EASTERN QUARTER-FINALS
GAME SUMMARIES
GAME 2:
#1 PHILADELPHIA FLYERS vs #8 BUFFALO SABRES
Philadelphia leads 2-0
Next Game: Sunday April 16th, 2000 7:30pm at Buffalo
A blistering shot, a disbelieving all-world goalie, a mysterious knock at the door. It all added up to another disputed goal, and a replay nightmare that never seems to end for the Buffalo Sabres. John LeClair's goal that shouldn't have been -- through the mesh of the net and not through Dominik Hasek -- helped the Philadelphia Flyers beat the snakebitten Sabres 2-1 Friday night.
The Flyers took a 2-0 lead in the best-of-7 first-round playoff series. The Sabres must be ready to take a sledgehammer to the league's video replay room.
"What a great hockey game it was," Sabres forward Dixon Ward said. "But regardless of the outcome, it has to be marred by something stupid again."
Eric Desjardins scored the go-ahead goal in the third period, but the focus will be on the goal that wasn't.
It was another embarrassing replay blunder for the league, and an unthinkably cruel twist for the Sabres -- who were beaten in Game 6 of the Stanley Cup finals last year on Brett Hull's disputed goal with his foot in the crease.
LeClair blasted a slap shot from Hasek's left side for a power-play goal that tied the score at 1-1. The shot was so hard it was difficult to see how the puck got past Hasek, but it ended up bouncing around in the net.
"I blamed myself," Hasek said. "I thought maybe I left a hole."
But a close-up television replay from behind the net showed that LeClair's goal went in on the outside of the post. Even in slow-motion, the puck was traveling too fast to tell whether it went under the mesh or through it.
"They said it was a good goal, and that was the end of it," LeClair said.
NHL supervisor John D'Amico admitted afterward that the goal shouldn't have counted, but said there was nothing that could have been done. The video replay judge, Mike Condon, only had access to two camera angles when reviewing the goal. Both those angles were shaky and D'Amico said they showed the puck going in cleanly.
It was only the shot from behind Hasek -- from ESPN's "Net Cam" -- that showed the puck going in on the outside of the post.
"We can't review what we can't see," an apologetic D'Amico said.
Summing up the emotion of the evening, Flyers coach Craig Ramsay said, "I have seen it all."
Hasek shook his head in disbelief while taking a swig from his water bottle after the goal. Unlike Hull's goal no one realized there was anything wrong until about six minutes later.
"It was a 99-mph, 100-mph shot," Hasek said. "I looked at it right away and blamed myself. I thought maybe I made a mistake."
At the same time, Hasek couldn't understand how the puck got in because he knew he had the side of the net covered.
"As a player, you say there's no way this puck can go in -- even though you saw it go in," said Ward, who later noticed the hole in the side of the net that presumably was made by LeClair's shot. "You're thinking, 'It's an optical illusion."
Rule 93 in the NHL Rule Book -- the video goal judge rule -- only lists why a play can be reviewed. It doesn't mention anything about a time frame for reviewing and D'Amico said nothing can be done once play resumes.
Asked if the goal would have been disallowed if the video judge had seen the ESPN replay, D'Amico said, "You're right."
NHL executive vice-president and director of hockey operations Colin Campbell was in Toronto and called a post-game show on the Sabres' network.
"I've had two conversations with (Sabres general manager) Darcy (Regier) and he's upset and he should be upset. And every Buffalo fan should be upset," Campbell told the Empire Sports Network. "You think we wanted this to happen? It's the last thing you wanted to happen. You want a game to end because one team played better than the other team and they won the game."
Rookie Brian Boucher was stellar again, making 26 saves and keeping his cool when the Sabres went on desperate attack late in the third. Hasek, meanwhile, doesn't want to know the Flyers' record when they win the first two games of a playoff series -- 17-0.
Game 3 is Sunday night at Buffalo.
"Obviously, we can't comment on it," Ward said sarcastically. "They tell us that. They tell us to promote the game. And what a wonderful game it is."
Adding to the Oliver Stone-like plot, D'Amico admitted that the whole thing started with a mysterious knock at the door of the NHL officials' box.
"I'll be frank with you, I don't know who the gentleman was," D'Amico said. "But someone came and said that ESPN's camera was showing the puck entering from the outside of the net."
Miroslav Satan gave the Sabres a 1-0 lead in the first period with his second goal of the series. With 4:07 elapsed in the third, Desjardins walked in alone from Hasek's left on the power play and scored the decisive goal while Keith Primeau -- the Flyers' burly pest -- charged The Dominator.
