Sabres Tie, Thanks to Hasek

Dominik Hasek doesn’t like playing at New York’s Madison Square Garden because he thinks it’s too hot.

There was no one hotter on the ice Friday night as the Buffalo goaltender made 55 saves to help the Sabres tie the New York Rangers, 3-3.

“I certainly wouldn’t want to play that goaltender in the playoffs,” Ranger Coach Colin Campbell said.

It was a costly game for the Rangers, who lost Pat Verbeek to a shoulder injury late in regulation. Verbeek, who has 38 goals, separated his right shoulder when crashing into a goalpost and will be out for four to six weeks.

New Jersey 6, New York Islanders 2--Islander Coach Mike Milbury lost it before his team did at East Rutherford, N.J. Milbury tossed at least two water bottles and a stick on the ice and shouted an obscenity at referee Mark Faucette after Steve Thomas scored into an empty net with 1:01 to go, the Devils’ third of four goals in the final 3:53.

Pittsburgh 5, Edmonton 4--Sergei Zubov scored once and set up four goals at Edmonton where the Penguins won despite the absence of Mario Lemieux.

Lemieux often sits out the second game when Pittsburgh plays consecutive nights. A noisy crowd of 16,437 showed up, expecting to see the league’s leading scorer do his stuff.

Instead, the fans watched strong performances by the supporting cast. Winger Brad Lauer also scored twice.

Pittsburgh’s other offensive leader, Jaromir Jagr, scored his 55th goal of the season.

The Penguins are 4-4-2 without Lemieux.

This was only Pittsburgh’s fourth victory over a 24-game span at Edmonton.

Tampa Bay 7, San Jose 3--Jason Wiemer and Brian Bellows each had hat tricks at San Jose where the Lightning won for the seventh time in their last eight games.

For Bellows, it was his sixth career hat trick, while Wiemer enjoyed his first.

Philadelphia 3, Ottawa 2--Shjon Podein’s controversial second goal of the game at Kanata, Canada, was the difference.

Podein, who hadn’t scored since Dec. 16, broke a 2-2 tie at 11:44 of the third period after Senator goalie Damian Rhodes appeared to stop his shot from close range. However, a replay showed the puck trickled just across the goal line before Rhodes swept it out with his arm.

Colorado 5, Chicago 3--Mike Keane ignited a four-goal rally at Denver, and later accounted for the go-ahead score on a short-handed goal, and Claude Lemieux had two goals and an assist.

It was the first loss of the season for Chicago when leading after the first period, leaving their record in that category at 23-1-3.

Winnipeg 5, Hartford 2--Defenseman Norm Maciver had a goal and two assists and Keith Tkachuk added his 38th goal at Hartford enabling the Jets pushed their winning streak to four games.

After going 14-6-1 for seven weeks to move into playoff contention, the Whalers have gone 0-3-1.

“We better wake up and realize the season is ending for us now,” Whaler captain Brendan Shanahan said. “Our playoff season is now, and if we take another week off like this, we’ll kill our chances.”