Messier’s 561st Goal Is a Tiebreaker

Mark Messier scored twice to lift the New York Rangers to a 4-3 victory Thursday night over the New York Islanders and move past Guy Lafleur into 11th place on the all-time NHL goal-scoring list.

Messier broke a 3-3 tie late in the third period and moved past Lafleur at the same time with his 22nd goal of the season and 561st of his career. Tampa Bay’s Dino Ciccarelli earlier moved past Lafleur on the all-time list. He currently holds the 10th spot with 568.

Messier’s heroics also helped the Rangers accomplish what has been the team’s most difficult task this season--beating a division rival. Entering the game the Rangers had a league-worst record in division play (2-9-4).

“It was an important situation for us tonight,” Wayne Gretzky said. “You start reading more and more about the divisional record and it maybe starts creeping into the locker room, so it was important for us to nip it in the bud and start winning some of these big games.”

Boston 5, Hartford 4--Ted Donato scored the first and last goals for Boston, which blew a three-goal advantage before salvaging an overtime victory at Hartford.

Donato, who scored his first goal 45 seconds into the game, lifted the Bruins to the victory with a goal 2:21 into the extra period.

That salvaged a near-collapse by the Bruins, who had taken a 3-0 lead in less than 4 1/2 minutes of the game before Hartford scored four goals to carry a 4-3 lead into the final period.

Phoenix 4, Chicago 2--Jeremy Roenick went scoreless but still had a happy return to Chicago as Coyotes won on Bob Corkum’s tiebreaking goal with 9:15 to play.

Dave Manson, Cliff Ronning and Keith Tkachuk also scored for the Coyotes.

Roenick’s contract impasse with the Blackhawks forced his trade to the Coyotes after an often-stellar eight-year career that included three 100-point seasons. Chicago got center Alex Zhamnov in the deal.

Colorado 3, Calgary 2--Joe Sakic got his 500th career assist, setting up Uwe Krupp on the game-winning goal and the host Avalanche won its fifth in a row.

Sakic, who also reached the 800-point mark, won a faceoff in the Calgary zone and Krupp shot past Flame goaltender Trevor Kidd to break a 2-2 tie with 2:15 remaining.

Pittsburgh 6, New Jersey 1--At East Rutherford, N.J., Jaromir Jagr scored his league-leading 34th goal and Mario Lemieux had four assists.

Ron Francis, Stu Barnes, Fredrik Olausson, Kevin Hatcher and Peter Nedved also scored and Jason Woolley had three assists for the Penguins, who extended their unbeaten streak to seven games.

Montreal 2, St. Louis 2--Vincent Damphousse scored twice and the Canadiens extended their road unbeaten streak to seven games at St. Louis.

The Blues outshot the Canadiens, 41-19, but they needed a goal by Brett Hull with 1:25 remaining in regulation to earn the tie.

Philadelphia 4, San Jose 1--Daniel Lacroix scored his third goal of the season and Eric Lindros scored his 11th on a power play as the Flyers jumped to an early 2-0 lead to win at San Jose.