Red Wings, Flyers Happy With Tie

The Detroit Red Wings and Philadelphia Flyers don’t need to win every night to be happy.

Wednesday night in Detroit, both sides were satisfied with a 2-2 tie.

“When you come from behind and tie, yeah, you’ll take it,” Flyers Coach Terry Murray said after John LeClair’s 29th goal midway through the third period gave the Flyers their second tie in as many nights.

Scotty Bowman, meanwhile, was happy his team played with some effort and emotion, especially after a 4-1 loss Monday at Montreal in which both quantities were in short supply for the Red Wings.

“Some games you’re satisfied with the effort,” Bowman said. “In Montreal, we got beat on second effort.”

Philadelphia, which also got a first-period goal from Trent Klatt, is 15-1-6 in its last 22 games, but just 1-1-3 in its last five.

Nicklas Lidstrom and Vladimir Konstantinov scored second-period goals for Detroit, which fell to 1-5-3 in its last eight games.

Konstantinov also did an outstanding job shadowing Philadelphia’s Eric Lindros, who was credited with just one shot on goal.

“I have to play a physical game against him because he’s a very strong forward,” Konstantinov said. “You can’t let him get over the red line and start shooting.”

Lindros’ only shot came on a break, but he was stopped by Red Wings goalie Mike Vernon. Otherwise, Konstantinov had him bottled up.

“Vlade always plays like that,” Detroit forward Martin Lapointe said. “He’s one guy who works hard every night.”

The Red Wings are 0-3-2 in their last five home games and haven’t won in Joe Louis Arena since Sergei Fedorov’s five-goal night Dec. 26 against Washington.

Wednesday’s game was the first of back-to-back meetings between the Flyers and Red Wings, who play again Saturday in Philadelphia.

Fedorov missed his fourth straight game Wednesday night with a groin injury. Detroit also played without goalie Chris Osgood, who is nursing a pulled hamstring.

Vernon, making his second straight start in goal for Detroit, made 18 saves and Ron Hextall had 32 for Philadelphia.

Wednesday marked only the eighth time all season the Flyers have given up 30 or more shots.

“That’s not normal for us,” Hextall said. “We’re normally a defense-oriented team, and the last couple of nights we’ve strayed away from that a little bit.”

LeClair’s tying goal came at the end of a 3-on-2 break. He took a left-side pass from Dale Hawerchuk and beat Vernon cleanly at 10:30 of the third.

Hextall made three big saves in the final minute to send the game into overtime. He got a glove on a shot by Lidstrom, stick-saved Steve Yzerman’s try just after the subsequent faceoff and later stopped Lidstrom again.

OTHER GAMES

Derek King had two goals for the New York Islanders, who ended a four-game home losing streak with an 8-1 victory over Edmonton. . . . Jason Dawe scored twice and the Sabres got goals from five players en route to a 6-1 victory over Montreal in Buffalo. . . . Adam Oates scored a short-handed goal in the first period and Boston got three goals in the third of a 4-1 victory over Ottawa at Kanata, Canada. . . . Brian Leetch’s second goal of the game with 36.8 seconds to play broke a tie, and the New York Rangers beat Washington, 5-3, at Landover, Md. . . . Hartford’s Robert Kron scored with 14 seconds to play in overtime to lift the Whalers to a 2-1 victory over visiting Florida. . . . Doug Gilmour had five assists and Wendel Clark scored the winning goal as the Maple Leafs defeated Calgary, 5-3, at Toronto. . . . Alexander Mogilny set up David Roberts’ tying goal with 2:47 left in regulation and scored 1:24 into overtime for Vancouver, which rallied from a two-goal deficit to win, 4-3, at Chicago.