EASTERN QUARTER-FINALS
GAME SUMMARIES
GAME 5:
#1 PHILADELPHIA FLYERS vs #8 BUFFALO SABRES
Philadelphia wins 4-1
Next Game: Philadelphia advances to the second round.
The Buffalo Sabres' post-Stanley Cup lament last season was, "No Goal!" This year, they're out of the playoffs because of no goals. The Philadelphia Flyers scored two relatively soft goals against Dominik Hasek, the NHL's premier playoff goaltender, and closed out the Sabres 5-2 in Game 5 of their NHL first-round series Thursday night.
Dan McGillis' long slap shot sailed by Hasek with eight seconds left in the first period, and his floater from just inside the blue line was redirected by John LeClair for the go-ahead goal midway through the second period.
"I was in the right position, but the puck completely changed direction," Hasek said of the momentum-shifting McGillis goal. "Ninety-nine percent of the time I make the save, but it was coming into the my lap, then rising into my chest or my stomach or something ... I don't know."
Those are the kind of goals Hasek seldom allows in the postseason, especially last season when his strong play carried the Sabres to the Stanley Cup finals.
Then, the Sabres lost the Stanley Cup finals to Dallas on Brett Hull's disputed in-the-crease goal late in the third overtime of Game 6. This series turned when the Sabres lost Game 2 on LeClair's phantom goal that found a hole in the side, not the front, of the net. Buffalo trailed 2-0 after that loss, and never recovered. "Maybe we got a goal that shouldn't have counted, but that's not why we won the series," said rookie goaltender Bryan Boucher, who stopped 20 of 22 shots. "We didn't let Dominik Hasek intimidate us. We got some ugly goals, but we created traffic in front of the net and worked for the goals we got."
Daymond Langkow made it 3-1 slightly more than three minutes after LeClair's goal, an advantage much too big to overcome for a star-less Sabres offense that scored only eight goals in the five games.
"First and foremost, they were the better team in the series," Dixon Ward of the Sabres said. "In just about every area, they were better."
Hasek agreed, saying, "They were the hungrier team from the beginning. They played very disciplined hockey and did everything they were supposed to within their system."
Simon Gagne also scored a power-play goal at 9:55 of the third period after Stu Barnes' goal had briefly cut the Flyers' lead to 3-2. The Flyers, who had the NHL's second-best power play during the season, scored nine of their 14 goals in the series on the power play.
"You're not going to get easy goals against Dominik Hasek, but tonight we found a way," Langkow said.
Bounced by the Sabres in a first-round upset in 1998 and again by Toronto a year ago, the top-seeded Flyers advance to the Eastern Conference semifinals for the first time since 1997.
"Everybody said, 'You don't want to be the No. 1 seed, you don't want to have to play Buffalo and Hasek,' " Boucher said. "We didn't care. We weren't intimidated."
The Flyers' second-round opponent remains undetermined, but will be seventh-seeded Pittsburgh if the Penguins don't blow a 3-1 series lead against Washington. Game 5 of that series is Friday night in Washington.
After Gagne's goal, some Flyers fans began chanting, "We Want Pittsburgh" -- and no wonder, since the Flyers were 3-0-1 against the Penguins this season.
The Flyers broke two longstanding NHL playoff rules in eliminating Buffalo 4-1 -- Hasek never gives up easy goals in the postseason, and he always keeps the Sabres in the playoffs longer than they should expect to hang around.
"Dominik Hasek probably is the No. 1 goalie in the league. People don't realize how tough he is to score against," the Flyers' Rick Tocchet said. "A lot of games, you'll only get two or three chances against him. They're very aggressive defensively because they've got him back there."
McGillis' goal was the crusher, and it undid everything that Buffalo had done up until then to take the 1-0 lead.
Richard Smehlik of the Sabres scored at 8:44 of the first, a slap shot from the left point off a faceoff won by Michael Peca.
The Flyers kept pressing for the tying goal, and finally got it as McGillis took new Flyers captain Eric Desjardins' cross-ice pass and teed up a slap shot from the left point. The shot was so hard that it rattled the water bottle atop the net as it whistled past Hasek's right shoulder.
The Flyers scored at least one power-play goal in every game of the series, a streak kept alive when LeClair scored at 9:47. McGillis' shot hardly seemed threatening as he let it go but Hasek, apparently screened, didn't pick it up well, allowing LeClair to put his stick on it.
"Special teams wins and loses a series nowadays, and their special teams won it," the Sabres' Dixon Ward said.
That goal reenergized a noisy crowd of 19,801, and the momentum carried over to Langkow's goal at 12:52. Simon Gagne dug the puck out along the rear boards and fed Tocchet, who moved it to Langkow in the low slot.
