Lemieux Propels Colorado

NHL

Peter Forsberg had three goals and Claude Lemieux scored the game-winner with less than two minutes to play as the Colorado Avalanche beat the Philadelphia Flyers 5-3 Sunday night at Philadelphia.

Lemieux snapped a 3-3 tie with 1:53 left after a turnover in the neutral zone resulted in a 2-on-1 break. Lemieux kept the puck and beat goalie Ron Hextall with a wrist shot between the legs from the top of the left faceoff circle.

Forsberg got his first NHL hat trick when he added his third goal into an empty net with 41.5 seconds left.

Colorado, 12-5-6 in its last 23, also got a strong performance from goalie Stephane Fiset, who made 26 saves.

The Flyers, who have won only four of their last 11, got two goals from Eric Lindros, a goal from former Spokane Chief Pat Falloon, and 18 saves from Hextall.

Avalanche 5, Flyers 3

Colorado 0 1 4- 5

Philadelphia 1 0 2- 3

First period-1, Philadelphia, Falloon 16 (Brind’Amour, Dykhuis), 6:12 (pp).

Second period-2, Colorado, Forsberg 19 (Lemieux), 11:06.

Third period-3, Philadelphia, Lindros 35 (Quinn, Falloon), 1:56 (pp). 4, Colorado, Forsberg 20 (Lemieux, Wolanin), 4:33. 5, Colorado, Murray 5 (Keane, Klemm), 6:16. 6, Philadelphia, Lindros 36 (Falloon, Brind’Amour), 12:54. 7, Colorado, Lemieux 27 (Kamensky), 18:07. 8, Colorado, Forsberg 21, 19:18 (en).

Shots on goal-Colorado 7-5-11-23. Philadelphia 10-9-10-29.Power-play opp.-Colorado 0 of 7; Philadelphia 2 of 9.Goalies-Colorado, Fiset 17-4-7 (29 shots-26 saves). Philadelphia, Hextall 17-9-5 (22-18).A-17,380 (17,380).

Mighty Ducks 4, Devils 2

East Rutherford, N.J.

Paul Kariya had a goal and an assist and Guy Hebert made 33 saves, leading Anaheim to the victory over New Jersey that ended the Devils’ eight-game unbeaten streak.

The Ducks, who halted a four-game losing streak, also got goals from Todd Ewen, David Sacco and Teemu Selanne.

Petr Sykora and Scott Niedermayer had the New Jersey goals as the Devils failed in their effort to equal the franchise record unbeaten streak.

Anaheim 1 1 2- 4

New Jersey 0 1 1- 2

First period-1, Anaheim, Ewen 4 (York, Kariya), 8:43.

Second period-2, New Jersey, Sykora 16 (Guerin), 4:56. 3, Anaheim, D.Sacco 4 (Selanne, Olausson), 15:35 (pp).

Third period-4, Anaheim, Kariya 30 (Rucchin, Campbell), 6:08. 5, New Jersey, Niedermayer 6 (Thomas, Sykora), 16:39. 6, Anaheim, Selanne 26 (York), 19:36. (en).

Shots on goal-Anaheim 5-4-12-21. New Jersey 9-17-9-35.Power-play opp.-Anaheim 1 of 2; New Jersey 0 of 4.Goalies-Anaheim, Hebert 15-19-3 (35 shots-33 saves). New Jersey, Brodeur 21-20-7 (20-17).A-17,690 (19,040).

Rangers 6, Lightning 2

St. Petersburg, Fla.

Pat Verbeek scored his 37th goal of the season and Luc Robitaille and Ray Ferraro each had a goal and assist in the third period to help New York beat Tampa Bay.

Bouncing back from Saturday’s 3-0 loss to New Jersey, goaltender Glenn Healy stopped 28 shots as the Rangers improved their road record to 14-11-5.

