NHL ROUNDUP : Hull’s Timely Goals Beat Devils, 5-3

Brett Hull is not only the leading scorer in the NHL, he also scores at the right time.

Hull scored twice to boost his total to 43 in leading St. Louis to a 5-3 victory over the New Jersey Devils at East Rutherford, N.J., Tuesday night, and each goal was a big one.

Cliff Ronning and Hull scored 65 seconds apart in the first period to stake the Blues to a 2-0 lead. Hull’s first goal was pure power--a rifle shot from the top of the right circle that blew past Devils netminder Sean Burke.

Hull came to the rescue in the second period to pick up his eighth game-winning goal of the season. Only 18 seconds after Claude Lemieux scored to pull New Jersey even at 3-3, Hull let go a wrist shot from an almost impossible angle deep in the right circle to put St. Louis back in front.

Calgary 5, Toronto 3--Joe Nieuwendyk and Brian MacLellan each scored twice as the Flames extended their unbeaten streak to five games (4-0-1) with the victory at Toronto.

Joel Otto scored the other goal for the Flames.

Kevin Maguire, Al Iafrate and Lucien DeBlois scored for the Leafs in the third period after Calgary had taken a 5-0 lead.

Quebec 4, Boston 2--Joe Sakic scored the winner as the Nordiques erased a two-goal deficit with three goals in five minutes in the second period at Quebec.

Claude Loiselle, Claude Lapointe and Everett Sanipass also scored for the Nordiques, who ended a three-game losing streak. Stephane Quintal and Dave Christian scored for the Bruins, who outshot the Nordiques, 34-28.

Pittsburgh 6, Edmonton 1--Jiri Hrdina and John Cullen each scored twice at Pittsburgh as the Penguins moved into second place in the Patrick Division ahead of the idle Philadelphia Flyers.

Goaltender Tom Barrasso won for the ninth time in his past 10 games for the Penguins, who are 11-4 in their last 15 games.

Minnesota 3, N.Y. Islanders 0--Brian Hayward faced only 15 shots at Uniondale, N.Y., and posted his second shutout of the season as the North Stars moved five points ahead of Toronto for the final playoff spot in the Norris Division.

Dave Gagner and Perry Berezan scored in the first period to give Hayward all the support he needed.

Doug Smail added a goal in the third period.

The loss was the third in four games for New York.

Vancouver 3, Buffalo 3--Dan Quinn scored with 31 seconds left in the third period at Vancouver to give the Canucks a tie with the Sabres.

Buffalo took a 3-1 lead in the third period on two goals by Pierre Turgeon. The Canucks battled back when Jay Mazur scored at 16:55, just 15 seconds after Turgeon’s second goal.

The Sabres, 6-0-2 in the last eight games, tried to hang on, but provided little protection for netminder Daren Puppa, who made several saves in overtime to preserve the tie.