NHL ROUNDUP : Flyers No Longer 0 for January, Beating Jets, 8-6

It was not pretty. Actually, it was downright homely to anybody who appreciates defensive hockey.

But it was a victory, and the Flyers had spent the entire decade--all 25 days of it--without one before beating Winnipeg, 8-6, in Philadelphia Thursday.

Rick Tocchet had four goals and two assists to lead the Flyers, who ended a 10-game winless streak (0-7-3) that was one game shy of the club record set in the 1971-72 season. Philadelphia’s last victory at home was on Dec. 16 against the Kings.

Tocchet, the Flyers’ All-Star forward, had a goal in each of the first two periods and two in the third. It was the second time he had scored four goals in a game.

“It’s a relief for the players,” Flyer Coach Paul Holmgren said.

“It wasn’t pretty, but it’s time for us to take two points,” said Ron Sutter, who scored the go-ahead goal for the win. “Maybe our goaltending wasn’t that strong, but we kept battling.”

Calgary 8, New York Rangers 5--Bernie Nicholls scored twice for the Rangers in Calgary, his first goals since being traded to New York by the Kings on Saturday.

Goalie Mike Vernon went the distance for Calgary, improving his record to 4-0-2 in the last six games, and the Flames’ line of Paul Ranheim, Theoren Fleury and Jiri Hrdina collected nine points. Along with Ranheim’s two goals and two assists, Fleury had two goals and an assist and Hrdina a goal and an assist.

Brian Mullen, Kelly Kisio and Ulf Dahlen also scored for the Rangers, who had a five-game unbeaten string snapped.

Calgary outshot New York, 35-25.

Pittsburgh 5, Detroit 3--Mario Lemieux scored one goal and set up three others to extend his point-scoring streak to 37 games, and Paul Coffey added two goals for the Penguins in Detroit.

Lemieux set up the first of Coffey’s goals 3:55 into the game and scored his 35th of the season at 5:39 as Pittsburgh took advantage of shaky goaltending by Detroit starter Sam St. Laurent to build a 3-1 lead.

Lemieux’s scoring streak is the third-longest in NHL history. Wayne Gretzky collected at least one point in 51 consecutive games in 1983-84 and 39 games in 1985-86, both streaks set while playing with the Edmonton Oilers. During his streak, Lemieux has 30 goals and 49 assists.

Boston 5, New York Islanders 2--Bob Carpenter broke a 2-2 tie with 7:31 left and added an empty-net goal with 10 seconds remaining in Boston as the Bruins stretched their unbeaten streak to five games.

Carpenter, who had 15 goals in his first 47 games, has five in the two since Dave Poulin, a center, joined the Bruins after being acquired from Philadelphia. Carpenter scored three goals and Poulin had two assists in a 9-2 victory at Quebec Tuesday.

Cam Neely scored his 34th goal of the year and 200th of his career for Boston.

St. Louis 3, Hartford 2--Brett Hull scored his league-leading 45th goal for the game-winner as the Blues came from two goals down in St. Louis.

Hull, who has three goals and two assists in two games since the All-Star break, broke a tie at 1:35 of the third period when he took a pass in the slot from Peter Zezel and put a wrist shot past goalie Peter Sidorkiewicz.

The Blues got the game’s last three goals after trailing 2-0 to the Whalers, the NHL’s best road team (13-9-2) early in the second period.

Hull, who also had an assist, extended his point-scoring streak to 12 games.