NHL ROUNDUP : Fedorov Making Great Strides for Red Wings

Who’s playing the greatest hockey these days?

Detroit’s Sergei Fedorov, according to Chicago Coach Darryl Sutter.

“Right now, he’s the best player in the league. So you’d better be able to neutralize him, and we didn’t,” Sutter said Tuesday night after Fedorov had two goals and an assist to lead the Red Wings to a 5-1 victory over the Blackhawks.

The three-point night gave Fedorov 58 points for the season, one shy of the Kings’ Wayne Gretzky, the NHL’s leading scorer.

Dino Ciccarelli, Greg Johnson and Ray Sheppard also scored for the Red Wings, who outshot Chicago, 31-22, in winning their eighth straight at Detroit.

Steve Smith scored for the Blackhawks, who had their unbeaten string ended at five.

Pittsburgh 8, Tampa Bay 3--Mike Ramsey and Rick Tocchet scored 35 seconds apart to start a five-goal second period that led the Penguins at Pittsburgh.

The Penguins are 8-2-4 in their last 14 games and ended Tampa Bay’s 3-0-1 road winning streak.

Eddie Johnston became Pittsburgh’s winningest coach with his 96th career victory, passing Scotty Bowman. With a career record of 96-135-42, Johnston also has the most losses among Pittsburgh’s 15 coaches.

Bryan Trottier had three assists for the Penguins, leaving him two short of 900.

Washington 4, Philadelphia 1--Dimitri Khristich had a goal and an assist as the Capitals won at Philadelphia.

The Flyers, who entered the game tied for second in the NHL in goals, have scored only 13 in their last eight games.

John Slaney, Sylvain Cote and Pat Peake also scored for Washington. Joseph Beranek scored for Philadelphia.

Ottawa 2, Quebec 1--The Senators scored twice in the opening 10 minutes on goals by Brad Shaw and Alexei Yashin and went on to win at Ottawa.

The Nordiques hit four goal posts, miscued on several other chances and were robbed by Senator goaltender Craig Billington on numerous occasions in losing for only the fourth time in 11 games.

Billington gave up only a goal by Andrei Kovalenko.

Vancouver 6, Edmonton 3--Murray Craven scored twice and Gino Odjick added his career-high 11th goal to break a 3-3 tie, leading the Canucks at Vancouver.

Odjick Had only 15 goals in his first three NHL seasons.