Blues Win 10th in Row

The St. Louis Blues used a little luck to stretch their winning streak to 10 games.

Mike Van Ryn scored his first NHL goal to break a second-period tie, and the Blues beat the Buffalo Sabres, 5-2, Wednesday night at Buffalo, N.Y., in a game filled with fluke shots and wacky bounces.

“I’m excited about it. If the points come, they come,” Van Ryn said. “I’m happy to get the first one out of the way, but the biggest thing is we lengthened our streak and we battled back from 2-0.”

Brent Johnson made 21 saves for his 10th consecutive victory.

Doug Weight, Dallas Drake, Sergei Varlamov and Mike Keane also scored for the Blues, who rallied from a 2-0 first-period deficit.

Miroslav Satan scored Buffalo’s goals. Martin Biron made 22 saves.

Drake scored his seventh goal on a power play with 3:43 remaining for a 4-2 lead. Weight scored his 11th into an empty net with 28 seconds left.

Varlamov tied the score, 2-2, late in the first period.

Keane cut the Sabres’ lead to 2-1 when Al MacInnis’ shot took a strange bounce in front of the net. Biron, expecting to clear the shot behind the net, stood by as Keane flipped the puck into an empty net at 16:39.

“When you win nine or 10 in a row, the confidence level is there,” MacInnis said. “When things are going well, you get the bounces. We just have to keep going, we just have to get better starts.”

New York Rangers 8, Boston 4--Theo Fleury had a goal and three assists, and Jeff Toms scored a career-high three goals for the Rangers at Madison Square Garden.

Mike York had two goals and three assists for a career-best five points, and Eric Lindros had four assists for the Rangers. Radek Dvorak and Matthew Barnaby also scored for New York.

Fleury was fined $1,000 by the league Wednesday for making an obscene gesture at fans in the Rangers’ 5-4 victory over the New York Islanders on Tuesday at Uniondale, N.J.

Martin Lapointe, Brian Rolston, Glen Murray and Sergei Samsonov scored for Boston.

Montreal 5, Washington 3--Joe Juneau scored the go-ahead goal with 3:23 left in the third period at Washington.

Brian Savage, Gino Odjick and Richard Zednik also scored for the Canadiens.

Rob Zettler, Ulf Dahlen and Matt Pettinger scored for the Capitals, who have lost three of four.

Phoenix 4, Chicago 1--Backup goaltender Robert Esche stopped 23 shots and the Coyotes handed the Blackhawks only their fourth loss in 27 games at the United Center.

Michal Handzus scored twice for Phoenix.

Nashville 2, Carolina 2--Bates Battaglia scored with 31 seconds to play and the Hurricanes rallied for a tie at Raleigh, N.C.

Carolina’s Ron Francis tied Ray Bourque for second place in assists with 1,169, behind Wayne Gretzky’s 1,963.

Pittsburgh 5, Tampa Bay 1--Mario Lemieux moved into seventh place on the career scoring list with a five-point night--two goals and three assists--at Pittsburgh.

Martin St. Louis, Tampa Bay’s top scorer, broke his right leg crashing into the boards early in the first period and will be out indefinitely.

New Jersey 3, Florida 1--Patrik Elias and Valeri Kamensky scored third-period goals at Sunrise, Fla.

San Jose 2, Detroit 2--Brett Hull scored twice for the Red Wings and San Jose had two goals 80 seconds apart at Detroit.

The Red Wings had won 10 in a row at home.

Detroit’s Dominik Hasek made 29 saves and San Jose’s Miikka Kiprusoff stopped 27 shots.

Vancouver 4, Dallas 2--In his first game, Alex Auld made 20 saves for Vancouver at Dallas.

Trent Klatt and Brendan Morrison each had a goal and an assist for the Canucks.

Darryl Sydor and Scott Pellerin scored for Dallas.

Colorado 4, Edmonton 2--Adam Foote, Chris Drury and Ville Nieminen scored in the first period at Edmonton, Canada.

Patrick Roy stopped 28 shots for his 21st victory.

Commissioner Gary Bettman said he is under contract through the 2007-08 season, but called the extension the Board of Governors approved in June “old news.” Bettman reportedly will earn between $3 million and $3.5 million per year.... Michael Nylander of the Blackhawks was selected to replace injured Peter Forsberg of Colorado on Sweden’s Olympic team. Florida’s Niklas Hagman was added to Finland’s Olympic team.