Lemieux’s Return Turns Uneventful

NHL

Stephane Richer scored the game-winning goal 57 seconds into overtime as the New Jersey Devils beat the Colorado Avalanche 4-3 Wednesday night to spoil the return of Claude Lemieux to the Brendan Byrne Arena.

Lemieux, who was the playoff MVP in leading the Devils to the Stanley Cup championship last season, played his first game in New Jersey after a trade that sent him to Colorado.

Lemieux did not figure in the scoring for the Avalanche.

Devils 4, Avalanche 3 (OT)

Colorado 1 1 1 0 - 3

New Jersey 1 1 1 1 - 4

First Period-1, New Jersey, Guerin 5 (Thomas, Chambers), 5:40. 2, Colorado, Sakic 16, 19:48 (pp).

Second Period-3, Colorado, Wilson 1 (Simon, Wolanin), 1:17. 4, New Jersey, Sykora 3 (Thomas, Dean), 12:57 (pp).

Third Period-5, Colorado, Simon 3 (Deadmarsh, Sakic), 1:45. 6, New Jersey, Pellerin 1 (MacLean), 3:38.

Overtime-7, New Jersey, Richer 6 (Chambers, Stevens), :57.

Shots on goal-Colorado 11-6-9-0-26. New Jersey 11-8-7-1-27.Power-play Opp.-Colorado 1 of 4; New Jersey 1 of 4.Goalies-Colorado, Thibault 3-3-2 (27 shots-23 saves). New Jersey, Brodeur 8-9-3 (26-23).A-13,002 (19,040).

Flyers 2, Panthers 1 (OT)

Miami

Kevin Haller scored from just inside the blue line with 30 seconds left in overtime to lift Philadelphia over Florida in a clash of Atlantic Division foes.

Haller’s shot came after a last-minute blitz by Philadelphia that saw Florida goaltender John Vanbiesbrouck negate four rapid-fire shots by the Flyers.

Philadelphia 0 0 1 1 - 2

Florida 0 1 0 0 - 1

First Period-None.

Second Period-1, Florida, Svensson 1 (Belanger, Mellanby), 8:43 (pp).

Third Period-2, Philadelphia, Fedyk 6 (Svoboda, Brind’Amour), 1:02.

Overtime-3, Philadelphia, Haller 2, 4:30.

Shots on goal-Philadelphia 2-6-12-8-28. Florida 6-15-6-1-28.Power-play Opp.-Philadelphia 0 of 5; Florida 1 of 5.Goalies-Philadelphia, Hextall 8-1-1 (28 shots-27 saves). Florida, Vanbiesbrouck 12-5-1 (28-26).A-13,553 (14,503).

Blues 5, Canadiens 4

St. Louis

Brett Hull had a goal and two assists as St. Louis snapped a five-game winless streak with a win over Montreal.

The Blues led 5-2 with less than 5 minutes remaining in the game and had to stand off a rally by the Canadiens. Vincent Damphousse had two goals and an assist for Montreal.

The Blues, who had been 0-4-1 in their last five games, led 4-2 after two periods on goals by Peter Zezel, Hull, J.J. Daigneault and Brian Noonan.

Montreal 2 0 2 - 4

St. Louis 1 3 1 - 5

First period-1, Montreal, Damphousse 8 (Turgeon), 1:18 (sh). 2, St. Louis, Zezel 5 (Hull), 5:46. 3, Montreal, Savage 18 (Recchi, Turgeon), 12:40.

Second period-4, St. Louis, Daigneault 1 (Vopat), 6:40. 5, St. Louis, Hull 10 (Corson, Laperriere), 12:26. 6, St. Louis, Noonan 8 (Laperriere), 16:09.

Third period-7, St. Louis, MacInnis 6 (Pronger, Hull), 10:39 (pp). 8, Montreal, Damphousse 9 (Brisebois), 15:07. 9, Montreal, Koivu 7 (Damphousse, Keane), 15:30 (pp).

Shots on goal-Montreal 9-9-15-33. St. Louis 14-11-13-38.Power-play opp.-Montreal 2 of 4; St. Louis 1 of 3.Goalies-Montreal, Jablonski 0-1-0 (38 shots-33 saves). St. Louis, Fuhr 9-12-3 (33-29).A-16,938 (19,260).

Rangers 5, Sabres 3

New York

Mike Richter made 30 saves as New York extended its home undefeated streak to eight games.

Three times the Rangers scored after the Sabres had pulled within a goal to extend their record at home in the last eight games to 6-0-2.

Buffalo 0 1 2 - 3

N.Y. Rangers 0 3 2 - 5

First period-None.

Second period-1, New York, Langdon 3 (Nemchinov, Kocur), 4:33. 2, Buffalo, Zhitnik 2 (LaFontaine, Audette), 6:01 (pp). 3, New York, Robitaille 9 (Verbeek, Driver), 6:09. 4, New York, Matteau 2 (Lidster, Samuelsson), 13:13.

