Flyers’ Lindros Makes the Most of His Chances

Eric Lindros scored his first two goals of the season and added an assist as the Philadelphia Flyers beat the Ottawa Senators, 5-3, Friday night before 19,231 at Philadelphia.

Trent Klatt scored what proved to be the game-winner when he slipped a short backhander between Damien Rhodes’ pads to make it 4-2 at 7:21 of the third period.

Lindros, in the option year of his contract and reportedly seeking a three-year, $30-million deal, scored the second goal of the game, set-up LeClair on the go-ahead goal and tallied the last score at 17:05 of the third.

He had been staying late after practice, working on his shooting.

“It’s when you don’t get your chances that you start worrying about things, but we’ve been getting our chances,” Lindros said.

The Flyers won their ninth in a row over Ottawa.

Detroit 8, Edmonton 2--The Red Wings spoiled the Oilers’ home opener, beating goaltender Curtis Joseph for five goals on 18 shots at Edmonton.

Joseph struggled before finally being replaced by Bob Essensa in the second period.

Detroit is 2-0 and makes its home-ice debut Wednesday against Dallas. The Oilers have not beaten the Red Wings in a regular-season game since the 1994-95 season, going 0-7-2.

St. Louis 7, Phoenix 2--Brett Hull and Al MacInnis each scored twice as the Blues won easily at St. Louis.

Kelly Chase, Geoff Courtnall and Marc Bergevin also had goals for the Blues, who scored on four of their first 10 shots against Phoenix goalie Nikolai Khabibulin.

Steve Duchesne and Pierre Turgeon contributed two assists apiece and goalie Grant Fuhr made 27 saves for St. Louis.

Hull, who has been the subject of trade rumors since the beginning of training camp, got the Blues off to a good start when he scored his first goal of the season 2:17 into the game.

New Jersey 4, Tampa Bay 3--Martin Brodeur turned away 18 shots as the Devils won their season opener at Tampa.

New Jersey hasn’t lost an opening game (7-0-2) since 1988 and the victory over the Lightning gave Devil coach Jacques Lemaire his 200th victory.

Washington 6, Buffalo 2--Peter Bondra celebrated his return to the ice by scoring twice in 55 seconds, sparking a four-goal third period that carried the Capitals past the Sabres at Landover, Md.

Olaf Kolzig stopped 21 shots for the Capitals, who improved to 2-0 under new coach Ron Wilson before a sellout crowd of 18,130.

Pittsburgh 4, Carolina 3--A new city, a new name and more fans couldn’t prevent a familiar result for the old Hartford Whalers.

Tyler Wright scored two goals in a win by the Penguins, spoiling the Hurricanes’ first game at Greensboro, N.C.

The game drew 18,661 to the 20,800-seat Greensboro Coliseum, which is serving as the Hurricanes’ home for two years until their new arena in Raleigh, about 90 miles away, is ready.

New York Rangers 2, New York Islanders 2--Pat LaFontaine’s power-play goal at 11:15 of the third period at New York lifted the home team Rangers to a tie with the Islanders in the season opener for both teams.

LaFontaine, playing his first game with the Rangers after sitting out most of last season because of a concussion and being traded by Buffalo on Monday, redirected a point shot from Alexander Karpovtsev past Islander goaltender Tommy Salo.

Colorado 4, Calgary 1--Peter Forsberg scored his first goal of the season and added an assist in leading the Avalanche at Calgary.

Forsberg snapped a shot past goaltender Rick Tabaracci from 15 feet out to open the game’s scoring at 9:25 of the first period. Adam Deadmarsh, Uwe Krupp and Jari Kurri also scored for Colorado.