EASTERN SEMI-FINALS
GAME SUMMARIES
GAME 2:
#1 PHILADELPHIA FLYERS vs #7 PITTSBURGH PENGUINS
Pittsburgh leads 2-0
Next Game: Tuesday May 2nd, 2000 7pm at Pittsburgh
Just as most everyone in Philadelphia predicted, the Flyers-Penguins series is going back to Pittsburgh with a team up 2-0. Only it wasn't supposed to be this team. Robert Lang and Jaromir Jagr, two of a half-dozen Czechs in the NHL's most international lineup, each scored twice and the Penguins again befuddled the Flyers in their own arena to win 4-1 Saturday.
The Penguins had not won in Philadelphia in 16 games over six years, only to do so twice in three days in the Eastern Conference semifinals.
The Flyers have rallied from a 2-0 deficit to win a playoff series only once, in 1977 against Toronto.
"No question, we didn't figure to go into Pittsburgh 0-2," said Flyers center Keith Primeau, who was on the ice for every Penguins goal. "Did we get ahead of ourselves? Maybe we need to give them their due respect."
Game 3 of the best-of-seven series is Tuesday night at Pittsburgh, where the Flyers are 3-14-5 in their last 22 games.
Just as in Game 1, the Penguins killed off Flyers power plays -- Philadelphia was 0-for-8 in Game 2 and is 0-for-10 in the series -- and made the most of their scoring chances despite being badly outshot, 45-25.
"The way they came at us, we could have been down 3-0 after the first 10 minutes," Jagr said.
Goaltender Ron Tugnutt wouldn't let that happen. Cast off by five NHL teams, Tugnutt turned aside 44 shots. He already has twice as many playoff victories this season (6) as he did previously in his career, stopping a remarkable 224 of 233 shots, a .961 save percentage.
"He's done a much better job of shutting us down than (Buffalo's Dominik) Hasek did, and he's the best goaltender in the world," Flyers rookie goalie Brian Boucher said.
The seventh-seeded Penguins, not even assured of making the playoffs until the final week of the season, have been outshot 233-148, yet have outscored Washington and Philadelphia 23-9 while winning six of seven playoff games.
There are few NHL teams more disparate in style and makeup than the Penguins, who have 14 European players and seven North Americans, and the Flyers, who have 22 North American players and two Europeans.
"We're completely opposite teams," Boucher said. "We're a down-low team, a team that gets ugly goals, they're a team that seems to get pretty shots. They don't get a lot of shots, but they try to make nice plays and get pretty goals."
So far, it's Czech-mate, Penguins.
Not only did Jagr and Lang score all of the Penguins' goals, the first three were set up by Czech countryman Martin Straka as they opened a 3-0 lead in a city where they once went 15 years without winning. As the Penguins were shutting out the Flyers power play, they were scoring two of their first three goals with the man advantage.
Lang scored the all-important first goal at 16:57 of the first, 12 seconds after Daymond Langkow was called for roughing Rene Corbet.
Rob Brown, a Penguins retread who played on Mario Lemieux's line in the late 1980s, threaded a pass across the crease to Lang, who wristed it by Boucher from the left side of the net.
"Our line had a very good game," said Lang, who plays on the Penguins' second line with Straka and Alexei Kovalev. "I'm very happy with the way we played. We made the plays we had to."
The goal hushed an extremely loud, energetic crowd of 19,810 that was unable to will their team to a goal even as the Flyers came out furiously and held Pittsburgh without a shot for five minutes.
"The way it started, it was scary," Jagr said. "I thought I was playing in a different league, I don't think we had any scoring chances for 10 minutes. Somehow, we survived. After that, we had better patience and better shots."
Jagr, who seemed to score or set up nearly every vital Pittsburgh goal in these playoffs, made it 2-0 on another power play at 14:45 of the second.
With Pittsburgh rejuvenated after holding Philadelphia scoreless on 17 shots on the Flyers' first five power plays, Jagr's wrist shot from the right circle off Jiri Slegr's cross-ice pass slipped between Boucher's pads.
The momentum clearly in Pittsburgh's favor now, Lang scored his second goal of the game 1:45 later to make it 3-0. The Penguins caught the Flyers defensemen pinching and turned it into a 2-on-1 break that allowed Lang to steer a shot by Boucher to the short side.