Sergei Nemchinov and Brian Leetch had first-period goals, while Robitaille, Ferraro and Alexei Kovalez scored in the last 4:03 of the game to finish the rout.

N.Y. Rangers 2 1 3- 6

Tampa Bay 0 0 2- 2

First period-1, New York, Nemchinov 10 (Samuelsson, Lowe), 9:30. 2, New York, Leetch 10 (Messier, Driver), 11:42 (pp).

Second period-3, New York, Verbeek 37 (Graves, Beukeboom), :29.

Third period-4, Tampa Bay, Klima 20 (Burr, Houlder), 1:30. 5, New York, Robitaille 17 (Ferraro, Kypreos), 15:57. 6, New York, Ferraro 24 (Driver, Robitaille), 17:46 (pp). 7, Tampa Bay, Bellows 13 (Houlder, Bradley), 18:43. 8, New York, Kovalev 13 (Sundstrom), 19:25.

Shots on goal-New York 11-11-4-26. Tampa Bay 9-9-12-30.Power-play opp.-New York 2 of 7; Tampa Bay 0 of 5.Goalies-New York, Healy 14-5-7 (30 shots-28 saves). Tampa Bay, Reese 6-6-1 (26-20).A-22,708 (28,000).

Whalers 5, Stars 3

Dallas

Robert Kron scored the go-ahead goal on a power play with 11:26 remaining and Andre Nikolishin had three assists as Hartford beat Dallas, extending the Whalers’ winning streak to five games.

Kron added an empty-netter with 19 seconds to play and Brendan Shanahan and Nelson Emerson had a goal and an assist each, helping the Whalers keep the Stars winless in their last 10 home games (0-7-3).

The Whalers’ special teams sparkled, scoring four power-play goals in five chances and getting a shorthanded goal from Brad McCrimmon.

Hartford 1 2 2- 5

Dallas 2 0 1- 3

First period-1, Dallas, Lehtinen 2 (Modano, D.Hatcher), :13. 2, Hartford, Shanahan 26 (Sanderson, Brown), 11:08 (pp). 3, Dallas, Huard 4 (Carbonneau, D.Hatcher), 16:23.

Second period-4, Hartford, Emerson 20 (Shanahan, Nikolishin), 5:45 (pp). 5, Hartford, McCrimmon 2 (Nikolishin, Kron), 18:47 (sh).

Third period-6, Dallas, Lehtinen 3 (Hogue, Matvichuk), 5:44. 7, Hartford, Kron 17 (Nikolishin, Emerson), 8:34 (pp). 8, Hartford, Kron 18 (Cassels), 19:41 (pp, en).

Shots on goal-Hartford 7-8-9-24. Dallas 10-7-15-32.Power-play opp.-Hartford 4 of 5; Dallas 0 of 4.Goalies-Hartford, Muzzatti 3-2-2 (32 shots-29 saves). Dallas, Bester 4-5-1 (23-19).A-15,396 (16,924).

Oilers 4, Flames 2

Edmonton, Alberta

With the same zeal as countless past episodes in the Battle of Alberta, Edmonton beat their historic NHL enemies, Calgary, in a penalty-filled game.

David Oliver scored twice and Glenn Anderson had the winner for the Oilers. Dean McAmmond scored Edmonton’s other goal.

Calgary 1 0 1- 2

Edmonton 1 2 1- 4

First period-1, Edmonton, Oliver 15 (Weight), 11:18. 2, Calgary, Zalapski 7 (Housley, Stillman), 18:43 (pp).

Second period-3, Edmonton, McAmmond 8 (Czerkawski, Marchment), 8:57 (pp). 4, Edmonton, Anderson 3 (McAmmond, Czerkawski), 19:45.

Third period-5, Edmonton, Oliver 16 (Mironov, Weight), 14:04. 6, Calgary, Titov 18 (Nylander, Housley), 19:31 (pp).

