Devils Owner Wants To Play In Hoboken

New Jersey Devils owner John McMullen vowed Friday to bring his NHL team to Hoboken, N.J., the birthplace of baseball and Frank Sinatra.

McMullen said the Devils’ home, about 20 minutes away in the Meadowlands in East Rutherford, was “antiquated.”

“We need a first-class facility for our team and our fans,” McMullen said at a press conference with Mayor Anthony Russo, architects and a host of consultants. “I’m just tired of always being second-best.”

McMullen said he would move the team from the Meadowlands, a complex overseen by a state agency, to a $175-million, privately financed arena on top of Hoboken’s train station.

He said he wouldn’t break his lease with the New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority, which runs through 2007, but expected the state to let him out of it.

“Obviously, they’re going to give us permission” to leave, McMullen said. “Logic would cause them to give us permission.”

“The simple reality is that the New Jersey Devils will be playing a minimum of 35 home games at Continental Airlines Arena through the 2006-7 NHL season,” Raymond Bateman, chairman of the New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority, said. “There are no foreseeable circumstances under which that would change.”

Coyotes sign Tverdovsky

All-Star defenseman Oleg Tverdovsky and the Phoenix Coyotes ended their contract squabble, agreeing to a $3.1 million, two-year deal.

Tverdovsky will make $1.4 million this season and $1.7 million in 1998-99. He is scheduled to play tonight when the Coyotes visit the Toronto Maple Leafs.

On the ice

Doug Brown got his first career hat trick, including the winning goal with 7:21 left, as the Detroit Red Wings ended the New Jersey Devils’ seven-game unbeaten streak with a 5-4 victory in Detroit.

At Buffalo, N.Y., Donald Audette scored the only goal and Dominik Hasek made 42 saves for his fourth shutout in the past month as the Buffalo Sabres defeated the Montreal Canadiens 1-0.