clarinews@clarinet.com (01/14/90)
QUEBEC (UPI) -- Janne Ojanen and John MacLean scored goals midway through the third period Saturday night to spark the New Jersey Devils to a 5-4 victory over the Quebec Nordiques. With the score tied 3-3 after two periods, Viacheslav Fetisov fed Ojanen with a pass at the blue line and the Finnish rookie beat goaltender Greg Millen with a low shot on the stick side at 6:46. Patrik Sundstrom stole the puck off Lucien Deblois' stick inside the Quebec zone and sent the puck to MacLean, who beat Millen at 10:42 for his 25th goal of the season and a 5-3 lead. Later, with the Devils on the powerplay, Quebec's Jeff Jackson picked up New Jersey goalie Sean Burke's missed clearing attempt and put the puck into the empty net at 11:34, closing out the scoring. Quebec opened the scoring in the first and led 2-1 after twenty minutes on goals by Guy Lafleur and Joe Sakic. Peter Stastny, who assisted on three Quebec goals, assisted on Guy Lafleur's 11th of the season at 5:48 of the first period on the powerplay. Stastny hit Lafleur, who headed in alone against Burke and beat the goaltender with a low shot to the far side. Joe Sakic scored his 25th of the season mid-way through the first when he took a Stastny pass at the side of the net which he put upstairs over Burke's shoulder. New Jersey retaliated 36 seconds after Lafleur's goal with one of their own as Sylvain Turgeon sent a loose puck past Millen for his 24th of the season. Alexei Kasatonov had taken an earlier shot which hit the boards in back of the net before bouncing in front to Turgeon. New Jersey erased the one goal deficit early in the second as Fetisov came in from the blue line unmolested to take a Mark Johnson pass from behind the net and put it in from about five feet out 23 seconds into the second. Kirk Muller stole the puck off Quebec defenseman Joe Cirella's stick just inside the Quebec zone and headed in alone against Millen which he deeked out of position before beating with a low shot for his 19th of the season. Quebec was on the powerplay late in the second period when Sakic hit McKegney in front of the net with a centering pass which the latter redirected past Burke to tie the game at 3-3. Burke faced 31 shots in nets for the Devils as his record improved to 15-12-4 while Millen stopped 25 shots.