Langkow added an empty-net goal with one-tenth of a second remaining -- the least amount of time possible for a goal.
As the Sabres left the ice, coach Lindy Ruff was struck by a flying cup, causing a bruise on his left cheek.
"I've been hit harder before," he said. "I think it is disappointing, but they (the fans) are very emotional. One guy doesn't ruin it for the other 19,000 here."
#2 WASHINGTON CAPITALS vs #7 PITTSBURGH PENQUINS
Pittsburgh wins 4-1
Next Game: Pittsburgh advances to the second round.
Jaromir Jagr's cross-ice pass from the left wing hit Calle Johansson in the left leg and ricocheted into the net, putting the Pittsburgh Penguins into the second round of the Stanley Cup playoffs. While Johansson let out a cry and stood dejected with his hands and stick on his knees, Jagr raised his arms and celebrated as he would after any goal. The Penguins might not have been the better team in Friday night's 2-1 Game 5 victory, but they were definitely the luckier one. "What do you want me to say -- that I was so lucky? You have to be lucky to win," said Jagr, who had been contained all game by the Capitals defense. "If they would have scored a goal and we would lose you guys would have said that we got outplayed and we didn't have a good team. It happens. It's hockey. Of course, we were lucky. We're going to take it. I'm going to take it."
The game-winner came with 12:04 to play and gave Pittsburgh a 4-1 series victory. The Penguins will face the Philadelphia Flyers in the Eastern Conference semifinals.
"It's going to be WWF," Jagr said. "We're going to sign some wrestling guys."
The result repeated a familiar scenario from the Capitals' past: great regular season, lousy playoffs.
"It's even tougher when you score for them," Johansson said. "You'd rather see them score in our net. Good teams always find a way to win, but obviously we weren't good enough. Close is not enough."
Johansson said he saw Jagr's pass coming.
"I tried to stop it because there's a guy behind me," he said. "It just hit me in a bad spot and went in the net. I can't really blame anything but myself."
The Penguins have been the biggest culprit in Washington's postseason woes, winning five of six series against the Caps over the past decade. This series had four consecutive one-goal games in which little separated the teams, but Washington never really recovered from a 7-0 Game 1 blowout in which it essentially abandoned its game plan.
"I guess you have to go right away to that first game," Pittsburgh coach Herb Brooks said. "It gave us a lot of confidence going in."
The Capitals were the No. 2 seed. Pittsburgh was No. 7, but that was considered an aberration because Jagr, the NHL's regular-season scoring leader, missed 19 games.
Jagr had 10 points in the series, including three goals, but he was held to only one shot the first two periods Friday as the Capitals forced the usually fluid Penguins into a tight-checking, dump-and-chase game. Pittsburgh also missed forward Jan Hrdina, who had four goals in the first three games, for the second consecutive game with a muscle strain, forcing Brooks to shuffle his lines.
Tyler Wright netted his second goal of the series in the first period for the Penguins. Sergei Gonchar scored for the Capitals, who lost at home for only the ninth time all season.
The Capitals once again dominated the faceoffs, winning 55 percent, attributable in part to Hrdina's absence, but the Pittsburgh defense did another superb job of protecting goaltender Ron Tugnutt, blocking 22 shots to Washington's eight.
Each team scored in the first period, resulting from rare times when a shooter was given too much space.
Wright drove one past goaltender Olaf Kolzig from the left faceoff circle at 5:52. Kolzig guessed stick side; Wright shot glove side. It was the type of play the Capitals have been relying on Kolzig to stop all season, but Kolzig found it harder to do against the Penguins' skilled Europeans.
Gonchar, given space down the middle of the ice, crossed the blue line and beat Tugnutt high to the stick side at 10:02. It was the first point of the series for Gonchar, a streaky player who was key to Washington's Stanley Cup finals run two years ago.
Washington forward Chris Simon got a pair in the first period -- a pair of television cameras. Sent off the ice for slashing, Simon flung a spare puck over the glass and then booted the two TV cameras that sit at foot of the penalty box. He was given a 10-minute misconduct penalty.
Washington outshot Pittsburgh 26-17, but when the Capitals finally put the puck in the net a second time, it was the wrong net.
"Ha, I saw it pretty good," Kolzig said. "That's the way the series went. That's it in a nutshell right there. We didn't get one bounce, and that's the way it goes."
The series was played under an unusual 1-2-2-1-1 format because Pittsburgh's arena was unavailable for certain dates and because of the demands of ABC television. The Capitals, who had to play two of the first three on the road despite being the higher seed, didn't make it a big issue in public -- but owner Ted Leonsis did vent some frustration in a phone call to commissioner Gary Bettman.
