It’s Only an Emergency if Red Wings Lose to Canucks

An emergency landing and an unscheduled night in Sacramento did nothing to deter the Detroit Red Wings, who ran their unbeaten streak against the Vancouver Canucks to 15 games Tuesday night with a 4-2 victory at Vancouver, Canada.

The Red Wings got a goal and three assists from Brendan Shanahan, who set up first-period goals by Doug Brown, Darren McCarty and Sergei Fedorov as Detroit jumped out to a 3-0 lead.

The Red Wings dominated the opening 20 minutes, outshooting the Canucks, 13-7, even though they didn’t arrive in Vancouver until 2 p.m. after problems with the team plane forced them to spend the night in Sacramento.

None of the 46 passengers was injured Monday night after the Red Wings’ chartered jet lost engine power on the flight from San Jose to Vancouver and made en emergency landing in Sacramento.

The loss of power in an engine on the DC-9 prompted calls of a “major in-flight emergency.”

The crew was able to restart the engine midair and the plane safely landed at Sacramento International Airport at about 9:45 p.m. Monday, airport spokesman Gregg Weissenfluh said.

Red Wing Coach Scotty Bowman downplayed the incident.

“We heard one engine stagger a little bit, but it wasn’t as bad as the papers made it out to be,” Bowman said. “They just said we were going to make a precautionary landing, but they had to announce an emergency landing just in case.”

Colorado 4, New York Islanders 1--Milan Hejduk scored two goals and Joe Sakic and Adam Deadmarsh each had a goal and two assists for the Avalanche at Denver.

Buffalo 3, Tampa Bay 1--Stu Barnes scored two goals and Miroslav Satan had a goal and two assists to lead the Sabres at Buffalo, N.Y.

Edmonton 2, Nashville 1--Domenic Pittis scored his second goal in three games and Tommy Salo made 36 saves for the Oilers at Nashville.

Boston 5, New Jersey 4--Bill Guerin’s goal with 1:21 to play ended a seven-goal, third-period barrage at East Rutherford, N.J., and gave the Bruins their fourth consecutive victory.

Carolina 3, Montreal 2--Josef Vasicek scored with 37.9 seconds to play in the third period and Ron Francis scored 33 seconds into overtime at Montreal as the Hurricanes ran their unbeaten streak to eight games.

New York Rangers 4, Philadelphia 3--Theo Fleury tied the score with 2:52 to play in regulation and scored the winner in overtime at New York.

Around the League

Mario Lemieux of the Pittsburgh Penguins was among 15 reserves named to the North American team that will face the World team in the NHL All-Star game Feb. 4 at Denver. . . . A shoulder injury will keep Vincent Damphousse from playing in the All-Star game, San Jose Shark officials said. . . . Forward Michal Handzus of the St. Louis Blues will be sidelined six to eight weeks after surgery to repair an abdominal tear. . . . Center Oleg Kvasha of the New York Islanders will be sidelined four to six weeks because of a sprained right knee. . . . Donald Brashear of the Vancouver Canucks faces arraignment Feb. 7 for charges that he assaulted a man in the fitness room of his townhouse. . . . Eric Lindros’ desire to play only in Toronto has “tied the hands” of both the Philadelphia Flyers and the Maple Leafs, according to his main adversary, Flyer General Manager Bob Clarke.