NHL ROUNDUP : Canadiens Net Victory Courtesy of Verbeek, 7-5

Pat Verbeek of the Hartford Whalers scored what proved to be the game-winning goal from 185 feet away. Unfortunately, it was into his team’s own net.

It was that kind of night for the Whalers, who lost to the Montreal Canadiens, 7-5, Sunday night at Hartford.

“Talk about a fluke. That’s a fluke,” Montreal Coach Jacques Demers said. “But we’ve been struggling ourselves lately, so we’ll take anything we can get.”

With Hartford goalie Mario Gosselin off during a delayed penalty call, Verbeek tried to center from behind the Montreal net to Murray Craven. But the puck sailed through the Canadiens’ zone untouched, continued down ice and landed dead-center in the empty net.

Kirk Muller was credited with his second goal of the game, giving the Canadiens a 6-1 lead.

It wasn’t the first time that Verbeek scored into his own team’s empty net. Nine seasons ago while playing with the New Jersey Devils against Hartford, Verbeek won a faceoff and drew the puck into his own net.

“That’s unbelievable. All you can do is laugh it off,” Verbeek said of doing it again. “I’ve got to start scoring into the other net instead of mine.”

Brian Bellows also scored two goals for Montreal. Patrice Brisebois, Brian Skrudland and Ed Ronan each had one goal. The Canadiens regained first place in the Adams Division, one point ahead of Quebec.

Geoff Sanderson scored two late power-play goals for the Whalers. Terry Yake, Poulin and Nick Kypreos also scored.

Buffalo 5, Calgary 3--Pat LaFontaine completed a hat trick with the go-ahead goal midway through the third period and Alexander Mogilny added his league-leading 41st goal to lead the Sabres at Buffalo.

The victory extended the Sabres’ winning streak to six games.

LaFontaine broke a 3-3 tie with his 30th goal, which came at 10:41 of the third period. The Sabres had tied the score at 7:59 on a goal by Mogilny, who has an 11-game point-scoring streak.

Winnipeg 3, Pittsburgh 2--Phil Housley celebrated playing in his 800th NHL game by scoring a goal at 17:14 of the second period to cap a three-goal rally at Winnipeg.

Housley also assisted on goals by Teemu Selanne and Keith Tkachuk before scoring the game-winner after being set up in the slot by Selanne.

Larry Murphy and Joe Mullen scored in the first period for the Penguins, playing their third consecutive game without Mario Lemieux, the NHL scoring leader who has a back strain.

Philadelphia 4, Edmonton 0--Rookie Tommy Soderstrom stopped 29 shots at Philadelphia for his first NHL shutout.

Kevin Dineen and Mark Recchi each scored two goals for the Flyers, who were without rookie center Eric Lindros.

Lindros re-injured his left knee during Saturday’s 4-3 victory over the New York Rangers. He had fluid drained from the knee Sunday and is listed as day-to-day.

The Oilers are 0-7-1 in their last eight road games.

Ottawa 3, San Jose 2--Bob Kudelski had the first hat trick for the expansion Senators, and Ottawa broke an 11-game losing streak with the victory at Ottawa.

Kudelski, acquired in a trade from the Kings last month, scored his first two goals during Ottawa power plays--the first at 4:29 on a cross-crease pass and the second at 16:30 on a 20-foot wrist shot.

Kudelski added his third goal with 1:43 to play in the first period on a wrap-around from behind the San Jose net.