It Was Only a Matter of Time for Flyers’ Lindros

Eric Lindros spoiled the New York Rangers’ Mike Richter’s shutout by breaking out of a personal shutout Wednesday night.

Philadelphia’s Lindros, who sat out the first 23 games of the season because of a groin injury, beat Richter on a slap shot from the top of the left circle to give the Flyers a 1-1 tie in New York.

It came at 13:25 of the third period after Dale Hawerchuk won a faceoff in the Rangers’ zone and passed the puck back.

“With Lindros, you know he’s going to get going some time,” said Ranger Coach Colin Campbell, who was visibly unhappy with his team’s performance. “We obviously didn’t carry the play. We were almost in a checking mode all night.”

That put the pressure on Richter, who spent the night sliding, kicking and catching 39 Flyers’ shots.

“When you’ve got guys as big as Lindros, John LeClair and Mikael Renberg in front of you, if you don’t get position you can’t move them out of the way,” Richter said.

Colorado 2, Edmonton 0--At Denver, goaltender Patrick Roy stopped 36 shots and established a franchise record with his fifth shutout of the season, and the Avalanche got a short-handed goal from Joe Sakic that broke a scoreless tie in the second period.

Detroit 2, Washington 0--Darren McCarty scored the third consecutive power-play goal for the Red Wings and Sergei Fedorov added a short-handed goal in a victory at Landover, Md.

Vancouver 7, Buffalo 6--Mike Sillinger drove the puck between Dominik Hasek’s goalie pads with 1:22 to play in overtime for a victory in Buffalo.

Martin Gelinas scored two unassisted goals for the Canucks, who overcame Michal Grosek’s first hat trick to end the Sabres’ three-game winning streak.

Pittsburgh 4, Ottawa 2--League leader Jaromir Jagr scored his 24th goal for the Penguins, who scored four times in just over eight minutes of the second period of a victory over Ottawa in front of 11,679, the smallest crowd so far at Corel Centre in Kanata.

San Jose 2, Dallas 1--The Stars outshot San Jose, 36-18, but goalie Kelly Hrudey turned back 35 of those shots and the Sharks got a short-handed goal from Marty McSorley in the second period of a victory in Dallas.

Boston 4, Montreal 3--Rob DiMaio scored with 4:11 to play for the Bruins, who had squandered a three-goal lead in Montreal.