NHL ROUNDUP : Bruin Oldies Are Goodies in 5-3 Victory

They no longer have the reflexes or power of youngsters, so Gord Roberts and Reggie Lemelin have found other ways to win hockey games.

The Boston veterans used their experience and savvy Thursday night to give the Bruins a 5-3 victory over the Calgary Flames, with Roberts scoring the winning goal and Lemelin making several key saves.

Roberts, 35, scored on a backhanded shot through Mike Vernon’s legs with 2:32 to play to break a 3-3 tie.

“I’m not going to stand here and tell you I’m Brett Hull, and I know how to pick the corner,” Roberts said. “I’m just an old slug defenseman who got it on the net, and it went through his legs.”

Lemelin, 37, who is as much teacher as goaltender for the Bruins, stopped a breakaway and a three-on-one break to keep Boston in the game.

“You develop the mind of a computer,” Lemelin said. “If he doesn’t use that last one, he runs out of things to do.”

Roberts and Lemelin, who have 33 years of NHL experience between them, got help from rookies Joe Juneau and Dmitri Kvartalnov to move into a second-place tie with the Quebec Nordiques in the Adams Division.

Pittsburgh 4, Quebec 4--The Penguins remained unbeaten at home but failed to win when the Nordiques’ Martin Rucinsky scored in the third period after two goals by Joe Mullen. Mario Lemieux was held without a goal for only the third time in 18 games, but he assisted on both of Mullen’s goals as the Penguins improved to 7-0-2 at home.

Philadelphia 8, New York Islanders 5--Mark Recchi had two goals and four assists as the Flyers extended the Rangers’ losing streak to five games. The victory at Philadelphia ended a five-game Patrick Division losing streak for the Flyers.

The Philadelphia “Crazy Eights” line of Recchi (No. 8), Eric Lindros (No. 88) and Brent Fedyk (No. 18) accounted for the first four Flyer goals.

“They’ve really come up big for us the last couple games,” said Bill Dineen, Flyer coach.

Chicago 1, St. Louis 0--Jocelyn Lemieux scored the game’s only goal and Ed Belfour made 16 saves for the 11th shutout of his career as the Blackhawks leapfrogged idle Toronto and Tampa Bay to move into first place in the Norris Division at Chicago. The Blues dropped to 1-7-0 in the division, including two shutout losses to Chicago, which has won four in a row.

Winnipeg 7, Minnesota 2--Rookie Teemu Selanne had two goals and two assists and Rick Tabaracci made 39 saves as the Jets ended their eight-game road losing streak at Bloomington, Minn. Mike Eagles scored his first two goals and added an assist for the Jets, who posted their most lopsided victory of the season despite being outshot, 41-32.

Edmonton 4, San Jose 3--The Sharks made it close at San Jose when Lyndon Byers scored his first two goals of the season 3:09 apart in the third period. Petr Kilma scored his ninth goal of the season and assisted on Dave Manson’s goal to lead the Oilers.