See-Saw Game Ends Balanced in Middle

It was wide-open, wild and wonderfully entertaining--the kind of game most players love and most coaches hate.

“We caught them gambling and they caught us making mistakes,” Chicago Coach Craig Hartsburg said Sunday night after his Blackhawks rallied to tie the Detroit Red Wings, 5-5, on Gary Suter’s goal with 2:12 left in regulation at Chicago. “We’ve got to continue to work to get better.”

Chicago blew 2-0 and 3-1 leads to fall behind, 5-4, but salvaged the tie when Suter recovered his own bobble at the left point and flipped a shot over the shoulder of screened goalie Mike Vernon. Suter, a high-scoring defenseman having his worst season, last scored Nov. 9.

“You try to block out all the negatives,” Suter said. “You worry about all the negatives, you end up in a rubber room.”

The Blackhawks are 5-15-5 overall and 2-8-3 at home since Nov. 14. It was the fifth time in 3 1/2 weeks they have blown a two-goal lead. The first in that string also came against Detroit.

“We played with more determination and enthusiasm,” Hartsburg said, “but it’s not time for us to be patting ourselves on the back. We have to get better.”

Steve Yzerman had a goal and an assist for the Red Wings, becoming the 18th player in NHL history with 1,300 points.

The Blackhawks went up, 3-1, in the first period, getting goals from unlikely sources. Cam Russell hadn’t scored since last March. Eric Daze, a 30-goal rookie last season, scored for only the fourth time in his last 23 games. And Jim Cummins got his second goal of the season.

“It was a wild first period,” Chicago’s Tony Amonte said. “Hopefully, something like that gives us a little confidence. We proved that we can skate with one of the best teams in the league.”

St. Louis 5, New Jersey 3--Libor Zabransky scored his first goal as the Blues rallied at East Rutherford, N.J.

Pierre Turgeon, Stephane Matteau, Ricard Persson and Scott Pellerin also scored for the Blues.

Scott Stevens, Jay Pandolfo and Dave Andreychuk scored for New Jersey, 1-3-0 in its last four games.

Stevens opened the scoring at 13:56 of the first period, blasting a shot from left faceoff circle past goalie Grant Fuhr. Pandolfo scored at 18:04 to make the score 2-0.

But the Blues rallied to take a 3-2 lead in the second period.

Turgeon deflected Brett Hull’s pass past goalie Martin Brodeur 43 seconds into the period. Persson tied the score at 2:53 with a slap shot that deflected off the leg of Devil defenseman Ken Daneyko.

Pellerin gave St. Louis the lead at 16:30 on a soft shot through Brodeur’s pads.

Buffalo 5, Phoenix 1--Derek Plante had two goals and an assist at Buffalo.

Plante has seven goals in his last nine games for Buffalo, which has lost only one game in 10.

Jason Dawe, Michal Grosek and Richard Smehlik also scored for the Sabres. Cliff Ronning scored Phoenix’s only goal on a power play in the second period.

It was the first time Buffalo had beaten the Coyote franchise since Nov. 19, 1993, when the team played in Winnipeg.

Plante and Smehlik scored early in the third period to break the game open. Plante got his 20th goal on a power play at 59 seconds, and Smehlik completed the scoring with his sixth goal at 3:10.