NHL ROUNDUP : Hull Gets Back on Track for Blues

The Quebec Nordiques knew they were in for trouble. Hockey’s hottest scorer failed to get a goal in his previous two games.

Brett Hull scored twice, including the tiebreaker with 74 seconds to play Tuesday night at St. Louis and the Blues won, 4-2.

It was the 11th consecutive loss for the Nordiques, who outplayed Montreal Sunday night but lost in overtime.

In this game they battled the Norris Division leaders to the wire.

But, with overtime looming, Hull knocked in the rebound after goalie Ron Tugnutt stopped Rod Brind’Amour’s shot. Rich Sutter added an empty-net goal with 15 seconds left.

Hull had to control a wobbly puck on his fifth game-winning goal of the season and ended up with a sharp-angled shot as he skated close to the goal line.

“I wasn’t looking anywhere,” he said. “I just knew (Tugnutt) was down and I had to get the puck up. I was running out of room.”

Hull has 19 goals in 18 games and the Blues are off to their best start ever (13-4-1).

Still, the Blues said they didn’t play well much of the game. Hull said the Blues’ ineffective five-on-three advantage for more than a minute in the third period was “the worst I’ve ever seen. You’ve got to expect the best in every team, and we just took them lightly.”

The Blues are 11-1-1 since Oct. 14. And the are 6-1-1 on their home ice.

New Jersey 6, Montreal 3--Dave Maley and John MacLean scored 44 seconds apart in the middle of the third period at East Rutherford, N.J.

The victory ended the Devils’ three-game losing streak and left them only six points out offirst place in the Patrick Division.

It was only the Devils’ second victory in their last eight games against the Canadiens, who missed a chance to regain first place in the Adams Division.

New York Rangers 1, Philadelphia 1--In a tYpically tough battle between Patrick Division contenders at Philadelphia, the Flyers dominated, but couldn’t win.

After both teams scored in the second period, the Flyers did almost all the threatening. In the last 25 minutes, the Flyers outshot the Rangers, 14-5.

Flyer goalie Pete Peeters has yielded only one goal in the last 135 minutes.

The Flyers learned that Tim Kerr, their all-time leading goal-scorer will undergo knee surgery Friday.

Pittsburgh 4, Minnesota 1--Goalie Frank Pietrangelo emerged from the Penguins’ doghouse with a spectacular performance at Bloomington, Minn.

Pietrangelo, benched for two games after an indifferent performance, stopped 42 shots to help the Penguins win despite being outshot, 43-23.

Brian Bellows beat Pietrangelo in the second period, but the Penguins improved to 6-2-1 in their last nine games.