NHL ROUNDUP : Penguins Roll to Fastest Start

The Pittsburgh Penguins, led by Shawn McEachern’s two goals, set a team record for their best start in a season with a 5-2 victory over the New York Islanders at Uniondale, N.Y.

The Penguins, the only unbeaten team in the NHL, improved to 9-0-1.

Jaromir Jagr had a goal and three assists as the Penguins continued to win without many of their top players. Mario Lemieux, Tom Barrasso, Kevin Stevens and Luc Robitaille are out for various reasons. Ken Wregget, who has played exclusively in goal for the Penguins in Barrasso’s absence, stopped 32 shots.

“It sounds funny to say, but I think Pittsburgh is a harder-working team without Mario,” said Ray Ferraro of the Islanders, “because if things get tough, they usually depend on him to bail them out. They’ve shown they are a very deep offensive team.”

Pittsburgh, however, leads Quebec (9-1-0) by only one point despite its hot start.

“Quebec--when are they going to learn to give up?” said defenseman Larry Murphy. “We have to be careful now and improve our game.”

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Chicago 5, St. Louis 0--Ed Belfour got his third shutout in four starts and Patrick Poulin and Bernie Nicholls scored two goals apiece to lead the Blackhawks at St. Louis.

It was the fifth consecutive road victory for the Blackhawks, playing the seventh game of an eight-game trip. Chicago got a three-for-five effort from its top-ranked power play unit.

The Blues had entered as the league’s highest-scoring team with 41 goals and a 6-2-1 record, matching the fastest start in franchise history.

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New Jersey 4, New York 1--Defenseman Bruce Driver set up three goals to lead the Devils to their first regular-season victory over the Rangers in two years at East Rutherford, N.J., in their first meeting since their seven-game Eastern Conference final last season.

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Florida 3, Philadelphia 0--John Vanbiesbrouck made 26 saves as the Panthers handed the Flyers their second consecutive shutout loss at Philadelphia.

The last time Philadelphia was shut out in consecutive games was in 1973.

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Vancouver 5, Winnipeg 1--Jeff Brown scored two goals to lead the Canucks to their first home victory of the season.

Trevor Linden assisted on both of Brown’s goals for the Canucks.

Kirk McLean had 21 saves for Vancouver, which has won all five meetings with Winnipeg over the past two seasons.

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Quebec 4, Boston 3--Joe Sakic scored 45 seconds after Wendel Clark broke a 2-2 tie with his third goal of the game to lead the Nordiques at Boston.

The Bruins got one back on a goal by Adam Oates with 6:45 to go. But Stephane Fiset stopped Boston from there--diving onto the puck during a scramble with 37 seconds left to kill Boston’s best chance to tie it. Fiset had 35 saves for his eighth victory of the season.

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NHL Notes

The Pittsburgh Penguins’ Luc Robitaille received a two-game suspension and $500 fine for high sticking Bruce Driver of the New Jersey Devils last Saturday. Robitaille, however, has served the suspension by sitting out of Tuesday’s game against Florida and Thursday’s game against the New York Islanders.