Richter Streak at 16 as Rangers Get Tie

Goaltender Mike Richter extended his unbeaten streak to 16 games and the New York Rangers their home unbeaten streak to seven Monday with a 2-2 tie against the Colorado Avalanche at New York.

After giving up two power-play goals to the Avalanche on their first five shots, Richter stopped the next 35 in a brilliant goaltending battle with Colorado’s Patrick Roy. Richter stopped 18 in the third period when Colorado had three of its eight power-play chances.

“Richter has been outstanding and I think that during these last 20 games, our success is pointed in his direction,” said Wayne Gretzky. “He just keeps plugging away and keeps doing great things for us.”

Roy made 30 saves for the defending Stanley Cup champions, who extended their unbeaten streak to seven (5-0-2) in the opener of a four-game road trip. Both goaltenders made a number of spectacular, diving stops in a game with playoff atmosphere at Madison Square Garden.

“There were a couple of guys that walked straight down the pike and drilled it,” said Ranger captain Mark Messier. “He was the reason we got the tie.”

Falling behind quickly on the goals by Keith Jones and Jon Klemm, the Rangers tied it in the second on goals by Bill Berg and Adam Graves.

Montreal 5, Hartford 4--Vincent Damphousse’s third goal of the game, with 3.4 seconds left in regulation, gave the streaking Canadiens a victory at Montreal.

Damphousse, who got his 300th career goal in the second period, tied the game 4-4 with 1:53 left in the third.

He then extended Montreal’s unbeaten streak to a season-high seven games (4-0-3) when he took a pass from Mark Recchi and took a shot from the faceoff circle to the left of goalie Jason Muzzatti. The puck hit Muzzatti’s leg pad and dribbled across the goal line.

David Wilkie and Chris Murray also scored for Montreal.

Tampa Bay 4, Ottawa 3--Defenseman Bill Houlder scored his first goal of the season as the Lightning won at Kanata, Ontario.

Alexander Selivanov, Daymond Langkow and Shawn Burr also scored for Tampa Bay, which withstood a Senators’ rally after taking a 4-1 lead on Houlder’s goal early in the third period.

Alexei Yashin, Lance Pitlick and Randy Cunneyworth scored for Ottawa.

Rick Tabaracci, making his 19th start in Tampa Bay’s last 20 games, stopped 20 shots for the Lightning.