Cassels, Flames Manage to Slow the Avalanche

Andrew Cassels was fully aware the Calgary Flames had been down on their luck, losing 13 of 18 one-goal games.

The center had an answer to his club’s misfortune as he scored twice in the third period and the Flames stopped the Colorado Avalanche’s 10-game unbeaten streak, 3-1, Tuesday night at Denver.

“This team hasn’t been that far from winning more,” Cassels said. “We’ve been involved in so many one-goal losses where we would make a huge mistake or take a bad penalty and lose. Tonight we played cautiously, kept the puck out of the middle of the ice and eliminated our turnovers.”

They also got a third-period goal from Ed Ward as the Flames rallied from a 1-0 deficit after two periods. Goaltender Dwayne Roloson stopped 22 shots for Calgary, which won for only the second time in 10 games.

Calgary has the fewest road wins in the Western Conference (three), but won the season series from the Avalanche (3-1-1).

Joe Sakic scored for the Avalanche, 6-1-4 in its last 11 games. Colorado had not lost since Dec. 12--also by a 3-1 score, at Calgary.

“This ranks right up there with the biggest disappointments of 1997-98,” Colorado Coach Marc Crawford said. “We had about five guys who showed any inkling that they wanted to be here tonight.”

New York Rangers 4, Carolina 2--Rookie goaltender Dan Cloutier won his first NHL start and Brian Leetch scored two goals to give the Rangers a rare easy win at home.

The Rangers are only 8-9-6 at Madison Square Garden. Leetch’s goal at 7:41 of the first period marked only the fourth time in 23 home games that New York had scored first.

The Rangers won despite being limited to 17 shots. Wayne Gretzky contributed two assists.

Washington 5, Toronto 3--Adam Oates tied a team record with four assists in one period at Washington.

The Capitals, who scored 37 seconds into the game, led 4-0 after 14 minutes and cruised the rest of the way. Though they struggled early in their longest home stay of the season, they rallied to win three of their last four to finish the stretch 3-3-1.

Detroit 2, Phoenix 0--Backup goalie Kevin Hodson earned his third career shutout and the Red Wings ended the Coyotes’ five-game winning streak in the game at Detroit.

Vyacheslav Kozlov had a goal and an assist and Mike Knuble scored the other goal for Detroit, which had lost two in a row. The Coyotes had gone six consecutive games without a loss.

Pittsburgh 4, New York Islanders 2--Kevin Hatcher scored the go-ahead goal on a power play late in the second period at Uniondale, N.Y., and the Penguins sent the Islanders to their eighth consecutive loss.

Hatcher put the Penguins ahead, 3-2, with 51.5 seconds left in the second period. His wrist shot went between the legs of goalie Eric Fichaud.

St. Louis 5, San Jose 1--Craig Conroy scored 16 seconds into the game to jump-start the Blues at San Jose.

Al MacInnis had a goal and two assists and Jamie Rivers, Pavol Demitra and Jim Campbell added goals for the Blues.

St. Louis goalie Grant Fuhr, who has two shutouts this season, including the Blues’ 2-0 victory over the Sharks on Nov. 1, held back San Jose until Stephane Matteau scored in the third period.

Fuhr turned away 16 shots.