Maple Leafs Finally Get Road Win

For the first time in 5 1/2 weeks, the Toronto Maple Leafs won on the road, beating the Blackhawks at Chicago, 3-1, Monday night.

“We aren’t going anywhere if we can’t win on the road,” said Kirk Muller, who scored twice as the Maple Leafs ended a nine-game road losing streak. “We deserve the criticism we’ve gotten. This was a big step. This is a tough place to win.”

It used to be.

But the Blackhawks are 5-9 at the United Center this season and have lost four in a row at home. They are 2-9-1 overall since Nov. 14, and held an intense half-hour meeting after the game to discuss their problems.

“We won games before. We were right at the top for a while with the same guys,” defenseman Eric Weinrich said, referring to the team’s 10-6-2 start. “Now we’re losing and maybe all the same guys are not doing the same things. But we can’t be negative. That just leads to more frustration.”

Felix Potvin made 29 saves for the Maple Leafs, who won for only the fourth time in 14 games.

New York Rangers 5, Phoenix 2--After a disappointing start this season, the Rangers are finally playing up to their potential, as Niklas Sundstrom scored two goals and Wayne Gretzky had three assists in the victory at New York,

Mike Richter made 31 saves and Pat Flatley added an assist for his 500th career point for New York, which extended its unbeaten streak to seven games (6-0-1) and evened its record at 13-13-5.

“Throughout this stretch we have played strong as a team,” Gretzky said. “If we break down, we get a big save from the goaltender or someone on defense makes a big hit or we get a power-play goal. Everyone seems to be going in a positive direction.”

Despite being outshot 15-7 in the first period, the Rangers emerged with a 2-1 lead on a pair of goals from Sundstrom, who scored on the first shot of the game after taking a cross-ice pass from Luc Robitaille. Sundstrom’s second goal of the period, at 18:45, came after he took a pass from Brian Leetch.