NHL ROUNDUP : Ottawa Still Perfectly Bad (0-15) on Road

The expansion Ottawa Senators remained perfect on the road Thursday. In 15 games, they have 15 losses.

At least they are getting closer, as they used tight defense to stay with the Boston Bruins for more than two periods before the Bruins shook them off for a 4-2 victory. It was the Bruins’ worst performance of the season.

Ottawa tied the score, 2-2, early in the third period, but Ted Donato broke the tie for Boston 88 seconds later. Dave Reid added a late goal for the Bruins.

“We’ve cut down on our goals-against a lot. We put a lot of emphasis on it,” Ottawa Coach Rick Bowness said. “Obviously, we’re not going to score a lot of goals and if we’re going to win some games we’ve got to keep the opposition down. We’ve been doing a good job of that.”

The Bruins were outplayed and nearly outshot by the Senators but won on goals by Joe Juneau, Adam Oates, Donato and Reid.

Norm Maciver and Sylvain Turgeon scored for the Senators, who have won only three of 31 games in their inaugural season.

“I’m sure it’s a lot easier for them to get up for us. It’s not like Montreal coming in here for us,” said Ray Bourque, Bruin defenseman. “It was frustrating in a sense that we couldn’t do as much as we wanted to do offensively.”

Chicago 5, NY Islanders 3--Jeremy Roenick had two goals and two assists as the Blackhawks rallied to take over the Norris Division lead in Chicago.

Power-play goals by Steve Larmer and Steve Smith in the final period, both set up by Roenick, erased a 3-2 deficit as the Blackhawks extended their home unbeaten string to 10 games (8-0-2). Chicago’s seventh consecutive home victory moved the Blackhawks past Minnesota by one point.

Larmer, playing in his 838th consecutive NHL game, tied the score, 3-3, at 4:27 when he knocked in a shot past Glenn Healy on a power play. At 7:46, with the Blackhawks working with another power play, Smith scored on a slap shot from the left point to give Chicago a 4-3 lead.

Edmonton 3, Minnesota 2--Shayne Corson deflected a power-play goal past goalie Jon Casey with 2:10 remaining as the Oilers rallied from a third-period deficit in Minnesota. It was the first time in 15 games this season the North Stars have lost when leading after two periods.

Minnesota, which also had a five-game winning streak ended, entered the third period with a 2-1 lead. But Esa Tikkanen scored a short-handed goal at 2:35 and Corson tipped Dave Manson’s shot from the point past Casey, who gave up goals on two of the five third-period shots he faced.

St. Louis 3, San Jose 2--Nelson Emerson scored the tiebreaker at 15:08 of the second period, lifting the Blues over the Sharks at Daly City.

The Sharks, 5-23-1 and in last place in the Smythe Division, extended their losing streak to seven games. San Jose has only won twice in its last 16 games. It was its sixth home loss in a row, a record for the two-year-old franchise.

Emerson’s shot went between Brian Hayward’s legs to break a 1-1 tie.