NHL ROUNDUP : Hull Completes His Checklist as Blues Win

Brett Hull of the St. Louis Blues had scored against every NHL team except the Whalers. It was his last chance this season Tuesday night at Hartford, and he made the most of it.

Hull perhaps buoyed by a trade that improved the Blues’ defense, scored twice to lead the Blues to a 4-1 victory over the Whalers.

The Blues improved the best record in the league to 89 points, three ahead of the Kings. Hull, who also had two assists to figure in every score, has 72 goals. He can tie Wayne Gretzky’s record by scoring 20 in the last 13 games.

But the Blues and Hull are more concerned with winning a Stanley Cup.

Before the trading deadline Tuesday afternoon, the Blues acquired two defensemen, Garth Butcher of Vancouver and Darren Veitch of Toronto. In the deal with the Canucks, the Blues also acquired high-scoring center Dan Quinn for four players not being used by the Blues.

“I don’t care about scoring against all clubs,” Hull said. “All I’m interested is that we keep on winning.

“I think we have made the moves that give us a great chance to win it all.

“From what I saw of our newcomers in a few minutes tonight, a couple of games, a couple of practices, and we are going to be awesome.”

The Hartford fans, upset about the way the team has played, had been further aggravated Monday when popular Ron Francis was traded to Pittsburgh in a six-player deal.

Although John Cullen, one of the players obtained by the Whalers, is fifth in scoring with 95 points, Francis is one of the best two-way forwards in hockey. He was playing out his with Hartford.

Pittsburgh 4, Vancouver 1--Even without Mario Lemieux this season, the Penguins’ problem has not been scoring goals.

In this romp over the Canucks at Pittsburgh, Mark Recchi scored his 35th goal and 100th point of the season. He led the Penguins to a club-record 10th consecutive home victory.

Lemieux scored his 10th goal and extended his scoring streak to 11 games.

It was the return to form of Lemieux that enabled the Penguins to give up offensive threat John Cullen for the Whalers’ Ron Francis.

With the victory, the Penguins moved to within one point of second-place Philadelphia in the Patrick Division.

In their last three games the Canucks, who were the busiest trader Tuesday, have been outscored, 19-2.

Toronto 6, Boston 3--A few more victories such as this one at Toronto will have the Maple Leafs starting to think about the playoffs.

Dave Hannan scored twice as the Maple Leafs played one of their best games of the season to beat the Adams Division leaders.

The Leafs, with 12 games remaining, are nine points behind Minnesota in the battle for the last playoff position in the Norris Division.

New York Islanders 4, New Jersey 3--The Islanders’ late rally at Uniondale, N.Y., spoiled the return of Tom McVie as coach of the Devils.

McVie, who replaced fired John Cunniff Monday night, coached the Devils in 1983-84.

The Devils took a 2-1 lead on John MacLean’s second goal of the game and his 40th of the season early in the final period.

After the Islanders scored twice, the Devils pulled even on Laurie Boschman’s goal with two minutes remaining.

Tom Fitzgerald scored his second goal of the season with 72 seconds left to end the Islanders’ six-game winless streak.

Edmonton 5, Winnipeg 4--Petr Klima scored his 32nd goal with one minute to play in regulation at Winnipeg to bring the Oilers back to .500 in the Smythe Division.

By winning, they moved 10 points ahead of the Jets, who recently lost four in a row to the Kings. The Jets, who are fourth in the Smythe, lead slumping Vancouver by only two points in the battle for the last playoffs spot.

Detroit 6, Quebec 3--Former King Jimmy Carson had his eighth career hat trick to lead the Red Wings at Detroit.

The Nordiques, easily the worst team in the NHL, stretched their latest winless streak to 11 (0-8-3).

Guy Lafleur of the Nordiques, who will retire again at the end of this season, had his ninth goal, the 557th of his career.

NHL TRADES: C8