NHL PLAYOFFS : Hextall Has Last Word in New York

At the end of the New York Rangers’ first-round series with the Quebec Nordiques, the Madison Square Garden crowd had chanted, “We want Hextall.”

Wednesday night, they got him.

Or, more accurately, he got them.

Ron Hextall was greeted with derisive chants of “Hex-tall! Hex-tall!” by fans who hoped to see the goaltender who faded quickly while with the New York Islanders in last year’s four-game sweep by the Rangers, then en route to the Stanley Cup.

In Philadelphia’s 5-2 victory at New York, he showed them the Hextall who helped the Flyers gain the Stanley Cup finals in 1987 and was voted the playoff MVP.

His play helped Philadelphia to a 3-0 lead in the Eastern Conference semifinal series.

“I wasn’t concerned about coming in here,” Hextall said. “I don’t care where I play. I’m a professional and I just want to be at the top of my game, whenever it is, wherever it is.”

The last time Hextall appeared in the Garden in a playoff game, he was a 6-0 loser as an Islander.

Wednesday, with a different supporting cast, he made 32 saves.

“Hexy’s a veteran. He’s crafty. He’s been through much worse than the crowd getting on him a little,” Flyer forward John LeClair said. “His kind of intensity feeds off the crowd’s intensity. Veterans know how to do that.”

Kevin Dineen scored two unassisted goals for the Flyers and Mikael Renberg, Rod Brind’Amour and Kevin Haller had one apiece.

New Jersey 5, Pittsburgh 1--The Devils, who had been taking their time in scoring in this series, hurried at East Rutherford, N.J., riding a three-goal second period that featured goals by fourth-liners Randy McKay and Bobby Holik.

It gave New Jersey a 2-1 lead in the series. It also gave Penguin Coach Ed Johnstone cause for anger after his team sent only 22 shots at Devil goalie Martin Brodeur and was outshot, 17-3, in the first period.

“You can’t expect to win a hockey game when you have four or five passengers out there,” he said. “Except for the big line, I think we had a lot of forwards out there that didn’t show up. They wanted the game more than us. I just can’t understand when you get into a playoff game how you can come up with an effort like that.”

John MacLean, Claude Lemieux and Scott Niedermayer also scored for New Jersey, which took 45 shots.

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NHL Notes

The NHL will hold a draft lottery June 4 in New York to determine the order for teams that didn’t make the playoffs. Ottawa, the New York Islanders, the Mighty Ducks, Tampa Bay and Edmonton are eligible for the top draft choice and Winnipeg, the Kings, Montreal, Boston (on a choice acquired from Hartford) and Florida will also participate in the lottery to try to improve their draft positions. . . . Steve Kasper has agreed to a two-year contract to coach the Boston Bruins.