NHL ROUNDUP : Devils, Sabres Score Early, Not Late, End Up Tied, 8-8

Buffalo and New Jersey almost wore themselves out scoring goals Wednesday night at East Rutherford, N.J.

The game wound up an 8-8 tie. After scoring 16 goals in 49 minutes, neither team scored in the last 16, including the five-minute overtime.

Dave Andreychuk’s 300th goal at 8:55 of the final period brought the Sabres even, and it turned out to be the last goal of the game.

Between them the two teams had 82 shots, 46 by the Devils. But there were only 15 shots in the last 16 minutes.

All four goalies in uniform played. Clint Malarchuk started for Buffalo and gave up seven goals on 31 shots; Daren Puppa gave up one on 15 shots in the last 19 minutes.

For the Devils, Chris Terreri gave up all eight goals, and Craig Billington faced only three shots after Andreychuk’s goal.

The Sabres are 1-8-3 in their last 12 road games.

Andreychuk also had three assists, and linemate Dale Hawerchuk had five assists.

Only 21 seconds before Andreychuk made the last goal of the game, Doug Brown had put New Jersey ahead with a short-handed goal.

Vancouver 5, Edmonton 3--At home or on the road, the Canucks are proving to be the best team in the Smythe Division.

Igor Larionov scored twice at Edmonton to lead the Canucks to their second consecutive road victory. His second goal ended an Oilers’ rally and enabled the Canucks to increase their lead over the second-place Calgary Flames to 11 points.

Former King Bernie Nicholls had a goal and an assist for the Oilers.

The Canucks still have three games left on their trip.

Boston 4, Hartford 3--Cam Neely scored twice in the first five minutes of the last period at Hartford, Conn., to help the Bruins continue their mastery over the Whalers.

The Whalers scored the first two goals, but failed to beat the Bruins for the 10th consecutive time. They have lost nine and tied one.

Neely broke the tie with his seventh goal on a pass from Ray Bourque 41 seconds into the third period, then scored again at 4:50 to give the Bruins a 4-2 lead.

Minnesota 5, Montreal 2--Dave Gagner triggered a three-goal outburst in slightly more than three minutes late in the second period at Bloomington, Minn.

The North Stars had 51 shots, one short of the most ever allowed by the Canadiens.

Patrick Roy, who began the game with the NHL’s best goals-against average (1.91), stopped 33 of 34 shots until Gagner started the winning rally.