NHL ROUNDUP : Senators Finally Win Again

For the Ottawa Senators, winning the second time was much better than the first. Unfortunately, it took them nearly two months to do it.

“It’s a better feeling than beating Montreal on opening night,” said Mike Peluso, after scoring two goals as the expansion Senators ended a 21-game winless streak with a 3-1 victory over the New Jersey Devils on Wednesday night at Ottawa, Canada.

“We were a desperate hockey club.”

Jamie Baker also scored for Ottawa (2-20-1). Goaltender Peter Sidorkiewicz, playing in his 200th game, stopped 26 shots.

It was Ottawa’s first point since a 2-2 tie against Buffalo on Oct. 31 and first victory since a 5-3 decision over Montreal on Oct. 8. The NHL winless record is 30 games, set by Winnipeg in 1980-81.

“Utter relief,” Ottawa Coach Rick Bowness said. “Never, ever, ever do I want to go through this again.”

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San Jose 4, Calgary 3--Tom Pederson’s goal on a 70-foot shot in overtime, his second of the game, gave the Sharks a victory at Calgary. The goal also helped the first-place Kings move four points ahead of the Flames in the Smythe Division.

Pederson, who earlier in the game had scored his first NHL goal, beat goalie Jeff Reese with a long shot at 3:53 that seemed to dip at the last moment.

The Sharks had tied it with a power-play goal by Kelly Kisio in the final minute of the third period. The goal came at 19:16 when Kisio blocked a clearing attempt by Paul Ranheim inside the Calgary zone to set up the scoring sequence.

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N.Y. Rangers 11, Pittsburgh 3--Darren Turcotte’s second goal of the game broke a second-period tie and started an eight-goal outburst as the Rangers ended the Penguins’ 20-game home ice unbeaten streak.

Adam Graves scored three goals, Mark Messier had two goals and three assists and Turcotte added two goals and two assists for the Rangers, who were 1-5-1 in their previous seven games.

The Penguins were the NHL’s only unbeaten team at home this season with a 9-0-2 record. They were 18-0-2 in the regular season at the Civic Arena since an 8-4 loss to Hartford last Feb. 27, matching the club-record unbeaten streak set when they went 12-0-8 during the 1974-75 season.

The Rangers’ 11 goals were the most by a Pittsburgh opponent in the Civic Arena, breaking the record of 10 set by Edmonton in a 10-7 victory on Feb. 19, 1983. The eight-goal margin also tied the worst home loss in Penguin history, set three other times.

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Detroit 11, St. Louis 6--The Red Wings reached double figures in consecutive games for the first time in franchise history as they routed the Blues at Detroit.

Detroit, which defeated Washington, 7-5, last Friday and Tampa Bay, 10-5, on Monday, also set a team record for goals in three games with 28, breaking a record set in 1945. The 21 goals in two games tied a record for back-to-back games, also set in 1945.

At one point, Detroit scored six goals in nine shots and won for the sixth time in seven games.

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Vancouver 4, Minnesota 2--Sergio Momesso broke a second-period tie by scoring 33 seconds after the North Stars had rallied from a two-goal deficit to spark the Canucks at Bloomington, Minn. The victory, Vancouver’s third in a row, ended Minnesota’s three-game winning streak.

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Montreal 6, Hartford 1--Vincent Damphousse scored three goals and assisted on another as the Canadiens scored three power-play goals at Hartford.

Brian Bellows and Eric Desjardins scored the other two power-play goals as Montreal, which converted only three of its previous 40 power-play attempts on the road. Kirk Muller had three assists and Guy Carbonneau assisted on a goal by Gilbert Dionne for his 500th NHL point.

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Quebec 1, Buffalo 1--The Nordiques’ Mike Ricci and Sabres’ Dave Andreychuk scored at Buffalo. The tie extended the Sabres’ winless streak to six games, during which they have gone 0-4-2. The Nordiques have lost only one of their last nine games (5-1-3).

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Washington 6, Boston 2--The Capitals won their first game at Landover, Md., in nearly six weeks as Al Iafrate had a goal and three assists to lead the way. Jim Hrivnak stopped 32 shots to help Washington move into a fourth-place tie with Philadelphia in the Patrick Division.