lemieux, who increased his league-leading totals to 52 goals and 77 assists for 129 points.

Lemieux has been involved in each of the Penguins’ last 12 goals over a 3-game span, scoring 3 and assisting on 9.

Paul Coffey, traded by the Oilers to Pittsburgh last season, added a goal and 2 assists as the Penguins won for only the second time in 16 career visits to the Northlands Coliseum and moved into second place in the Patrick Division, 1 point ahead of the Washington Capitals. They remain 3 points behind the New York Rangers.

Montreal 4, Toronto 3--Guy Carbonneau scored 2 goals, and Mats Naslund was credited with a goal that the Maple Leafs accidentally knocked into their own net as the Canadiens won at Montreal.

Defenseman Todd Gill scored 2 goals for the Maple Leafs, who set up a close finish when Mark Osborne’s goal at 13:43 of the third period pulled them to within a goal.

A goal by Toronto’s Tom Fergus was disallowed moments later because referee Kerry Fraser had called an interference penalty on the Leafs’ Craig Laughlin.

New York Rangers 5, Vancouver 4--Kelly Kisio scored from the crease just 1:59 into overtime, and the Rangers slipped past the Canucks at Vancouver,Canada.

It was the first victory for the Rangers in their last 19 overtime games. They were 0-1-17 in overtime games dating to March 4, 1987.

New York rookie Tony Granato sent the game into overtime when he scored with 12:03 left, his 10th goal in 6 games.

Philadelphia 7, Winnipeg 3--Goaltender Ron Hextall stopped 37 shots and assisted on Tim Kerr’s third goal of the game as the Flyers defeated the Jets at Winnipeg,Canada.

Hextall got his 21st victory and fifth assist of the season.

The Jets trailed 4-3 after 2 periods, but the Flyers pulled away when Kerr scored twice in the first 8:02 of the final period.

New York Islanders 8, Minnesota 6--Pat LaFontaine had 3 goals and 2 assists to lead the Islanders at Uniondale, N.Y.

The Islanders were outshot, 44-25, in the game, but scored 4 goals on 6 shots in a wide-open third period in which Dave Gagner had 3 goals for the North Stars.

After Gagner’s final goal got the North Stars close, Brad Dalgarno gave the Islanders the clincher.

Buffalo 6, Boston 5--Pierre Turgeon scored his second goal of the game on a power play with 1:02 left in overtime, and the Sabres rallied from 4 goals down to beat the Bruins at Boston.

Dave Andreychuk of Buffalo, which tied Boston for second place in the Adams Division, scored on a rebound with 7 minutes 47 seconds left in the third period to tie the score, 5-5.

The Bruins had a 4-0 lead in the second period but lost it and are 0-4-1 in their last 5 games at Boston Garden.

St. Louis 4, Chicago 2--Rookie Steve Tuttle scored the tiebreaking goal with 17:27 left, and Peter Zezel added the winning goal 3 1/2 minutes later as the Blues beat the Blackhawks at St. Louis.

Chicago made it close on Steve Larmer’s 14th power-play goal of the season with 3:54 left, but Rick Meagher scored into an empty net for St. Louis with 18 seconds left.

Zezel and Bernie Federko each had 2 assists for the Blues, who are 4-1 against Chicago this season.