Shots on goal-Calgary 9-8-11-28. Edmonton 7-18-6-31.Power-play opp.-Calgary 2 of 9; Edmonton 1 of 8.Goalies-Calgary, Tabaracci 9-9-3 (31 shots-27 saves). Edmonton, Joseph 5-4-0 (28-26).A-14,931 (16,230).

Blues 2, Panthers 2

Miami

St. Louis ironman goaltender Grant Fuhr made two superb saves in overtime to preserve a tie with Florida.

Fuhr, who has started all 55 games this season, used his skate to rob Robert Svehla with 1:27 left in overtime. Then with 45 seconds remaining, Rob Niedermayer’s wraparound was sticked out by Fuhr, who made 22 saves.

Neither team has won an overtime game this season. Florida is 0-2-7, while the Blues are 0-1-10.

St. Louis 0 2 0 0- 2

Florida 1 1 0 0- 2

First Period-1, Florida, Jovanovski 6 (Belanger, Lowry), 7:43.

Second Period-2, St. Louis, MacInnis 10 (Olsson), 1:21. 3, Florida, Barnes 15 (Smith, Garpenlov), 12:46. 4, St. Louis, MacInnis 11 (Olsson, B.Hull), 18:05.

Third Period-None.

Overtime-None.

Shots on goal-St. Louis 11-13-5-1-30. Florida 8-6-7-3-24.Power-play opp.-St. Louis 2 of 6; Florida 1 of 7.Goalies-St. Louis, Fuhr 22-20-10 (24 shots-22 saves). Florida, Fitzpatrick 13-5-2 (30-28).A-14,370 (14,503).

Cease-fire over

The uneasy peace between Blues coach Mike Keenan and star Brett Hull came close to unraveling again last week when the volatile pair exchanged volleys via the media.

Hull fired the first shot when he said his teammates have “no fire, no gumption” and not enough skill. Keenan fired back that Hull had no credentials to be saying such things in public.

“I think Brett’s out of line when he makes those comments,” Keenan said. “I don’t think Brett knows. He’s never been on a championship team and he doesn’t know what it takes. I can agree with him this much - we’re not the most skilled team in the league.”

GM’s look for more scoring

In a league that can always use more scoring, the NHL’s general managers discussed a rule change that could result in exactly that.

At their meetings this past week in Tucson, Ariz., there was lively discussion about changing the off-sides rule to no longer allow teams to simply dump the puck into the offensive zone while a teammate is already past the blue line.

As it stands now, a player can shoot the puck past the blue line even if a teammate is already in that offensive zone. Offsides is delayed and waved off if that teammate quickly retreats behind the blue line.

Lots of trading left

There’s another healthy list of top players that could be moved before the trading deadline March 20 - Pat LaFontaine, Jeremy Roenick, Dominik Hasek, Mike Modano, Trevor Linden, Wayne Gretzky, Scott Niedermayer, Mark Recchi, Steve Duchesne and perhaps Brett Hull. Modano for Linden is a hot rumor, as is Stephane Richer for Recchi.

If Buffalo falls out of the playoff chase, Hasek and LaFontaine could be unloaded to save money. New Jersey has its eye on LaFontaine, perhaps with Niedermayer included in the package. LaFontaine has also been rumored headed for Philadelphia along with brawler Rob Ray. The Flyers could use a little extra scoring and need to give tough guy Shawn Antoski help.

Rangers, NHL go to arbitration

The Rangers and the NHL have gone to arbitration with the NHL Players Association and five players over 1994 bonus payments. Nick Kypreos signed a deal with the Whalers before being traded to the Rangers that awards a reported $120,000 for winning the Stanley Cup.

The other plaintiffs are Craig MacTavish, Petr Nedved, Glenn Anderson and Esa Tikkanen - all traded to the Rangers. The Rangers and NHL contend the bonuses were easier to achieve with the Rangers than their previous team and should be void. The players claim the team knew what bonus clauses they were getting before they traded for them.