Third period-5, Buffalo, Holzinger 5 (Shannon, Hughes), 6:34. 6, New York, Ferraro 11 (Leetch, Kovalev), 9:00 (pp). 7, Buffalo, Plante 5 (Zhitnik, Barnaby), 18:13. 8, New York, Verbeek 12 (Messier, Graves), 18:50.

Shots on goal-Buffalo 13-11-9-33. New York 11-22-15-48.Power-play opp.-Buffalo 1 of 6; New York 1 of 4.Goalies-Buffalo, Trefilov 1-2-0 (48 shots-43 saves). New York, Richter 9-7-2 (33-30).A-18,200 (18,200).

Whalers 2, Lightning 2

St. Petersburg, Fla.

Defenseman Roman Hamrlik’s power-play goal at 17:37 of the second period gave Tampa Bay a 2-2 tie with Hartford, extending the Lightning’s unbeaten streak to six games.

Hartford 1 1 0 0 - 2

Tampa Bay 0 2 0 0 - 2

First Period-1, Hartford, Kucera 2 (Sanderson, Cassels), 18:04.

Second Period-2, Tampa Bay, Houlder 2 (Burr), 1:51. 3, Hartford, Shanahan 4 (Glynn), 5:12 (pp). 4, Tampa Bay, Hamrlik 3 (Klima, Bellows), 17:37 (pp).

Third Period-None.

Overtime-None.

Shots on goal-Hartford 9-11-11-3-34. Tampa Bay 6-19-9-1-35.Power-play Opp.-Hartford 1 of 5; Tampa Bay 1 of 7.Goalies-Hartford, Muzzatti 0-1-1 (35 shots-33 saves). Tampa Bay, Puppa (12-10), Bergeron 0-3-1 (6:30 second, 22-22).A-15,203 (28,000).

Blackhawks 2, Canucks 2

Vancouver, British Columbia

Russ Courtnall’s unassisted goal early in the third period allowed Vancouver to recover from a two-goal deficit and earn a tie with Chicago.

Chicago 0 2 0 0 - 2

Vancouver 0 1 0 0 - 2

First Period-None.

Second Period-1, Chicago, Roenick 13 (Poulin, Murphy), 1:07. 2, Chicago, Daze 12, 1:55. 3, Vancouver, Oksiuta 10 (Babych, Ronning), 19:44 (pp).

Third Period-4, Vancouver, Courtnall 4, 3:03.

Overtime-None.

Shots on goal-Chicago 6-6-4-2-18. Vancouver 15-8-10-0-33.Power-play opp.-Chicago 0 of 4; Vancouver 1 of 7.Goalies-Chicago, Belfour 9-6-2 (33 shots-31 saves). Vancouver, McLean 5-8-6 (18-16).A-18,422 (19,056).

Flames 5, Sharks 3

San Jose, Calif.

Michael Nylander scored a tie-breaking goal with 11:43 left and Calgary went on to beat San Jose.

Calgary 2 1 2 - 5

San Jose 1 1 1 - 3

First period-1, Calgary, Huscroft 1, :47. 2, Calgary, Lapointe 3 (Chiasson), 10:07 (sh). 3, San Jose, Nolan 9 (Whitney, Friesen), 13:58.

Second period-4, San Jose, Nolan 10 (Whitney, Pederson), 7:32. 5, Calgary, Housley 6 (Stillman), 14:36 (pp).

Third period-6, San Jose, Whitney 3 (Friesen, Kroupa), 6:37. 7, Calgary, Nylander 5 (Titov, Fleury), 8:17. 8, Calgary, Fleury 7, 19:51 (en).

Shots on goal-Calgary 12-9-10-31. San Jose 5-14-6-25.Power-play opp.-Calgary 1 of 4; San Jose 0 of 5.Goalies-Calgary, Tabaracci 2-5-1 (25 shots-22 saves). San Jose, Terreri (12-10), Flaherty (18:48 first, 0-0), Terreri 3-3-0 (0:00 second, 18-16).A-17,190 (17,190).

Mighty Ducks 2, Capitals 2

Anaheim, Calif.

Pat Peake and Peter Bondra scored 8 minutes apart in the second period, rallying Washington to a tie.

Washington 0 2 0 0 - 2 Anaheim 1 1 0 0 - 2

First Period-1, Anaheim, Kilger 3 (Tverdovsky, Shtalenkov), 6:55.

Second Period-2, Anaheim, Kariya 16 (Krygier), 10:07 (sh). 3, Washington, Peake 6 (Bondra, Pivonka), 11:23 (pp). 4, Washington, Bondra 10 (Pivonka), 19:27.

Third Period-None.

Overtime-None.

Shots on goal-Washington 11-12-14-2-39. Anaheim 13-4-6-2-25.Power-play Opp.-Washington 1 of 6; Anaheim 0 of 5.Goalies-Washington, Carey 9-7-2 (25 shots-23 saves). Anaheim, Shtalenkov 2-3-1 (39-37).A-17,174 (17,174).