Hasek, who gave up a rare three goals in Game 1, looked much sharper and more sure of himself in the opening minutes. He stopped Mark Recchi on a breakaway about 9� minutes into the game, but he couldn't keep his composure for long.
A few minutes after LeClair's goal, Hasek attacked Primeau after a seemingly innocuous play in the crease.
Primeau skated in for a rebound that Hasek covered. Hasek then chased Primeau out of the net and started swinging his blocker pad at Primeau's head. A melee ensued, and Hasek got a roughing penalty.
It was that kind of night for Hasek, the most dominant goaltender in the sport who suddenly finds himself vulnerable even when he has the whole net covered.
#2 WASHINGTON CAPITALS vs #7 PITTSBURGH PENQUINS
Pittsburgh leads 2-0
Next Game: Monday April 17th, 2000 7pm at Pittsburgh
Jaromir Jagr didn't have the angle, didn't have a shot, didn't have a chance. By now, however, the Pittsburgh Penguins should realize nothing is impossible against the Washington Capitals.
Jagr snapped a wrist shot from an awkward angle past Olaf Kolzig at 5:49 of overtime and the Penguins seized a two-game lead in their Eastern Conference playoff series by beating Washington 2-1 Saturday. With defenseman Ken Klee off for his second penalty in less than six minutes, Jagr, who set up Pittsburgh's first goal, dangled the puck on his stick at the far edge of the right circle, then whistled a shot over Kolzig's shoulder.
"I'm thinking, why is he shooting from there? We're on the power play," Penguins goalie Ron Tugnutt said. "But he doesn't need much room. It was scary watching what he did."
Even scarier for Kolzig.
"I was surprised he picked that corner," Kolzig said. "He does that -- looks one way, cocks his wrists and lets it fly. He didn't have much room at all, but I guess he had all he needed."
Now, Washington has no room to err. The seventh-seeded Penguins, given a unique home-ice advantage because of scheduling conflicts at Mellon Arena, take a 2-0 lead into Game 3 Monday.
Normally, Game 2 would have been in Washington, but the Penguins' arena was unavailable most of next week.
The overtime was the first in this year's playoffs and the first this season in which teams skated five-on-five, although because of power plays, there were rarely 10 skaters on the ice during the extra session.
In the regular season, the NHL changed overtime to 4-on-4 in an attempt to decrease tie games.
Pittsburgh was 0-for-8 on the power play until Jagr scored his 56th career playoff goal and fourth game-winner in overtime.
"I took a chance," Jagr said of his game-winner. "I didn't really want to shoot because I'm not shooting that well. I knew he (Kolzig) couldn't see well."
Jagr, the NHL scoring champion, has a goal and five assists in the series after being sidelined most of the final two months of the season with various injuries.
The Capitals couldn't beat Pittsburgh at the Penguins' own game in Game 1, losing 7-0. Now, they're really in trouble -- they couldn't beat them at the Capitals' game, either.
"Yeah, we're desperate, in the sense we have to win," said Kolzig, who led Washington to the best record in the conference over the second half of the season. "But we're not desperate to where we have to change the way we're playing."
Of course, the Penguins seem to beat the second-seeded Capitals no matter the venue or the circumstances. They won four of five playoff series from them in the 1990s and are 5-1 against them this season.
"We stole this game," Jagr said. "We need to play a lot better than this.
Capitals coach Ron Wilson was enraged the Penguins had two power plays in the overtime, both on penalties against Klee. The Capitals killed off the final 1:27 of a Penguins power play to start the period, only to see Klee called for holding Alexei Kovalev at 5:08.
"That was an awful call. I don't see how you make that call," Wilson said.
Klee called it "unbelievable" and said, "Kovalev was behind me and I kind of reached back. He went down and they called it."
The Capitals abandoned their tight checking, take-no-risks style in Game 1 to try to match the Penguins' free-flowing European flair, with admittedly predictable results.
Not surprisingly, the Capitals, playing with star Chris Simon, suspended for a hit on Peter Popovic in the first game, refused to run and gun in Game 2. They stacked the blue line four-deep whenever the Penguins tried an up-ice rush and took away the open ice Pittsburgh enjoyed in the opener.
As a result, they had a 21-5 advantage in shots midway through the second period -- but only 1-0 lead, mostly because of Tugnutt's strong play.
Tugnutt, discarded by Ottawa because the Senators felt he couldn't win in the playoffs, made 37 saves even as the Capitals outshot the Penguins 38-21. Tugnutt was 3-8 in the playoffs before this series, but has allowed one goal in the two games.
