Graves Digs In for Rangers

Only four points out of the final Eastern Conference playoff spot, the New York Rangers needed some heroics Sunday. Enter Adam Graves.

Graves’ 40-foot slap shot with 54.7 seconds left in overtime gave the Rangers a 3-2 victory over the New York Islanders at Uniondale, N.Y., and moved them to within two points of eighth-place Boston.

“It’s a big win for us,” Graves said, “but this was like a normal Ranger-Islander game. It’s always special.”

Both teams had two shots in overtime until Graves came down the left wing and ripped a blast that beat Tommy Salo. It was Graves’ team-leading 33rd goal, and second overtime winner against the Islanders.

“Every game is like a playoff game for us now,” Kevin Stevens said. “We just have to go out and do what we can.”

Dallas 1, Philadelphia 1--Amid criticism from the owner’s box to the locker room that the Flyers have lost their toughness, Eric Lindros tried to fire up his beleaguered team with a rare fight 40 seconds into the game. But the Flyers only managed a tie at Philadelphia and their winless streak reached a club record-tying 11 games.

Philadelphia’s two other 11-game winless streaks in franchise history were in the 1968-69 and 1970-71 seasons. They were 0-9-2 both times. They are 0-7-4 this time.

Detroit 3, Colorado 1--Vyacheslav Kozlov and rookie Stacy Roest scored second-period goals and Norm Maracle had 21 saves, leading the Red Wings over the Avalanche at Denver. Maracle, getting his second consecutive start, allowed only a third-period goal to Joe Sakic to end the Red Wings’ three-game losing streak and Colorado’s three-game winning streak.

The Avalanche continued to struggle at home. Colorado is 13-14-4 in Denver this season and 1-5-2 in its last eight home games.

St. Louis 5, Chicago 2--Pavol Demitra scored twice in a three-goal flurry in the first period to reach the 30-goal plateau for the first time in his NHL career as the Blues defeated the host Blackhawks. Michal Handzus also scored in the first period for the Blues, who won their second in a row after losing four consecutive games.

Nashville 3, Edmonton 1--Cliff Ronning scored on the power play with 1:20 left as the Predators defeated the Oilers at Nashville, Tenn., to extend Edmonton’s losing streak to a season-long four games.