NHL ROUNDUP : Canadiens’ 61 Shots Pierce Penguins

The Pittsburgh Penguins had lost only one of the five games they had played after Mario Lemieux became sidelined because of a back injury.

But at Montreal Saturday night, Stephane Richer’s two breakaway goals triggered the Canadiens’ 11-1 romp past the Penguins.

The Penguins’ Frank Pietrangelo must have thought he was facing a firing squad as the Canadiens had a club-record 61 shots on goal. The record was 59, set in 1963 when the Canadiens were the dominant team in the NHL.

The loss dropped the Penguins into a tie for second place in the Patrick Division with the New York Islanders. Although the Penguins are only two points out of first place, they are only seven out of last place.

Boston 3, Minnesota 2--Garry Galley and Craig Janney scored goals 38 seconds apart late in the second period at Bloomington, Minn., and the Bruins became the first team in the NHL to reach 80 points.

Andy Moog weathered a first-period onslaught of 21 shots to improve his record to 21-10-4. The Bruins, who led the Adams Division by three points over Buffalo, have a 38-21-6 record.

New Jersey 3, Chicago 2--The Devils’ winless streak ended at East Rutherford, N.J., as former U.S. Olympic team goalie Chris Terreri stopped 46 shots, 39 of them in the last two periods.

The Devils took a 3-0 lead after 36 minutes, then let Terreri do the rest. He barely made it.

The Blackhawks fired 23 shots at Terreri in the second period without scoring, then managed to get two of 18 past him in the last period.

While Chicago was taking shots at a pace faster than one per minute in the last two periods, the Devils had only seven shots in 40 minutes.

New York Islanders 3, Detroit 3--Steve Yzerman wasn’t all that excited about scoring his 50th goal. The Red Wing star has scored at least 50 for the last three seasons.

But the first one this season by Gary Nylund was something to get excited about. It climaxed an Islanders’ rally at Uniondale, N.Y., that wiped out a three-goal deficit and ended a four-game losing streak.

Winnipeg 3, Hartford 1--Goaltender Bob Essena stopped 28 shots at Hartford to improve his record to 3-0 against the Whalers.

Despite the loss, the Whalers clinched a playoff berth in the Adams Division.

St. Louis 6, Quebec 1--Brett Hull scored his 58th goal and the Blues scored three goals in a five-minute span in the first period at Quebec. By losing, the Nordiques (10-46-6) became the first team in the league to be eliminated from playoff contention.