NHL ROUNDUP : Oilers Trade Nicholls After 4-1 Defeat by Jets

The Edmonton Oilers lost a game, then traded away another big-name player.

After the Winnipeg Jets defeated the Oilers, 4-1, Wednesday night at Edmonton, center Bernie Nicholls was sent to the New Jersey Devils for center Kevin Todd and left wing Zdeno Ciger.

Nicholls, the former King who came to the Oilers as part of the Mark Messier deal with the New York Rangers in 1991, had eight goals and 32 assists in 46 games with Edmonton this season.

In the game, Teemu Selanne, the NHL’s highest-scoring rookie, eluded Esa Tikkanen to score one goal and set up two others.

Selanne assisted on goals by Mike Eagles and Alexei Zhamnov, and scored on the power play late in the game, his 36th goal of the season.

New York Rangers 5, Washington 4--Comebacks are nothing new when the Rangers and Capitals meet at Madison Square Garden. This time, though, it was the Rangers who came back.

The Capitals, who had overcome two-goal deficits to beat the Rangers in four of their last five meetings, blew a two-goal lead as New York rallied for a victory.

Trailing 3-1 eight minutes into the second period, the Rangers scored four unanswered goals, including Messier’s tiebreaker at 8:52 of the third period.

Detroit 5, Tampa Bay 3--Paul Ysebaert’s third-period goal broke a 3-3 tie as the Red Wings won at Detroit.

Detroit trailed, 3-2, after two periods but scored twice in the first 5:47 of the third to take the lead and hand the Lightning its eighth loss in nine games.

Montreal 7, Hartford 3--Stephan Lebeau scored two goals and helped set up two others as the Canadiens ended a three-game home losing streak.

Montreal scored three goals in a 47-second span of the first period. Kirk Muller finished a three-on-one by tapping in Kevin Haller’s rebound at 10:59. Eric Desjardins scored 21 seconds later, and Brian Skrudland scored on a deflection.

Toronto 4, St. Louis 3--Bob Rouse made up for two bad plays that led to St. Louis goals when he scored to trigger a three-goal third period as the Maple Leafs beat the Blues at Toronto.

Rouse, who inadvertently set up first-period goals by Brett Hull and Brendan Shanahan, scored off a pass from Doug Gilmour to tie the score, 2-2.