#3 TORONTO MAPLE LEAFS vs #6 OTTAWA SENATORS
Toronto leads 3-2
Next Game: Monday April 24th, 2000 7pm at Ottawa
Steve Thomas took matters into his own hands and put the Toronto Maple Leafs on the cusp of the second round. Thomas tied Game 5 late in regulation and then won it at 14:47 of overtime Saturday night as the Maple Leafs earned a key 2-1 victory over the Ottawa Senators. Thomas, who made it 1-1 with only 4:30 left in the third period, put the Leafs ahead 3-2 in the best-of-seven playoff series.
The veteran of 15 NHL seasons set a league record during this past season for most regular-season overtime goals with his 11th career.
With a win at Ottawa on Monday, Toronto can advance to a second-round meeting with the New Jersey Devils. If necessary, Game 7 would be Tuesday night back at the Air Canada Centre.
The home team has won all five games in the series.
The winning goal came when Thomas redirected a 2-on-1 pass from Sergei Berezin behind goalie Tom Barrasso. The Leafs were 3-0-5 in overtime at home during the regular season.
"I really think our team showed a lot of perseverance," Thomas said. "For 2� periods it seemed like we were squeezing the sticks, playing with too much stress.
Ottawa, which lost its 10th straight road playoff game, held a 32-16 shots advantage when Joe Juneau scored in the second period. The Senators finished with 38 shots compared to 31 for Toronto.
"It's frustrating to lose this one after a great effort," Juneau said. "When we got the lead, you try to not to give them too much. Sometimes we didn't give them enough pressure."
Thomas tied it by firing a slap shot from the circle to the right of Barrasso into the far, top corner of the net.
"Not many guys could have made that shot," Joseph said.
The Maple Leafs killed off a 5-on-3 disadvantage in the third period -- including a double minor against Garry Valk for high-sticking -- not allowing the Senators to register a shot.
"We didn't capitalize on our power-play opportunities," Senators coach Jacques Martin said. "And there was a little too much (open ice in overtime) and it kind of backfired on us."
Said Thomas: "That was a pivotal point in the game. That gave us some jump."
In overtime, scoring chances came fast and furious. Igor Korolev had the first good one, and Barrasso got a leg pad on the slap shot. Shawn McEachern had Ottawa's first shot in the extra session, but Curtis Joseph snared it with his glove.
Seven minutes into overtime, Joseph got his stick shaft down just in time to stop Andreas Dackell's slider.
Darcy Tucker was set up in front by Mats Sundin but Barrasso made the save.
Adam Mair, an AHL call-up in his first game with the Leafs since December, flipped a rebound off the crossbar 13 minutes into overtime.
Then, Thomas ended the wild extra period.
It was a goalie duel from the outset. Barrasso went down and stacked his pads to rob Korolev five minutes in, and Joseph glided out of his crease to get an arm on a Sami Salo drive in the 13th minute. Those were the best of many fine saves in a scoreless first period.
Joseph had no chance on Juneau's goal, scored at 4:36 of the second period. Dackell had the puck along the left-wing boards in the Toronto zone. Spotting Juneau free in the circle on the other side of the ice, Dackell passed the puck as Juneau readied for a shot. As the puck arrived, Juneau slapped it into the open side of the net before Joseph could get over.
Joseph kept Ottawa from taking a two-goal lead when he stopped Shaun Van Allen after he broke in alone when the Leafs were caught on a bad line change.
"It was the best we've played in the whole series. We had a lot of pressure," Ottawa captain Daniel Alfredsson said. "We gave it all we had. We came close, but only one team comes out the winner. We have to make sure we come out with a great effort on Monday, win the game and force Game 7."
Fans starting booing the home team's bad passes and ineffective play. The Senators smothered the Leafs with a trapping defense during the regular season, and they were doing it again.
"There was a point in the third period where we couldn't even get a dump-in into their zone," Thomas said. "That's how well they were playing defensively. It was like there was a wall up across their blue line. But we told each other, 'It might take 58 minutes but we have to persevere.' And we did."
Only one minor penalty was assessed in the first 48 minutes and it was against Chris Phillips for interference in the second period. Tie Domi was sent off, again for interference, at 8:08 of the third, then Valk was put in the penalty box for four minutes for cutting Radek Bonk with a high stick.
The Senators have had trouble scoring goals at Toronto in the series, Ottawa lost the opening two games 2-0 and 5-1.
"We played well, but we've scored two goals in three games here," Barrasso said. "So it's probably not the best way to win hockey games. We just need to finish and be a little more aggressive."
#4 NEW JERSEY DEVILS vs #5 FLORIDA PANTHERS
New Jersey wins 4-0
Next Game: New Jersey advances to the second round.