Flyers Salvage 3-3 Tie As Lindros Takes Fall

The Philadelphia Flyers lost a three-goal lead and Eric Lindros to an injury Saturday night while struggling to a 3-3 tie with the New York Islanders in Uniondale, N.Y.

Lindros, the Flyers’ captain, suffered a bruised tendon in his right calf when he was checked by Islanders defenseman Rich Pilon at 5:19 of the first period. Pilon received a major penalty for clipping and was thrown out of the game by referee Mick McGeough.

Lindros suffered the injury when his leg whipped into the partition by the Islanders bench. Lindros missed the rest of the game.

“(Pilon) came off the bench on the ice, and I was submarined,” Lindros said. “I couldn’t pull up. I was flying.”

As the trainer came out to assist the prone Lindros , the Flyers’ captain continued to shout at Pilon, who disputed the clipping call and his subsequent ejection.

“It was definitely a hip-on-hip (check),” Pilon said. “I know I didn’t hit him low. I thought I would just get an interference call. Clipping? I’ve never heard of clipping.”

Lindros thought the hit was low.

“A hip check when you have the puck is one thing,” Lindros said. “But when you clip someone who never had the puck and was nowhere near the play … well, I’m really disappointed.”

Lindros said he had no strength or feeling in his toes, but said if the pain lessens, he may try to skate today when the Flyers play Colorado.

Elsewhere

Steve Duchesne scored two goals and goalie Ron Tugnett stopped a penalty shot as visiting Ottawa pushed Boston deeper into the NHL’s Atlantic Division cellar with a 5-4 victory… . Mikolai Khabibulin made 33 saves for his league-high seventh shutout of the season, and Jeremy Roenick scored twice as streaking Phoenix won for the fourth time in five games by beating Toronto 3-0 in Toronto.

Still angry

Colorado’s Claude Lemieux and Detroit’s Kris Draper finally met on the ice last week for the first time since Lemieux checked Draper from behind in Game 6 of last year’s Western Conference finals.

Draper spent four days in the hospital with broken facila bones and had his jaw wired for 16 days as a result of the hit.

The teams met last week but the two only shouted at each other in one scuffle in the second period. Nothing else happened, and neither player would comment to reporters immediately after the game.

But a day later, Lemieux told the Rocky Mountain News that the incident was blown out of proportion, he is tired of the attention and that Detroit keeps bringing it up as a “perfect way of avoiding the pressure of losing in the playoffs two years in a row.”