Doug Sulliman, David Maley and George McPhee. Quick. What sport do they play?
After Friday night, the same question could be asked of the Blackhawks.
Sulliman scored twice and Maley and McPhee had one goal apiece to lead the New Jersey Devils to a 5-2 victory over the Hawks at the Meadowlands Arena.
Sulliman scored his fourth and fifth goals of the season, Maley got his first point, and McPhee netted his third goal. They may not be headed for the Hall of Fame, but they did enough to beat the Hawks.
Team Chicago is 0-7-1 in its last eight road games. It hasn`t won away from the Stadium in a month.
The Devils, 10-1-1 at home, started the game with a bad-angle goal and ended the scoring with a bad goal, a shot goaltender Bob Mason let slip off his glove.
”Whether or not they were unusual goals, they outplayed us,” said coach Bob Murdoch. ”They deserved to win.”
Murdoch defended Mason, who faced 38 shots while the Hawks managed only 25 shots on Alain Chevrier.
”Your goalies aren`t going to make every save,” Murdoch said. ”When he does blow a shot, that`s when the other five guys have to dig deep and not say, `Oh, geez.` ”
”A couple of lucky goals,” Mason said. ”The first one hit a rut in the ice and hit my skate.
”I felt good out there. I wasn`t fighting the puck. Sometimes they`re going to go in. It was just a couple of fluke things.”
A quarter of the season has past and the Hawks are 9-9-2 after 20 games. That isn`t bad compared to last season, when they were 4-11-5 after 20 games. But the team`s road play is disturbing to Murdoch.
The coach keeps being asked what`s wrong with his players on the road. Even he isn`t sure what ails them when they leave town.
The Devils had a 4-1 lead after outscoring the Hawks 3-1 in the second period. It was the second straight period the Hawks looked disorganized and less than enthusiastic.
”I think they shut us down pretty well,” Murdoch said. ”What did we have, four shots in the first period?”
Rookie center Brian Noonan and right wing Rick Vaive scored power-play goals for the Hawks, who were 2 for 6 on the power play. The Devils were 1 for 8. Murdoch felt the Hawks should have had a few more power plays.
”I thought Rick Vaive was mauled in front of the net on the power play,” Murdoch said. ”They didn`t call it both ways.”
Sulliman scored the only goal of the first period on a bad-angle shot from behind the goal line. His shot hit Mason`s skate and deflected into the net.
It only got worse. Maley scored his first point of the season to give the Devils a 2-0 lead early in the second period. He won a faceoff from Noonan and got the puck back to Ken Daneyko, then deflected Daneyko`s shot past Mason.
The Devils went ahead 3-0 when McPhee, who has been hurt most of the season, scored from the bottom of the right circle at 8:09.
Vaive scored his 16th goal of the season to cut the Devils` lead to 3-1 at 16:48 of the second period. It came on a backhand rebound of Doug Wilson`s long shot.
But when it appeared the Hawks might get back in the game, the Devils struck again, this time on the power play. Sulliman netted his second goal of the game to put the Devils ahead 4-1 late in the second period. He directed Bruce Driver`s shot into the net.
One bright spot: left wing Curt Fraser played for the first time since Nov. 4. He had been sidelined with an intestinal infection.
The Hawks reassigned right wing Mark LaVarre to their Saginaw, Mich., farm team in the International Hockey League.
