Flyers Fire Ramsay, Then Win for Barber

By firing Craig Ramsay, Philadelphia Flyer management sent a message to its players.

They got it in Bill Barber’s first game.

Keith Primeau scored two goals in Barber’s debut as Flyer coach--a 5-2 victory Sunday night over the New York Islanders at Philadelphia.

“We wanted to put in a strong performance not only for Billy but for ourselves,” Primeau said. “The guys have to take it a little personally. He [Ramsay] wasn’t in it alone. We were there with him.”

Rick Tocchet put it more bluntly: “We really didn’t play well so far this year as a team. There’s the old cliche, one guy gets fired for 22 guys.”

Barber was promoted from assistant coach earlier in the day. He is the fourth Flyer coach to win his debut.

“We are all responsible for what happened, even the coaching staff,” Barber said after the game. “It’s been an emotional day. . . . We played the best we could play.”

Ramsay stepped in for ailing Roger Neilson last season and led the Flyers to within a victory of the Stanley Cup finals. He could not be reached for comment.

Barber was given a mandate to make the team tougher.

“We’ve become an easy team to play against,” General Manager Bob Clarke said. “And we don’t find that acceptable.”

Barber played his entire 12-year career with the Flyers, and was elected to the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1990. He was in his first season as Ramsay’s assistant coach after four years as head coach of the Philadelphia Phantoms, the Flyers’ American Hockey League affiliate.

“We’ll play Flyers hockey. We’ll be aggressive,” Barber said.

Ramsay led the Flyers to a 16-8-1 record last season after Neilson stepped aside last February to receive cancer treatment.

Kevin Stevens, a healthy scratch in five of the last six games, added a goal and two assists, and captain Eric Desjardins ended a 21-game goal drought in the second period.

The Flyers snapped a 1-1 tie with two goals within 24 seconds early in the second.

Primeau won the face-off on a power play and passed the puck back to Dan McGillis at the blue line. McGillis returned it to Primeau, who scored from in front.

Desjardins made it 3-1 at 2:27 with a rising shot that finished a two on one with Mark Recchi. The defenseman last scored Oct. 19 against Montreal.

St. Louis 6, Chicago 1--Al MacInnis, Mike Eastwood and Pavol Demitra each had a goal and an assist as the Blues tied a team record with their seventh consecutive victory by beating the Blackhawks at Chicago.

Craig Conroy, Scott Young and Bryce Salvador also scored for the Blues, who have won seven in a row four times in their 34-year history.

Brent Johnson stopped 22 shots as the Blues improved to 20-4-3 and moved within two points of Colorado for first place overall in the NHL. On Saturday, St. Louis rallied from a 2-0 deficit in a 6-4 victory over the Blackhawks.

“We’ve had production from everyone,” St. Louis Coach Joel Qunneville said.

Dean McAmmond scored for Chicago, which dropped its third in a row and slipped to a league-worst 3-9-0-1 at home.

Columbus 1, Phoenix 1--Marc Denis stopped 39 shots to help the Blue Jackets earn a tie against the Coyotes at Phoenix.

The expansion Blue Jackets, who beat Phoenix earlier this season, had won two in a row coming into the game.

Sean Burke made 29 saves for Phoenix, which has won only four of its last 17 games.

Pittsburgh 4, Detroit 3--Rookie Toby Petersen scored his first career goal in the third period to give the Penguins a victory over the Red Wings at Detroit.

Petersen took a pass from Jaromir Jagr and snapped a 3-3 tie 4:33 into the third.

Brendan Shanahan had tied the game 41 seconds into a two-man power play when he came in on the left side and pushed a rebound past Garth Snow, who argued that Tomas Holmstrom interfered with him in the crease.

Nashville 2, Minnesota 1--Cliff Ronning and Scott Walker each had a goal and an assist as the Predators beat the Wild at St. Paul, Minn., to end a losing streak at four.

Trailing 1-0 after one period, the Predators scored twice in the second to hand the Wild its second consecutive loss.