NHL ROUNDUP : Murray Wins Opener

Terry Murray, possibly the first coach to get the job after his brother was fired, had a winning debut as coach of the Washington Capitals Tuesday night at Landover, Md.

Michel Pivonka had two goals and an assist in a wild, 9-6 victory over the New Jersey Devils that ended the Capitals’ eight-game losing streak.

Bryan Murray, Terry’s brother, was fired Monday and Terry, who coached the Capitals’ farm team at Baltimore, said he thought long and hard before accepting the job.

After 14 minutes of his first NHL coaching job, Murray might have been having second thoughts. The Devils, leading the Patrick Division, needed that much time to jump ahead, 4-1.

But the Capitals, their defense hampered by the loss of injured stars Scott Stevens and Rod Langway, bounced back with six consecutive goals and won going away.

“It’s a great feeling, I feel great,” Murray said. “But there were some anxious moments early.”

Pivonka scored at 11:23 of the second period to give the Capitals the lead and late in the period, he scored on a power play to make it 6-4.

New York Islanders 3, Vancouver 0--At Uniondale, N.Y., a magnificent performance by goaltender Glenn Healy kept the Islanders on their hot streak.

The former King stopped 51 shots for his second shutout and the Islanders reached the .500 mark with their seventh victory in a row.

Randy Wood’s goal at 4:24 of the second period was all Healy needed to run the Islanders’ record in the last 20 games to 16-3-1.

Pittsburgh 4, Philadelphia 3--At Pittsburgh, Mario Lemieux kept his scoring streak alive and the Penguins kept the Flyers’ winless streak alive.

Lemieux assisted on Rob Brown’s second goal of the game in the second period to get a point in his 34th consecutive game. The Flyers are 0-5-3 in their last eight games.

Paul Coffey had two assists to reach 900 points, only the fourth defenseman to get that many.

Calgary 5, St. Louis 2--Brian McLellan scored twice at St. Louis, including the first of two power-play goals to open the game, and the Flames won handily.

Goaltender Mike Vernon stopped 20 shots to win his third in a row.

Quebec 8, Winnipeg 6--Veteran center Claude Voiselle had a goal and three assists at Winnipeg to lead the Nordiques back from an early 2-0 deficit.

Guy Lafleur had his 12th goal and an assist for the Nordiques.

Detroit 6, Edmonton 4--Steve Yzerman scored twice at Edmonton as the Red Wings fought back from an early 3-1 deficit.

The loss to the last place team in the Norris Division dropped the Oilers into a tie for first place in the Smythe Division with Calgary.