Islanders Uninspired by Milbury’s Return

Mike Milbury was behind the bench once again for the New York Islanders, but the struggling team still suffered a 2-1 loss to the Washington Capitals Thursday night at Uniondale, N.Y.

Milbury, the Islanders’ general manager, replaced Rick Bowness, who was fired on Wednesday. Milbury was 35-83-19 in a previous stint as coach of the team.

Peter Bondra scored twice for the Capitals and Bill Ranford stopped 32 shots to help spoil Milbury’s return.

Buffalo 3, San Jose 1--Dominik Hasek stopped 38 shots and just missed a shutout at Buffalo as the Sabres took advantage of a goal by Michael Peca 24 seconds into the game.

Hasek was 19 seconds away from his 10th shutout when John MacLean scored on a slap shot from the right circle.

Dixon Ward and Alexei Zhitnik also scored for Buffalo.

Montreal 4, New York Rangers 1--Marc Bureau missed a penalty shot but still scored two goals to lead the Canadiens at Montreal.

Bureau almost had a first-period hat trick, but Mike Richter stopped him on a penalty shot at 10:17 after Bureau was hauled down by Alexei Kovalev while killing a penalty.

Wayne Gretzky of the Rangers played in his 1,400th NHL game.

The game had been rescheduled from Jan. 10, when the Canadiens were forced to postpone because of an ice storm.

Philadelphia 3, Vancouver 2--John LeClair and Colin Forbes each scored in the span of 58 seconds in the third period at Philadelphia to give the Flyers a come-from-behind victory.

The victory was the first for new Flyer coach Roger Neilson. The Flyers tied New Jersey 2-2 Tuesday night in Neilson’s first game after replacing Wayne Cashman, who was fired the day before.

Calgary 5, Boston 2--Jim Dowd, recalled earlier in the day from Saint John of the AHL, scored the first goal in a four-goal second period by the Flames at Boston.

It was only the seventh road victory in 33 games this season for the Flames, who entered the contest with the NHL’s second-worst road mark (6-19-7). The victory also ended Calgary’s three-game losing streak.

Theoren Fleury, Marty McInnis, Derek Morris and Hnat Domenichelli also scored for the Flames. Mike Sullivan and Dmitri Khristich had Boston’s goals.

Detroit 3, Chicago 0--Chris Osgood stopped 26 shots and Igor Larionov set up two goals to lead the Red Wings at Detroit.

Osgood’s sixth shutout kept the Red Wings from losing four consecutive games for the first time since October 1993.

After a quiet start, Detroit jumped ahead with two goals in the last 3:18 of the first period.

Brendan Shanahan, Vyacheslav Kozlov and Steve Yzerman scored goals for the Red Wings.

New Jersey 2, Carolina 0--Martin Brodeur recorded his seventh shutout of the season and got his league-best 37th victory as the Devils matched a club record by extending their unbeaten streak to 13 games at Greensboro, N.C.

Randy McKay and Steve Thomas scored goals for the Devils, who improved to 9-0-4--their best stretch since a 6-0-7 run in January and February 1997. The surge ties the Devils with Buffalo for the longest unbeaten string in the NHL this season.

The Hurricanes, playing at home for the first time in 36 days, had their four-game win streak ended.

Phoenix 5, Dallas 4--The Coyotes ended a 10-game winless streak when Gerald Diduck blasted a shot off Dallas defenseman Craig Ludwig for the game-winner with 30 seconds remaining at Phoenix.

Mike Modano of the Stars left the game at 13:43 of the second period when he injured his right shoulder on a hard check against the boards by Gerald Diduck.

The Coyotes’ Keith Tkachuk, who returned to the lineup after missing two games because of a groin strain, also left the ice in the second period because of bruised ribs.