NHL ROUNDUP : On a Night of the Old, Bruins Ring in New

The New York Rangers decided to take nostalgia to extremes Thursday, taking the train to Boston to play the Bruins on opening night in the NHL. After all, it was a night to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the league, with the original six cities playing each other in old-time uniforms.

And the Rangers were playing in the Boston Garden, an NHL relic.

But the Bruins trotted out a new, high-powered attack under rookie Coach Rick Bowness to beat New York, 5-3.

The offense was something of a surprise for a Boston team that had scored only 18 goals in eight exhibition games, and which was without injured Cam Neely, a 51-goal scorer a year ago.

The Bruins got the first nine shots and weathered a second-period comeback that trimmed a 4-1 lead to 4-3.

“We had a brutal first period,” Ranger Coach Roger Neilson said.

While the Rangers struggled offensively, Bob Sweeney, Ray Bourque, Bob Carpenter and Ken Hodge built a 4-1 Boston lead.

“That’s the way we’re going to have to win,” said Bowness, who took over when Mike Milbury stepped down as coach and became assistant general manager after last season. “Power-play goal, short-handed goal. It’s not going to be one guy carrying the team.”

Montreal 4, Toronto 3--Guy Carbonneau scored a key third-period goal as the Canadiens won at home after a half-hour on-ice tribute to more than 40 former Canadiens and Maple Leafs, the NHL’s two oldest clubs.

Carbonneau followed Mike McPhee’s rush to the net and flipped the puck over Toronto goaltender Grant Fuhr to break a tie 2:50 into the third period.

Russ Courtnall, Sylvain Turgeon and John LeClair also scored for the Canadiens.

Detroit 3, Chicago 3--Michel Goulet scored twice and Jimmy Waite, playing for unsigned Ed Belfour, the NHL’s Vezina Trophy winner as the top goalie, stopped 25 shots for Chicago at home.

Goulet’s 488th and 489th career goals in the first period rallied Chicago from a 2-0 deficit.

Waite, playing in his 17th NHL game, made a brilliant stop of a shot by Sergei Fedorov at 9:10 of the second period with the score tied, 2-2. Then, at 7:33 of the final period with the score tied, 3-3, Paul Ysebaert broke out of the pack along the right boards, but Waite kicked out his 15-footer.

With Detroit’s Bob Probert assessed a game misconduct and a five-minute fighting penalty for stomping on Stu Grimson, Adam Creighton tied the game when he stuffed the puck in from outside the crease at 3:50.