Two More Marks for Messier

With Mark Messier passing another pair of milestones in his Hall of Fame career, the New York Rangers are starting to look like a championship team.

Messier scored two goals and assisted on two others to become only the fifth player in NHL history to register 1,500 points as the Rangers defeated the Florida Panthers, 7-3, on Sunday at New York.

Messier also passed John Bucyk for 12th place on the NHL’s all-time goal-scoring list with his 557th, but it was the victory he was beaming about after the game.

“We beat a team that is one of the best in the league right now,” Messier said. “We skated well, took the body and played a solid game for 60 minutes. It was nice to win a game in our conference and especially in our division.”

For one night the Ranger offense didn’t revolve completely around NHL scoring leader Wayne Gretzky, who stretched his point-scoring streak to 11 games with an assist. Alexei Kovalev and Niklas Sundstrom each scored two goals, and Brian Leetch registered four assists. Ranger goaltender Mike Richter ran his unbeaten streak to 11 games (10-0-1).

“I don’t think we played a better game this year,” said Ranger Coach Colin Campbell.

The rout against what was the league-leading defense going into the game chased goaltender John Vanbiesbrouck from the net after two periods.

“I didn’t get the job done,” Vanbiesbrouck said. “We got clobbered. You can make any excuses you want, but that’s what happened.”

Messier’s 17th and 18th goals keyed a three-goal outburst from the Rangers in the second period that put the game out of reach. Messier’s short-handed breakaway score at 7:44 tied him with Bucyk at 556, then his four-on-four goal off a give-and-go with Leetch at 15:19 left him in sole possession of 12th place, three goals behind Guy Lafleur’s mark of 560.

Detroit 6, Edmonton 2--Brendan Shanahan, Vyacheslav Kozlov and Jamie Pushor scored consecutive goals in the second period as the Red Wings defeated the Oilers at Edmonton, extending the Oilers’ winless streak to seven games.

Edmonton led, 2-1, after 20 minutes and Shanahan’s power-play goal 2:23 into the second period tied it. Kozlov added his 10th goal on a long shot that deflected past Edmonton goaltender Curtis Joseph, and defenseman Jamie Pushor’s long shot also found the net through a screen during the Red Wing rally.

Philadelphia 2, Blackhawks 2--The Flyers’ four-game shutout and seven-game winning streaks ended but they still rallied to tie the Blackhawks at Chicago when Eric Lindros scored twice in a 48-second span of the second period.

Garth Snow made 30 saves for the Flyers, 9-0-2 since last losing Nov. 27. Snow, who was in net for two of the four shutouts, was beaten by Sergei Krivokrasov 2:38 into the game--the first goal Philadelphia allowed in more than 265 minutes.

Tony Amonte also scored and Ed Belfour stopped 25 shots for the Blackhawks, who played much harder and better than they had in recent weeks but couldn’t protect a 2-0 first-period lead.

Calgary 7, Phoenix 2--German Titov sparked a three-goal first period with a pair of power-play goals and recorded his second career hat trick as the Flames defeated the Coyotes at Phoenix.

Todd Hlushko, Jarome Iginla, Theoren Fleury and Ron Stern also scored for the Flames, who posted their first victory over Phoenix since March 17, 1995 when the team was the Winnipeg Jets. The Coyotes/Jets had won six in a row against Calgary.

Keith Tkachuk and Darrin Shannon scored for the Coyotes, who had their four-game winning streak ended.