NHL ROUNDUP : Capital Defense Maintains Offense

Washington continued to show the NHL that the best offense is a good defense as Sylvain Cote scored the winning goal for the Capitals against the New York Islanders, 4-2, at Uniondale, N.Y., on Tuesday night.

The Capitals have won their last seven games. Their defensemen have scored 73 of the team’s 249 goals, more than produced by the top four goal-scorers for both the San Jose Sharks and Ottawa Senators.

“Their defense can be decent forwards on other teams,” Islander forward Derek King said. “Their style of play definitely changes your game.”

Dale Hunter, Kelly Miller and Bob Carpenter each had a goal and an assist for Washington, and Don Beaupre stopped 24 shots in winning his sixth consecutive start.

Montreal 5, St. Louis 1--Kirk Muller and J.J. Daigneault scored third-period goals 28 seconds apart as the Canadiens beat the Blues at St. Louis.

Brian Bellows scored his 26th goal of the season with 4:41 to play to seal the victory.

Montreal has 82 points, one more than Pittsburgh and the most points in the NHL.

New Jersey 3, Pittsburgh 1--Stephane Richer and Peter Stastny scored during the third period to break a 1-1 tie for the Devils at Pittsburgh.

The Penguins have lost four of their last five games, the worst slump of the season for the defending Stanley Cup champions. Pittsburgh lost consecutive home games for the first time this season.

New Jersey, on a 4-1-1 streak, has won four consecutive Patrick Division games for the first time this season. The Devils had been 1-4 against the Penguins with 11 goals in the five previous games against them.

Quebec 6, Edmonton 3--Valeri Kamensky is showing that he can absorb punishment, as well as dish it out.

The Quebec forward, who suffered a broken nose at New Jersey Sunday, scored twice and assisted on Mike Ricci’s go-ahead goal as the Nordiques scored their fifth consecutive victory, at Quebec.

The Nordiques erased a one-goal deficit by scoring four times in a span of 5:46 of the third period.

Winnipeg 8, Ottawa 2--Teemu Selanne scored his 46th goal to break the Jets’ record for goals in a season by a rookie during the victory over the Senators in a neutral site game at Saskatoon, Sask.

Selanne’s second-period goal broke rookie Dale Hawerchuck’s mark of 45 set during the 1980-81 season. It also left Selanne only seven from Mike Bossy’s NHL record of 53 goals.

Selanne said this second victory over Ottawa gave the Jets confidence.

“It will be a good challenge for us on Friday in Vancouver because we haven’t won there yet,” he said.

Calgary 6, San Jose 3--Theoren Fleury and Joe Nieuwendyk each scored two goals as the Flames ended a four-game winless streak at Daly City.

The Flames (32-21-9) remained in second place in the Smythe Division, one point behind the Vancouver Canucks. Calgary was 0-2-2 going into the game.

The last time the teams played, on Feb. 10, the Sharks suffered a 13-1 loss--the worst in their two-year history.