Scoring in Ranger Defeat Is No Thrill for Gretzky

The scoring drought is over for Wayne Gretzky, but as far as he’s concerned he’s still in a slump.

And so are the New York Rangers, who were hammered, 7-2, at Hartford on Friday night and are 0-4-2 in their last six games.

Gretzky had gone 21 games since scoring his 17th goal on Dec. 30 at Dallas, and the 854th goal of his career came on a 50-foot shot at 17:54 of the second period.

By then the Rangers were trailing, 5-0.

“Ending that [drought] means nothing at all,” Gretzky said. “The way we lost, it was just a lackluster effort all the way around.”

Kelly Chase’s first goal of the season started a three-goal surge in a 3:04 span of the opening period. Kevin Haller and Steven Rice had the other goals.

Keith Primeau, Andrew Cassels, Glen Wesley and Sami Kapanen also scored for the Whalers.

“On the second and fourth goals, losing faceoffs was my responsibility and that’s not good,” Gretzky said. “With 23 games left, we’re sliding into a pattern and it doesn’t happen overnight and getting out of it isn’t going to happen overnight. Every guy really has to understand we have a responsibility to the hockey club.”

Dallas 4, Calgary 2--Sergei Zubov scored the first of the Stars’ three second-period goals in a victory at Dallas.

The Stars trailed, 1-0, until Zubov’s ninth goal at 5:57 of the second period tied it. Dallas goalie Andy Moog collected the 24th assist of his career on the play.

Buffalo 5, N.Y. Islanders 2--Jason Dawe scored one goal and set up another for the Sabres, who extended their unbeaten streak to 11 games (6-0-5) with a victory in Buffalo.

Colorado 4, Edmonton 3--Joe Sakic scored the tying goal with one second to play in regulation and set up Mike Ricci’s game-winner 2:26 into overtime for the Avalanche, which won in Edmonton for its fifth victory in a row.