Montreal Still Unbeaten at Home After a 2-2 Tie

Eric Weinrich’s power-play goal with 6:38 left in the third period at Montreal lifted the Canadiens to a 2-2 tie with the expansion Minnesota Wild, allowing Montreal to remain unbeaten at home.

“It was a really tough game,” Weinrich said. “I’ve watched Minnesota play a lot on TV and they’re always in the game.”

Weinrich’s shot went inside the post behind Minnesota goalie Jamie McLennan. It was Weinrich’s first goal, and the Canadiens’ second power-play score of the game.

“They work hard and they’re very well-coached,” Weinrich said. “Everybody forgets that these guys are all NHL players. They know how to shoot the puck and they know how to play the game. They played well tonight.”

The tie gave Montreal a 4-0-1 record at the Molson Centre, the Canadiens’ best start at home since they opened the 1979-80 season with a 6-0-0 mark at The Forum.

The game was the only regular-season meeting scheduled between the teams.

Montreal defenseman Christian Laflamme left the game after suffering a concussion.

San Jose 3, Carolina 2--The Sharks thwarted nine of 10 Hurricane power plays and Marco Sturm scored his league-leading third short-handed goal with 9:52 left at Raleigh, N.C.

It was San Jose’s third consecutive road victory.

The Sharks, the best penalty-killing team in the league, killed off a two-man disadvantage over the final 1:12 to secure the victory.

San Jose lost starting goaltender Evgeni Nobokov early in the second period when a shot bent the grill of his mask and cut him above his right eye.

Vancouver 4, Nashville 4--Brendan Morrison scored with 36.9 seconds left in regulation at Nashville, Tenn., as the Canucks rallied from a four-goal deficit.

Morrison tied it for Vancouver, which pulled goalie Felix Potvin for an extra skater, when his shot from the top of the left circle went under the arm of Nashville’s Mike Dunham.

Canuck Coach Marc Crawford was assessed a gross misconduct penalty at the end of overtime.

Philadelphia 5, New York Rangers 4--Keith Primeau scored 12 seconds in and Simon Gagne had three assists at New York as the Flyers snapped a seven-game winless streak.

The Flyers, who were 0-5-2 after defeating Vancouver on opening night, also got goals from Jody Hull, Daymond Langkow, Justin Williams and Peter White. Philadelphia squandered leads in its last two games--a loss and a tie.

Mark Recchi, who missed four games because of headaches before playing Saturday, participated in the team’s skate but felt ill about two hours before the game and was scratched.

Phoenix 2, Calgary 2--Landon Wilson scored 8:17 into the third period at Calgary as the Coyotes extended their unbeaten streak to six games.

Brad May’s slap shot from inside the Calgary blue line hit the glass, deflected back in front of the net and Wilson batted it out of mid-air past Flame goalie Fred Brathwaite.

Notes

Toronto wing Steve Thomas likely is to be out seven to 10 days because of a cut on his right hand. . . . The San Jose City Council approved an early step in a plan to sell naming rights to San Jose Arena, home of the Sharks, to Compaq Computer Corp. for $47 million. . . . Dallas sent right wing Blake Sloan to the International Hockey League’s Houston Aeros. He was scoreless in three games. . . . Washington recalled center Terry Yake from their American Hockey League affiliate in Portland and re-assigned center Kris Beech to the Calgary Hitmen of the Western Hockey League.