NHL ROUNDUP : Lemieux’s Injury, Loss Mar Banner Night

The Pittsburgh Penguins waited 24 years to celebrate the raising of a championship banner, but when the game was over, Saturday night belonged to the New York Rangers and the Penguins were worried about Mario Lemieux’s back.

Darren Turcotte scored a goal with 1:10 to play that gave the Rangers a 5-4 victory, but the Penguins started worrying earlier in the period when Lemieux left the game because of back spasms.

Before leaving the game with 8:58 to play, Lemieux had two assists that gave him 13 points in seven games. Lemieux has played only 85 games in the past two regular seasons because of back problems and subsequent surgery.

Vancouver 5, Calgary 2--Gino Odjick scored on a penalty shot in the third period to give the Canucks some breathing room in their victory at Calgary.

Odjick beat goaltender Mike Vernon cleanly on his first NHL penalty shot after he was hooked on a breakaway by Al MacInnis.

Doug Gilmour and Tim Hunter scored for the Flames.

Edmonton 4, N.Y. Islanders 2--Scott Mellanby’s second goal of the game at 6:15 of the third period broke a 2-2 tie to lead the Oilers past the Islanders at New York.

Mellanby, stationed in the low slot, deflected a point shot from defenseman Jeff Beukeboom between the pads of goalie Mark Fitzpatrick, making his first start of the season.

Washington 5, New Jersey 1--Dimitri Khristich scored two goals at New Jersey to lead the surging Capitals, who are off to their best start in franchise history with seven wins in eight games.

The Devils, who opened the season with four victories in a row, have lost four consecutive games. Claude Lemieux scored the New Jersey goal at 12:08 of the first period.

Hartford 4, Buffalo 1--Pat Verbeek, playing his first home game since ending his holdout earlier in the week, scored twice and had two assists in the Whalers’ victory over the Sabres.

Verbeek broke the 1-1 tie 26 seconds into the third period. Zarley Zalapski’s slap shot from the left point deflected off Clint Malarchuk’s blocker and mask. Verbeek got the rebound and shot it by the sprawled goaltender.

Detroit 6, Quebec 1--Steve Yzerman and Ray Sheppard each scored two goals and added one assist at Quebec to lead the Red Wings to their third win in a row.

Montreal 1, Philadelphia 0--Roland Melanson, making his first NHL start in three years, recorded a 22-save shutout at Philadelphia with the help of a controversial goal by Brent Gilchrist.

On Gilchrist’s goal, Guy Carbonneau drove down the right side and fired a pass that Gilchrist knocked past Philadelphia goalie Dominic Roussel. Replays showed that the puck scraped Gilchrist’s skate. Replay official Mike Condon ruled that it wasn’t an intentional attempt to guide the puck into the net.

Winnipeg 4, Toronto 2--Rookie Russ Romaniuk had a goal and an assist at Winnipeg to send the Maple Leafs to their fifth loss in a row. Danton Cole, Dean Kennedy and Teppo Numminen also scored for the Jets.

Toronto center Ed Olczyk had two assists to give him 300 for his NHL career.

Chicago 4, St. Louis 4--Brendan Shanahan scored his second goal of the game with five seconds left in regulation at St. Louis to lift the Blues to a tie with the Blackhawks.

The Blues had pulled goaltender Curtis Joseph for an extra attacker when Shanahan got his sixth goal, and fifth in three games, on the rebound of a shot from the point by Brett Hull.

Boston 4, San Jose 1--Andy Moog made 36 saves and Steve Leach scored two goals as the Bruins ended a five-game winless streak with a road victory over the Sharks.