Devil of an Opener for Red Wings

Brian Rolston and Steve Thomas scored 1:24 apart in the second period and the New Jersey Devils opened the season Saturday night at East Rutherford, N.J., with a 3-1 victory over a Detroit Red Wings team seemingly on the verge of a major trade.

Neither Paul Coffey, the NHL’s career leader in scoring among defensemen, nor holdout center Keith Primeau, were in the Red Wings’ lineup.

Both are reportedly about to be traded to the Hartford Whalers as part of a deal to bring Brendan Shanahan to Detroit.

New Jersey got both its goals early in the second period off Red Wing turnovers.

Boston 4, New York Rangers 4--Wayne Gretzky’s debut with the Rangers was a dud, but Mark Messier assisted on three goals as the Rangers erased a two-goal third-period deficit and tied the Bruins at Boston.

Gretzky, who joined the Rangers as a free agent, was scoreless and had no solid scoring chances in his two overtime shifts.

Dallas 4, Colorado 1--Craig Ludwig and Pat Verbeek scored in an 18-second span to touch off a four-goal outburst in the third period at Dallas.

Greg Adams added two insurance goals later in the period.

Tampa Bay 4, Pittsburgh 3--Shawn Burr one-handed a shot through Tom Barrasso’s legs 1:37 into overtime and the Lightning overcame Mario Lemieux’s tying goal with four seconds left at Pittsburgh.

Four of the six goals were scored in the final 4:40 as John Cullen and Dino Ciccarelli scored twice in a 21-second span to turn a 2-1 Tampa Bay deficit into a 3-2 lead before Lemieux tied it.

Montreal 3, Ottawa 3--A giveaway by Canadien goaltender Jocelyn Thibault led to Alexei Yashin’s tying goal at 9:53 of the third period at Montreal.

Thibault was out of the crease when he tried to clear the puck out of his zone. Steve Duchesne intercepted and Yashin was alone in front to tie the game.

Chicago 5, Washington 2--Denis Savard had a goal and an assist as the Blackhawks won their opener at Landover, Md.

Sergei Krivokrasov, Eric Weinrich and James Black scored during the second period for the Blackhawks, who got 21 saves from goalie Eddie Belfour.

Hartford 1, Phoenix 0--The Coyotes ran into a hot goaltender at Hartford in Sean Burke and lost their first game representing their new city.

Burke stopped 30 shots in sparking the Whalers past the Coyotes, who moved to Phoenix from Winnipeg.

Florida 3, Philadelphia 1--Panther goalie John Vanbiesbrouck made 31 saves as the Panthers christened the Flyers’ new arena, CoreStates Center.

Brad Smyth, Scott Mellanby and Johan Garpenlov scored for Florida.

New York Islanders 2, San Jose 2--Bernie Nicholls of the Sharks scored the tying goal early in the third period at San Jose.

Vancouver 3, Calgary 1--Alexander Mogilny and Esa Tikkanen scored first-period goals for the Canucks and Mats Naslund added insurance in the third period at Vancouver.