NHL ROUNDUP : Red Wings Rebound to Rout Penguins, 8-0

After an embarrassing performance in Tampa two days before, the Detroit Red Wings came alive Friday night.

Detroit crushed the Stanley Cup champion Pittsburgh Penguins, 8-0--a big turnaround after a 6-4 loss to the expansion Tampa Bay Lightning on Wednesday.

“There has just been a different atmosphere since the Tampa game,” Steve Yzerman said. “It was different in the locker room after we lost, and it was different in practice yesterday.”

Jimmy Carson got his 10th career hat trick, and Yzerman scored twice, including his 400th career goal, to stop the Penguins at Detroit.

Pittsburgh was without injured Rick Tocchet and Kevin Stevens, and also lost Mario Lemieux, who left the game at 15:16 of the second period with a bruised heel.

“Mario’s not a serious injury,” Pittsburgh Coach Scott Bowman said. “He’s had a bruise for about 10 days, and he just got another shot on it.

“We’ve just played a lot of games, and we’ve got a lot injuries. We had nine guys playing tonight who didn’t play in the last Stanley Cup game.”

The victory was the second in six games for the Red Wings (9-8-0).

“When you aren’t playing well, it is nice to win a game like this,” Yzerman said. “Now we need it to carry over, and put some wins together.”

Tim Cheveldae made 28 saves for his fifth career shutout. Detroit outshot Pittsburgh, 40-10, in the first two periods.

Tampa Bay 1, Ottawa 0--The Lightning (9-8-2) won its fourth in a row to regain first place in the Norris Division by one point over idle Chicago, which has played two less games. Tampa Bay is 5-0-1 after losing four in a row.

The Lightning needed only Brian Bradley’s power-play goal at 17:32 of the first period at Tampa in the first meeting of the NHL’s expansion teams.

Ottawa lost its sixth in a row and fell to 1-15-1. The Senators have yet to win since an opening-night victory over Montreal.

The Senators’ best opportunities came in the third period, but Lightning goaltender Pat Jablonski made several good saves to preserve his first career shutout.

Buffalo 8, Hartford 2--Dave Andreychuk scored four goals and Dale Hawerchuk got his 700th NHL assist as the Sabres won at Buffalo. The Sabres scored four times in the second period to break a 2-2 tie, Alexander Mogilny starting the outburst with a breakaway goal 21 seconds into the period.

Andreychuk got his fourth goal on a power play at 4:10 of the third period, powering a shot from the slot past goalie Frank Pietrangelo.

New Jersey 3, Washington 0--The Devils scored three first-period goals and rode the goaltending of Craig Billington to victory at East Rutherford, N.J. Randy McKay, Bobby Holik and Bruce Driver scored in the first period against Jim Hrivnak, and it was more than enough for Billington. The Devils’ goaltender made 32 saves for his first shutout of the season.