NHL ROUNDUP : Islanders Get Lead, but Canadiens Win

About the time the Montreal Canadians got going, the New York Islanders stopped.

Stephan Lebeau’s goal at 8:43 of the third period broke a tie Tuesday night, rallying the Canadiens from a 3-0 first-period deficit to a 5-3 victory at Uniondale, N.Y.

Lebeau, in the low slot, took a pass from linemate Vincent Damphousse and wristed a 15-footer between the pads of a screened Mark Fitzpatrick. Brian Bellows scored into an empty net late in the game.

The victory was only the third for the Canadiens in 21 games when they have trailed after two periods (3-15-3).

Montreal Coach Jacques Demers was calm during the first intermission.

“There was no yelling or panicking in the room,” Demers said. “We had a couple of miscues right off the bat, but our players worked extremely hard.”

Derek King, Marty McInnis and Steve Thomas had scored to give New York a 3-0 lead.

“We came out of the chute pretty well,” Islander Coach Al Arbour said. “We were skating and doing all the little things. Then they got a goal and we started to go the opposite way. We started playing soft defensively.”

Paul Dipietro started the rally with a goal at 15:49 of the second period, and Muller added another to close the margin to 3-2 going into the final 20 minutes.

Another goal by Muller, who has at least one point in 44 of 56 games this season, tied the score 28 seconds into the third period.

“Before, when we were down by three goals, I didn’t think we could catch up,” Muller said. “This year, we have a lot of offensive firepower.”

Philadelphia 8, Ottawa 1--Eric Lindros returned from a knee injury to score two goals and Kevin Dineen added three to help the Flyers beat the Senators at Philadelphia.

The victory ended a five-game winless streak for the Flyers (0-4-1). Ottawa had its first loss in four games (2-1-1), and its road record dropped to 0-27-0.

Vancouver 5, Quebec 1--Pavel Bure scored his 45th and 46th goals to break a club record as the Canucks won at Quebec City.

Bure, who had gone five games without a goal, scored late in the second period before adding his 46th into an empty net in the closing minutes. The goal broke the Canucks’ single-season mark of 45 set by Tony Tanti during the 1983-84 season.

Detroit 8, New Jersey 5--Gerard Gallant scored twice during the Red Wings’ five-goal first period at home.

Gallant hadn’t scored twice during a game in more than two years, but he got his chance in the 74-shot show. New Jersey outshot the Red Wings, 39-35.

Detroit is undefeated in five games (3-0-2) and is 7-1-3 in its last 11 games. New Jersey is 1-5-1 in its last seven.

Tampa Bay 3, Toronto 1--Brian Bradley scored his 34th goal of the season, lifting the Lightning at Tampa.

Bradley tried to redirect Bob Beers’ shot, then lifted the rebound into the top of the net for the winner at 7:13 of the third period.

Tampa Bay is 4-2-1 in its last seven games after a seven-game losing streak.

Washington 3, Minnesota 2--Dale Hunter got a little help from Minnesota goalie Jon Casey to score his second goal of the game 6:32 into the third period as the Capitals won at Minneapolis.

The victory ended Washington’s 0-3-2 winless streak and also ended a three-game losing streak on the road. Minnesota’s loss was its second in 12 games (7-2-3).

Boston 6, St. Louis 1--In his first appearance in St. Louis since being let go in May, Brian Sutter coached the Bruins to a rout of the Blues. Adam Oates and Joe Juneau each had a goal and two assists as the Bruins ended the Blues’ seven-game unbeaten streak (5-0-2).

The victory pulled Boston into a tie for second place with Quebec in the Adams Division.

Sutter was the winningest coach in Blue history with 153 victories when he was fired after four seasons. The team retired his No. 11 jersey in 1988.

The Bruins also ended a five-game winless slump.