Peter Bondra gave Washington a 1-0 lead with a power-play goal at 17:18 of the first, redirecting Calle Johansson's one-timer from the top of the slot off Andrei Nikolishin's pass.
It was the Capitals' fourth goal in 43 power-play opportunities, including their 0-for-5 shutout in Game 1, but Bondra's 17th goal in 30 career playoff games against Pittsburgh. He has seven playoff goals against the rest of the league.
The turning point for Pittsburgh may have come when the Capitals were pressing for a goal and a possibly insurmountable 2-0 lead during a power play early in the second period.
Tugnutt lost his stick behind the net and, after spending a few frantic seconds searching for it, grabbed defenseman Hans Jonsson's stick amid a burst of Capitals shots.
Tugnutt made five saves during the power play, several from pointblank range while using a much-smaller stick than goalies normally used.
"I don't remember much," Tugnutt said. "I was just glad when we cleared the puck."
Tugnutt's play clearly gave the Penguins a burst of momentum and, despite getting almost no good scoring chances in the first two periods, they tied it on Jan Hrdina's second goal of the series at 14:06 of the second. Hrdina also assisted on Jagr's goal.
As defenseman Bob Boughner pinched in to keep the puck in the Capitals' end, Jagr's shot deflected high in the air off Kolzig's blocker. Hrdina grabbed it, directed it to his stick and swatted it in from the left side of the net as Kolzig scrambled unsuccessfully to recover.
Earlier, the Capitals appeared to take a 2-0 lead, but officials ruled Tugnutt had frozen the puck and waved off an apparent Jeff Halpern goal.
#3 TORONTO MAPLE LEAFS vs #6 OTTAWA SENATORS
Toronto leads 2-0
Next Game: Monday April 17th, 2000 7pm at Ottawa
The Battle of Ontario turned into target practice for the Toronto Maple Leafs.
Steve Thomas scored twice and Darcy Tucker, Mats Sundin and Sergei Berezin added one each in a 5-1 Toronto victory Saturday night that gave the Leafs a 2-0 lead in the first-round NHL playoff series.
Sami Salo was the only Ottawa player to put a puck behind Curtis Joseph, who played another strong game.
Game 3 in the best-of-7 series is Monday at Ottawa.
This one was close -- but just for one period.
"We wanted to play a physical game, without a doubt," Thomas said. "We thought that if we came out and set a tone in the first 10 minutes, let them know we were ready to play and this was going to be our game, that would plant a little bit of a seed in their minds."
After a scoreless first, the Leafs took control with three goals in a 3:03 span early in the second.
Tucker pushed in a rebound at :46 as he was being knocked down from behind by Jason York. Tucker also scored his team's first goal in Game 1, and has been a sparkplug since being acquired late in the season from Tampa Bay.
"I've waited a long time for this," Tucker said. "It's an unbelievable feeling to know you can contribute to a hockey club that has a chance to do something special.
"I'm going out there and having a great time, the kick of my life. I wanted to play especially good tonight because my brother-in-law (Montreal's Shayne Corson) was in the stands. I wanted to play well in front of him."
Sundin beat Tom Barrasso with an unscreened wrist shot from just inside the Ottawa blue line at 1:28. Thomas then whacked a one-handed Sundin pass in from the right-wing circle at 3:49.
"Mats' goal was a big one," Joseph said. "That seemed to really ignite the fire."
Thomas made it 4-0 at 12:46. Jonas Hoglund fed him a breakaway pass on the right wing. Thomas cut to his left to the net, and Barrasso moved across his crease and went down. Thomas put on the brakes, stopped, turned, pulled the puck to his backhand, and slid it into the vacated side of the net.
"We got down and we started to press and we gave up a few odd-man rushes," Barrasso said. "We needed to put some pressure on them after we got behind."
All that was left to determine was the size of Toronto's winning margin. Leafs coach Pat Quinn was feeling so comfortable that he sent fourth-line winger Tie Domi out for a power-play shift.
Salo got Ottawa's first goal of the series when, on a power play, he lifted a rising wrist shot past Joseph at 19:05 of the second period.
"The second period was really bad," Salo said. "No one supported each other and they outplayed us. Tom played well, but we didn't help him at all."
Berezin, one of Toronto's best snipers, scored 5:36 into the third period. Open on the left wing, Berezin slapped at a cross-ice pass from Igor Korolev and the puck found the open side of the net.
Domi, knocked to the ice in the second period by Patrick Traverse, got even by dropping Traverse with a shoulder.