"Maybe we're a little tense out there," Boucher said. "When the other goaltender is playing well ... and you don't score goals, you tend to be tight."
Simon Gagne finally scored Philadelphia's first goal of the series at 4:34, preventing the Flyers' first consecutive playoff shutouts since 1969, but Jagr answered at 10:59 as the teams skated 4-on-4.
Jan Hrdina, yet another of the Penguins' Czech players, set up Jagr's third goal of the series and sixth in seven playoff games.
There was a delay of nearly five minutes with 5:09 left in the third period after three fights broke out at opposite ends of the fast-emptying arena. Ten players were penalized, five on each team, with all five Flyers leaving for the rest of the game.
"They wanted to show they had some fight left in them," Penguins forward Matthew Barnaby said. "If my team's down 2-0, I'd probably do the same thing."
#3 TORONTO MAPLE LEAFS vs #4 NEW JERSEY DEVILS
Series tied 1-1
Next Game: Monday May 1st, 2000 7pm at New Jersey
The longer the game progressed, the more Martin Brodeur knew he had to be perfect. Brodeur was just that, stopping all 20 shots he faced, as the New Jersey Devils evened their Eastern Conference semifinals series with a 1-0 victory against the Toronto Maple Leafs on Saturday night. "As the game went on, you're kind of saying, 'Hey, you need a shutout to win this game,' because the fact is we scored only one goal," Brodeur said. "Lucky enough, guys really beared down. We didn't take too many chances in the third and that made a big difference for us."
Tied 1-1, the best-of-seven series is boiling down to a goaltending battle between Brodeur and Toronto's Curtis Joseph, who starred in Thursday's 2-1 victory.
The series switches to New Jersey for Games 3 and 4, Monday and Wednesday.
On Saturday, Joseph stopped every shot he saw, but was helplessly screened when Colin White scored the lone goal at 6:41 of the first period.
Otherwise, Joseph was remarkable as he stopped 32 shots for the second straight game.
Leafs coach Pat Quinn was at a loss for words when talking about Joseph's performance.
"You can probably describe it a lot better having gone through many years of school," Quinn said. "He gave us a chance and we weren't able to do anything."
He also couldn't explain the ineptitude of the Maple Leafs' offense.
"We've got to be better in front of them. We only had one line playing today. ... It's not good enough right now," said Quinn, who admitted that the Devils were the better team in both games.
White, with his first career playoff goal, scored when his rising point shot found the far right upper corner. Joseph had no chance as his view was blocked was by his own defenseman Danny Markov, who was chasing a New Jersey forward through the crease.
White said he wasn't trying to do anything fancy with his shot, just trying to hit the net.
"That was the game, both goaltenders. That's all I can say," White said. "We both battled hard and we were fortunate enough to come out with the win."
The Leafs only managed five shots on Brodeur in the final period.
Toronto's best scoring chance came four minutes in when Wendel Clark broke in alone only to shoot the puck into Brodeur's chest.
The Maple Leafs also squandered a four-minute power-play in the third after Jason Arnott drew a double-minor for high-sticking. The Leafs failed to get a shot on net and have managed just two goals on 32 power-play chances in the playoffs.
The Devils penalty killers have allowed only one goal in 23 short-handed situations this postseason. Brodeur recorded his seventh career playoff shutout and first this year.
The loss ended Toronto's three-game playoff winning streak, and was the first Leafs loss in five postseason home games.
The Maple Leafs continue to have trouble starting sharply as they have yet to score a first-period goal in their eight playoff games.
The Devils ended a six-game winless streak (0-5-1) against the Maple Leafs, going back to the 1998-99 regular season.
"Another one-goal game, we've got to find a way to beat the trap," Joseph said.
Added Leafs defenseman Cory Cross: "It's going to be a long series. It wasn't going to be a sweep."
The emotional point of the night came early in the first when injured Maple Leafs defenseman Bryan Berard, wearing sunglasses over his damaged right eye, received a minute-long standing ovation.
Sitting in a private booth at the game, Berard was shown on the center-ice video screen, and waved three times to acknowledge the cheering crowd at Air Canada Centre.
It was Berard's first time at a game since being clipped in the right eye March 11 by the stick blade of Ottawa forward Marian Hossa.
Said Leafs' captain Mats Sundin: "It was nice to see him and see that he's improving and in good spirits."