NHL ROUNDUP : Small Crowd, Big Victory for Whalers, 4-1

In the NHL, teams aren’t supposed to have must-win games in October. But that was pretty close to the situation the winless Hartford Whalers faced Wednesday night before skating past the Ottawa Senators, 4-1, at the Hartford Civic Center.

Before only 7,628 fans, the fourth-smallest Hartford crowd ever, Geoff Anderson scored two third-period goals as the Whalers scored more than two goals for the first time this season.

“It was definitely a must-win,” Sanderson said. “That’s a team we have to beat every night.”

Andrew Cassels and Robert Petrovicky also scored and Randy Cunneyworth had two assists. Sylvain Turgeon scored his third goal for Ottawa.

The must-win theme was emphasized by Coach Paul Holmgren and the Whalers, who play host to Pittsburgh on Saturday before going on a three-game trip.

“We’ve got some tough games coming up, so winning takes off a little bit of the heat,” Holmgren said.

New York 6, New Jersey 1--John Vanbiesbrouck made 28 saves and extended his regular-season Madison Square Garden unbeaten streak to 16 games as the Rangers improved to 3-1-0 and avenged their only loss of the season.

Vanbiesbrouck and Mike Richter again are sharing the goaltending, and Vanbiesbrouck said he was happy to get a second crack at the Devils after losing Saturday night. The Devils also made things easy for Vanbiesbrouck and the Rangers by falling into an early three-goal deficit.

Darren Turcotte, Mark Messier and Sergei Nemchinov scored the first three goals and Messier closed the scoring on a short-handed breakaway with 58 seconds left. The goal was the 429th of his career, moving him past Yvan Cournoyer for 28th on the all-time list.

Winnipeg 7, Edmonton 3--Finnish rookie Teemu Selanne scored two of his three goals in the opening period at Winnipeg as the Jets ended a three-game losing streak. The Oilers (0-4-1) had two goals from Petr Kilma.

Winnipeg defenseman Phil Housley, who had three assists, collected the 500th of his career.