NHL Roundup : Millen Has Big Debut for Blues

St. Louis players and fans were upset when the club traded popular goaltender Mike Liut to the Hartford Whalers last week.

After watching goaltender Greg Millen, one of the players obtained in the trade, perform Wednesday night at St. Louis, neither Blues fans nor players are blue any longer.

Millen stopped 33 shots to lead the Blues to a 3-1 victory over Buffalo that ended the Sabres’ five-game road winning streak and kept the Blues six points in front in the Norris Division.

There were 12,103 fans on hand for Millen’s debut. They gave him a lukewarm reception. But after each of several sensational, acrobatic saves, more joined in the cheers until, at the end, the new goalie received a standing ovation.

Craig Ramsay lifted his own rebound over the sprawled Millen to give the Sabres an early lead. But, after Doug Wickenheiser tied it in the middle of the second period and Brian Sutter gave the Blues the lead a few minutes later with his 32nd goal of the season, Millen was superb.

Late in the period Millen stopped breakaways by Phil Housley, Mike Foligno and Ric Seiling to earn heavy applause.

Montreal 4, Edmonton 1--Bob Gainey, who says he thrives on big games, went out and proved it in this game at Edmonton. The captain of the Canadiens scored two goals, including the game-winner, against the defending Stanley Cup champions. The victory increased the Canadiens’ lead in the Adams Division to four points.

Wayne Gretzky scored the Oilers’ only goal, marking his 62nd goal in 63 games.

Gainey’s second goal came with his team short-handed in the third period and ended the Oilers’ victory chances.

Calgary 2, New York Islanders 1--Lanny McDonald scored two goals 30 seconds apart in the last 37 seconds at Calgary to bring the Flames the victory.

McDonald broke a 1-1 tie with his 17th goal at 19:23, then scored again into an empty net.

Detroit 11, Vancouver 5--Obviously, shots on goal don’t always tell the story. In this game at Detroit, the Canucks outshot the Red Wings, 33-29.

Danny Gare and Reed Larson each had a hat trick as the Red Wings made their shots count for their biggest output since 1981. The sharpshooting enabled them to take sole possession of third place in the Norris Division.

Toronto 6, Minnesota 1--Rookie goaltender Tim Bernhardt gave up a goal six minutes after the opening faceoff at Toronto, then turned back the North Stars with one spectacular save after another.

Bernhardt stopped 44 shots from the injury-riddled North Stars, who were missing nine players. Brian Bellows gave the North Stars the early lead, but it lasted only 24 seconds. Toronto dominated the rest of the way.

Winnipeg 6, Pittsburgh 4--Perry Turnbull, Bengt Lundholm and Dale Hawerchuk scored third-period goals at Pittsburgh to lead the Jets to victory in a game marred by a bench-clearing brawl.

The battle began when Jets’ defenseman Jim Kyte punched Mario Lemieux, the talented Penguin rookie. Lemieux, leading scorer among NHL rookies, suffered a concussion and did not return.

Kyte and the Penguins’ Gary Rissling and Bryan Maxwell were ejected after order was restored in the second-period battle.

Chicago 6, New Jersey 3--Al Secord scored twice at Chicago to lead the Black Hawks to their eighth win in 11 games since General Manager Bob Pulford replaced Orval Tessier as coach.