NHL Playoffs Roundup : Penguins Drum Esposito, Rangers Out of Playoffs in Four Straight, 4-3

In his final move as a coach this season, Phil Esposito assured himself of an 0-6 record.

Esposito, the New York Rangers’ general manager, who fired Coach Michel Bergeron with two games left in the regular season, selected Mike Richter to make his National Hockey League debut Sunday night at New York against the hot Pittsburgh Penguins.

The Penguins were leading the first round series, 3-0. In no time at all, the Rangers’ season was over and Esposito had all summer to contemplate his strange series of move.

Richter, a 22-year-old Philadelphia product who starred for the University of Wisconsin, not surprisingly, gave up three goals in 11 minutes and the Rangers never threatened in being swept away, 4-3.

Brian Leetch scored the Rangers’ final goal with 11 seconds left to make it appear close.

Although only five teams are eliminated from the playoffs each season, the Penguins had not been in postseason play since 1982. Their star, Mario Lemieux had never been in the playoffs.

It took Lemieux two games to adjust, but he’s in full flight now. He opened the scoring with his third playoff goal at 7:27 and Phil Bourque scored the first of his two in a row just 26 seconds later.

Although they did not get good goaltending, the Rangers had a lot of shots on goal. They fired 48 at Tom Barrasso Saturday night and a club-record 49 Sunday.

Minnesota 5, St. Louis 4--When Bernie Federko scored 2:28 into the final period at Bloomington, Minn., it appeared the season was over for the North Stars.

Already leading, 3-0, in the series, the goal by the Blues’ captain gave St. Louis a 3-1 lead in this game.

It’s on to St. Louis for Game 5 Tuesday night.

But the Stars battled back to tie with two quick goals. When Herb Raglan scored with eight minutes left, the Blues were again in front.

The North Stars’ tying goal by Marc Habscheid came with 3:15 left. Don Barber cut it close, scoring the winner with seven seconds remaining in regulation.

Montreal 4, Hartford 3--The Whalers played two strong games at Hartford against the powerful Canadiens, but they did not play well enough to prevent a sweep of the best-of-seven series.

In the fourth and final game, the Whalers, with third-period goals from Dave Babych and Brian Lawton, sent the game into overtime.

After 12 futile shots on goal in the extra period by the Whalers, Russ Courtnall took them out of their misery by scoring on Montreal’s 11th overtime shot at 15:32.

The Canadiens plays the winner of the Boston-Buffalo series.

Chicago 3, Detroit 2--The Blackhawks are on the verge of the biggest upset of the opening round of Stanley Cup competition.

Darryl Sutter’s second goal of the playoffs midway through the third period at Chicago gave the Blackhawks a 3-1 lead in the best-of-seven series.

The Blackhawks can win the series Tuesday night at Detroit.

The Blackhawks barely made the playoffs by beating Toronto in the last game of the season, while the Red Wings took over first place in the Norris Division early and held it the rest of the way.

Philadelphia 5, Washington 2--A couple of favorable bounces of the puck at Philadelphia enabled the Flyers to even the series at two games apiece.

Tim Kerr and Dave Poulin scored on shots that took crazy bounces and eluded goaltender Pete Peeters in a four-goal second period that put the Capitals in a hole. Before Dino Ciccarelli beat Ron Hextall halfway through the final period, the Flyers already had a commanding 5-0 lead.

Boston 3, Buffalo 2--It is the Bruins turn to dominate the Sabres. And, at Buffalo, too.

The Sabres went 5-0-3 against the Bruins during the regular season, then crushed Boston, 6-0, in the first game of the playoffs at Boston.

But, when Cam Neely scored the winning goal for the second game in a row, the Bruins had won three in a row and took a 3-1 lead in the series. The Bruins can win it at Boston Tuesday night.

Neely took a pass from Craig Janney and scored his fourth goal to break a 2-2 tie with 4:28 left in regulation.

Vancouver 5, Calgary 3-- The Canucks scored four times on power plays and surprised the Flames again at Vancouver to even their series at two games each.

Mel Bridgman, Trevor Linden, Paul Reinhart and Robert Nordmark scored on power plays for the Canucks, and Brian Bradley added the only goal scored at even-strength by either team.