NHL ROUNDUP : Senators Finally Defeat Rangers, 4-2

The Ottawa Senators had never defeated the New York Rangers in their four-year history. But these are not the same Ottawa Senators.

Even with their top player, Alexei Yashin, missing due to a contract dispute, the Senators continued their best start ever with a 4-2 victory Sunday night in New York, their first victory in 11 tries against the Rangers.

“It’s a great feeling because this can be a very intimidating building,” Senator Coach Rick Bowness said of sold-out Madison Square Garden. “But it’s only intimidating if you let it be. If you want respect you have to earn it. We’re trying to earn some.”

Ottawa earned it when Radek Bonk added an insurance goal 32 seconds after the Rangers’ Pat Verbeek cut the Senators’ lead to one goal midway through the third period.

Ottawa, which has never made the playoffs, is now 3-3, the latest it ever has been at .500.

Dan Quinn, Jaroslve Modry and Antti Tormanen also had goals for Ottawa. Luc Robitaille scored the Rangers’ other goal.

Chicago 5, Philadelphia 4--Joe Murphy, benched last week, scored the tiebreaking goal early in the third period at Chicago.

Eric Daze, who also had been kept out of the Blackhawks’ lineup by first-year Coach Craig Hartsburg, scored twice as Chicago defeated the Flyers for the first time in 10 games dating back to 1990.

The loss by Philadelphia (5-1-1) leaves the Kings (4-0-3) as the NHL’s only undefeated team.

Murphy led the Blackhawks with 23 goals last season. But he hadn’t scored this year, had taken several bad penalties and was left out of Hartsburg’s lineup Tuesday at Florida.

An upset Murphy called himself a “big-time player” and then proved it over the weekend, getting three assists in Saturday’s 4-1 victory over St. Louis and scoring Sunday’s winner.

Edmonton 1, San Jose 1--The Oilers were 12 seconds away from a victory when San Jose’s Ulf Dahlen tied the score at Edmonton.

Edmonton could have won the game by six or seven goals and it appeared Zdeno Ciger’s first-period goal was going to stand as the winner over the struggling Sharks.

But with the extra attacker on the ice, the Sharks attacked the Edmonton zone, forcing a turnover that led to Dahlen’s late goal.

Buffalo 5, St. Louis 2--Jason Dawe scored twice, and the Sabres scored three power-play goals in the second period at Buffalo.

Yuri Khmylev, Charlie Huddy and Dawe each scored with the man advantage in the second period before Dawe put the game away with his third goal of the season with 3:37 left in the game.