EASTERN SEMI-FINALS
GAME DAY PREVIEWS
GAME 3:
#1 PHILADELPHIA FLYERS vs #7 PITTSBURGH PENGUINS
Pittsburgh leads 2-0
Game time: Tuesday May 2nd, 2000 7pm at Pittsburgh
The Pittsburgh Penguins look to take a shocking three games to none lead in their Eastern Conference Semifinal series with the Philadelphia Flyers on Tuesday night as the scene switches to Mellon Bank Arena. Outshot again by a lopsided margin, Pittsburgh got two goals apiece from Robert Lang and Jaromir Jagr and recorded a 4-1 victory over the Philadelphia on Saturday.
A win in this series would be even more improbable than the Penguins' first-round triumph over the second-seeded Washington Capitals. The Penguins had lost 16 consecutive games at Philadelphia before a 2-0 win in Game 1 on Thursday.
"I don't think anyone would have believed it if they had told us that beforehand," Penguins right wing Rob Brown said. "But we knew if we got great goaltending combined with the likes of a (Jaromir) Jagr, we were going to score a couple of goals and get a chance to go ahead." The great goaltending has come from Ron Tugnutt, a trading deadline acquisition from Ottawa for netminder Tom Barrasso. Pittsburgh was outshot in the opener, 28-14, and the Flyers had a 45-25 advantage in Game Two, but Tugnutt again stopped nearly everything thrown at him.
Jagr, who wants to duplicate Penguins legend and current owner Mario Lemieux's feat of bringing the Stanley Cup to Pittsburgh, leads all playoff scorers with 13 points in seven games.
The final minutes of Game Two featured numerous skirmishes as the Flyers tried to send a message before the series shifted to Western Pennsylvania. Rick Tocchet, Luke Richardson and Craig Berube of Philadelphia all drew game misconducts.
Winning in the second round has usually not been as easy for the Penguins, whose last trip to the conference finals came in 1996.
Pittsburgh has killed all 10 power plays against a Philadelphia team that was second in the league during the season with the man advantage and 9-for-28 in the first round against Buffalo.
The Flyers are 1-10 in playoff series after losing the first two games. The only time they have won after dropping the initial contests was the 1977 Stanley Cup quarterfinals against Toronto.
#3 TORONTO MAPLE LEAFS vs #4 NEW JERSEY DEVILS
Series tied 1-1
Game time: Monday May 1st, 2000 7pm at New Jersey
The New Jersey Devils hope their newfound home-ice advantage can lead them to a two games to one series lead Monday night as they host the Toronto Maple Leafs in Game 3 of the Eastern Conference semifinals. Rookie defenseman Colin White scored his first career playoff goal and Martin Brodeur made it stand up with 20 saves as the Devils claimed home-ice advantage in the series with a 1-0 blanking of Toronto. The win was the Devils' first in six meetings with the Maple Leafs this season (4-1-1).
White became the fourth Devils blueliner to get a playoff game-winner, joining Scott Stevens, Brian Rafalski and Scott Niedermayer. He played only 21 games during the regular season but one of his two goals was a game-winner.
Brodeur recorded his seventh career playoff shutout. Although he faced only five shots in the third period, he came up with a key stop on Sergei Berezin with 17 1/2 minutes remaining and denied Wendel Clark from point-blank range 10 minutes later. Playing on his 33rd birthday, Toronto netminder Curtis Joseph stopped 32 shots, but he could not prevent the Leafs from suffering their first home loss of the postseason. He also made 32 saves in a 2-1 win on Thursday.
The Devils are 0-for-5 on the power play in this series and 2-for-21 in the postseason. But they have killed 23 of 24 shorthanded situations.
Toronto has yet to score a goal in the first period during the playoffs.