The New York Rangers were encouraged that they got a full game from goaltender Mike Richter for the first time in 1996. Still, he could not stop their puzzling slide at home.
The Edmonton Oilers became the latest visiting team to do well at Madison Square Garden, winning 4-1 Tuesday night. Mariusz Czerkawski and Boris Mironov each scored two goals.The loss dropped the Rangers to 0-4-4 in their last eight home games. Before that slump, New York tied a team record with a 24-game unbeaten streak at the Garden.
"It's no secret our core group is struggling," Rangers captain Mark Messier said. "Our best players have not been playing well. That will happen in the course of a season. We've been struggling for 2-3 weeks."
Richter was playing for the first time in a month. He injured his groin on Dec. 30, came back on Feb. 18 and hurt himself that night, and had been sidelined since that point. Richter, 12-0-2 in his previous 14 games at home, looked rusty in his return.
The Rangers could have broken a tie with Pittsburgh for the best record in the Eastern Conference. Instead, they slipped to 1-5-3 in their last nine games.
The Oilers are 4-1 in their last five.
Red Wings 6, Maple Leafs 5
Sergei Fedorov and Nicklas Lidstrom scored two goals each as Detroit rallied from a 2-0 deficit.
Fedorov added three assists as the Red Wings won their seventh straight game and upped their season record against visiting Toronto to 4-0 heading into their final regular-season meeting tonight at Maple Leaf Gardens.
Doug Brown and Steve Yzerman scored Detroit's other goal, and Paul Coffey had a pair of assists.
Wendel Clark scored a pair of goals, while Wayne Presley, Nick Kypreos and Mats Sundin scored the others for Toronto.
Goalie Mike Vernon stopped 17 shots to earn the victory. Felix Potvin made 28 saves for Toronto.
Panthers 5, Senators 2
Jody Hull broke out of a scoring slump with two goals as Florida snapped visiting Ottawa's three-game winning streak.
Hull's goals, his 19th and 20th, were his first in 13 games for the Panthers, now 10-0-1 against Ottawa since the Senators entered the NHL.
Flyers 4, Islanders 1
John LeClair scored a pair of goals as Philadelphia peppered visiting New York with 41 shots.
Pat Falloon added a goal and an assist, and Dale Hawerchuk and Rod Brind'Amour had two assists each for the Flyers, who notched their first three-game winning streak since Dec. 14-17. The victory also enabled Philadelphia, which is in a second-place tie with Florida, to climb within three points of the Atlantic Division-leading Rangers.
New York avoided the shutout when Bryan McCabe scored on a power play at 10:36 of the third period. That ended Ron Hextall's scoreless streak of 136 minutes, 12 seconds.
Mighty Ducks 2, Capitals 1
Anaheim extended its winning streak to a franchise-record five games, beating Washington for the first time behind a 33-save performance by Guy Hebert.
Valeri Karpov and Steve Rucchin each had a goal and an assist for the Mighty Ducks, who moved within a point of idle Winnipeg in the race for the final playoff spot in the Western Conference.
Stefan Ustorf scored for the Capitals, who outshot visiting Anaheim 34-16 but missed a chance to jump past New Jersey into the sixth spot in the East. Washington was 2-0-1 against the Mighty Ducks since their NHL debut in 1993.
Avalanche 4, Canucks 3
An unlikely goal by enforcer Chris Simon gave Colorado the win and sent the Canucks to their worst losing skid in five seasons.
Simon, a fighter who has accumulated 215 penalty minutes, one-timed a smooth pass from center Joe Sakic at 10:09 of the third period.
The loss was Vancouver's sixth straight, the first time the Canucks have lost that many in a row since 1990-91.