"They were all over us," Senators defenseman Grant Ledyard said.
The Senators are not nearly as formidable an opponent without top defenseman Wade Redden, who can't play in the series because of a broken foot.
Ottawa outshot Toronto 30-25, but the Leafs had the best scoring chances.
"The defense was letting me see the puck and clearing out rebounds," Joseph said.
Barrasso said the Senators have the ability to grab momentum away from Toronto.
"I think we have it in the room," he said. "It's just a matter of putting it on the ice."
#4 NEW JERSEY DEVILS vs #5 FLORIDA PANTHERS
New Jersey leads 2-0
Next Game: Tuesday April 18th, 2000 7:30pm at Florida
Scott Stevens is not only shutting down Florida scoring machine Pavel Bure on one end of the ice, the New Jersey Devils defenseman is also beating the Panthers on the other end, too.
Scott Niedermayer returned from a 10-game suspension and tied the game, then Stevens got the game-winner early in the third period as the Devils beat the Panthers 2-1 Sunday night to take a two-game lead in their playoff series.
"You can't say enough about Scotty (Stevens), he's really led us the last two games," said fellow defenseman Ken Daneyko. "He's been a big-time player showing us the way. I said before the game he and Niedermayer are the two keys, and they did a good job."
Rookie John Madden set up both odd-man rush goals and Martin Brodeur stopped 22 shots as the Devils took a commanding 2-0 advantage in the best-of-7 first-round Eastern Conference series by winning the first two at home.
Mike Sillinger scored for Florida, which will play host for the next two games, on Tuesday and Thursday.
"It's a must-win game, no doubt," said Panthers goalie Mike Vernon, who was outstanding stopping 26 shots. "We all know the situation at hand. Even though we think we gave it our all tonight, we have to push ourselves harder for the next game. It's not going to get any easier."
The game was the first for Niedermayer since an ugly incident on March 19, when he whacked Florida's Peter Worrell over the head with his stick after being elbowed.
There were some chants of "Scotty, Scotty" when he stepped on the ice the first time, and the two players bumped a couple of times in the game without incident.
"I have never been through anything like this before and hopefully never again," Niedermayer said. "It wasn't too easy after it happened, but after a few days I just looked forward to this game tonight. I'm just trying to forget about it."
The Panthers tried to hit Niedermayer every chance they had, but no one was around him when he whacked home a Madden rebound 56 seconds into the second period with Florida enjoying a 5-on-3 power play.
"I didn't ask for that, it just happened," Niedermayer said. "I jumped up into the play."
That tied it at 1, and Stevens got his second playoff goal in as many games, capping a 2-on-1 with Madden at 3:42 of the third period. Stevens worked a give-and-go with the rookie and then made a great move to his backhand to slide the puck between the legs of Vernon.
"This is just a bonus for me," said Stevens, who has shadowed Bure since the series opened and not allowed a goal. "You don't think about scoring but it's obviously nice when you can take advantage. It's nice to put the puck into the net against their top line."
Brodeur denied Alex Hicks in close less than two minutes after Stevens scored. He also got lucky when Bure clanged a shot off the goal post with 10:37 to go. Bure, who had a minus-2 rating in the opening game, helped the Panthers take a 1-0 lead with 5:15 left in the period. He got the puck in the right corner, charged the net and tried to stuff a shot in. Brodeur made the save, but Sillinger slammed home the rebound for his second goal of the series.
The Devils tied it while skating with a two-man disadvantage in the opening minute of the second period. Panthers defenseman Robert Svelha could not keep a clearing attempt by Stevens in the New Jersey zone, setting up a break by Madden down the left wing. Vernon stopped his slap shot from the circle, but Niedermayer whacked the rebound out of the air into an open net.
"I had no idea Scott was with me," Madden said. "I shot it and he did a nice job putting it in."
Panthers captain Scott Mellanby couldn't remember giving up a 3-on-5 goal.
"I'm going to remember this one, unfortunately," he said. "It's a huge swing. It turned the game around."
Brodeur made two good saves on slap shots by Bure late in the period and the Devils just missed taking the lead late in the final minute of the period when Alexander Mogilny banged a slap shot off the crossbar.
Devils left wing Sergei Brylin bruised his right knee early in the third period in a collision with Oleg Kvasha. He might play on Tuesday.
Despite some concern about an abdominal strain, Daneyko played in his 110th consecutive playoff game for the Devils.
New Jersey center Jason Arnott, who sprained a wrist in the Devils' 4-3 Game 1 victory, and Panthers defenseman Mike Wilson, who bruised a foot, also played.