Popular Milestone in This Game Is 500

On a night when Montreal’s Mark Recchi played his 500th consecutive game, the Ottawa Senators also reached .500.

Defenseman Chris Phillips scored at 3:51 of overtime to give Ottawa a 4-3 win over the Canadiens on Tuesday night, pushing the Senators’ record to 17-17-4.

“Our goal was to reach .500 before the Christmas break,” Phillips said. “We worked hard both games to get it.”

Recchi, who injured his left forearm during Monday night’s tie with Edmonton, scored his 17th goal at 10:23 of the third period to tie the score at 3-3 and force overtime.

Philadelphia 4, Carolina 2--Defenseman Eric Desjardins had a goal and an assist at Philadelphia and the Flyers extended their unbeaten streak to eight.

Shjon Podein, Chris Gratton and Rod Brind’Amour also scored for the Flyers (6-0-2).

Washington 1, New Jersey 1--Kelly Miller scored a short-handed goal with 12:17 remaining in the third period, giving the Capitals a tie at Washington.

Detroit 3, Buffalo 1--Defenseman Anders Eriksson scored the winning goal for the second night in a row, leading the Red Wings past the Sabres at Buffalo.

Eriksson’s goal with 1:48 left in the second period snapped a 1-1 tie. Buffalo goalie Dominik Hasek had not allowed a goal in 138 minutes 48 seconds until Darren McCarty scored a short-handed goal in the first period.

New York Rangers 4, Tampa Bay 1--The Rangers used three assists from Wayne Gretzky to beat the Lightning at New York after Madison Square Garden President Dave Checketts had threatened a team shake-up.

New York is 2-8-1 its last 11 games against Tampa Bay.

Toronto 5, Edmonton 4--The Maple Leafs took advantage of a tired Oiler team at Toronto. “We’ve been in 16 airports in 21 days,” said Edmonton goalie Curtis Joseph, whose team was playing its third game in four nights. “I think the Leafs know they didn’t see the real Oilers tonight.”

St. Louis 3, Florida 2--Jim Campbell scored a goal and added an assist as the Blues extended their unbeaten streak to four games (2-0-2) at Miami.

Calgary 2, Phoenix 2--Ed Ward scored his first goal of the season with 1:16 remaining to give the Flames the tie at Phoenix.

Dallas 3, Vancouver 1--The Stars scored on all three of their power-play chances at Vancouver and extended their winning streak to four games.

NHL Notes

Pittsburgh Penguin star Jaromir Jagr, who has been on the verge of signing a seven-year, $53-million deal that would be among the NHL’s richest, now says he wants a four-year contract for the same average salary because he fears an expensive, long-term contract could get him traded if the Penguins experience money trouble.