NHL ROUNDUP : Canadiens Shut Out Sabres, 3-0

Patrick Roy doesn’t get many chances for shutouts this season under the Montreal Canadiens’ new offensive-minded approach.

On Monday night at Montreal, though, the Canadiens looked like the defense-first squads of recent years and gave Roy an easy time, allowing only 23 shots in a 3-0 victory over the Buffalo Sabres.

“I’m just trying to help the team win--no matter what the score,” Roy said after his first shutout of the season and the 19th in his eight-year career. “Tonight we played solid defensively, picked up three goals and got a big win.”

Vincent Damphousse and Stephan Lebeau each scored a goal and added an assist for Montreal, which moved into a tie with Pittsburgh for first place overall in the 24-team league at 17-6-3.

Denis Savard also scored for the Canadiens, who were coming off a 6-5 loss on Saturday to the Vancouver Canucks.

“Saturday we let in six and tonight, the big zero--that’s great,” said defenseman Patrice Brisebois.

Minnesota 4, New York Rangers 2--Stu Gavin’s tiebreaker triggered a three-goal burst in 92 seconds of the third period at New York as the North Stars ended a nine-game winless streak against the Rangers.

Ulf Dahlen, a former Ranger, and Mike Craig also scored as the North Stars, one of the NHL’s better road teams, improved their record away from Met Center to 7-5-0.

Ranger goalie John Vanbiesbrouck suffered his first loss in 20 games at Madison Square Garden. Vanbiesbrouck had been 15-0-4 at the Garden since losing to Washington on Nov. 13, 1991.

Vanbiesbrouck was outplayed by Jon Casey, who made 41 saves.

Washington 4, Detoit 1--Defenseman Al Iafrate had his fifth goal in four games as Capitals won at Detroit.

Detroit, playing its fifth game in eight days as part of a stretch in which it plays 11 times in 18 days, was without injured forwards Sergei Fedorov and Dallas Drake and rested defenseman Mark Howe.

Ten days ago, Washington led Detroit, 5-3, with nine minutes to play but lost, 7-5.

“That was the third straight game we had blown, and it was pretty much the low point of the season,” said Iafrate. “But in hindsight, maybe it taught us a lesson we needed to learn. We need to play hard all night.”

Since losing to Detroit, the Capitals are 4-1-1.

Boston 4, Quebec 3--Steve Leach scored his second goal of the game with 2:26 to play in the third period at Quebec as the Bruins handed the Nordiques their third loss in a row.

Joe Juneau had his third assist of the game on the goal, a wrist shot by Leach from just inside the right circle past Ron Hextall.

The Nordiques’ Bill Lindsay tied the score, 3-3, with a fluke goal at 8:06 of the third period. Lindsay, attempting to feed Claude Lapointe on a two-on-one break, had his pass deflect off falling defenseman Glen Featherstone and behind Moog.