EASTERN QUARTER-FINALS
GAME SUMMARIES
GAME 5:
#1 NEW JERSEY DEVILS vs #8 PITTSBURGH PENGUINS
New Jersey leads 3-2
Next Game: Sunday May 2nd, 1999 2pm at Pittsburgh
The absence of Jaromir Jagr is starting to take its toll on the Pittsburgh Penguins.
Petr Sykora scored on rebound early in the third period and the New Jersey Devils overcame a 13-second lapse to beat the Jagr-less Penguins 4-3 on Friday night to move within a game of winning their first-round Eastern Conference quarterfinal playoff series.
The Devils, who also got two goals from Randy McKay, can wrap up the best-of-7 series by winning either Game 6 at Pittsburgh on Sunday or, if necessary, Game 7 at home on Tuesday.
"I don't think they are going to roll over," said Devils goaltender Martin Brodeur, who only faced 17 shots with Jagr sidelined again. "I think they are going to go harder and everyone is expecting Jarg to come back. Everybody thought he would be here tonight, but I expect him on Sunday now that it's do or die."
Whether Jagr plays is questionable. The NHL's leading scorer missed his fourth straight game with a groin injury and he didn't sound optimistic that he would be able to play Sunday.
"It's tough to explain how I feel now," Jagr said after the game. "I feel hopeless and I feel like a fan. I want them to win so bad. I know how the fans feel."
The Penguins treated Jagr like a fan, too. They lifted his spirits by getting goals from Alexei Kovalev and Kevin Hatcher in a 13-second span late in the second period to tie the game at 2-2. Then they let him down, giving up two in the third and falling short when Kip Miller's power-play tally with 47 seconds to play wasn't enough.
"We would love to have Jaromir," Penguins coach Kevin Constantine said. "I think any team in the league would. We think he is the most valuable player in the league, and we don't like losing that. But we don't feel that we are not competitive without him, we feel that we are."
The Hatcher-Kovalev outburst tied the game at 2-2 after two periods, but the Devils came back to win in the third period.
Sykora broke the tie at 1:42 of the third period. He set up a shot by Patrik Elias by splitting the Penguins defense and then he put Elias' rebound past a defenseless Tom Barrasso.
"We gave them way too much life in the second period, way too much room to stake," Sykora said. "In the third period, we shut down the room and when we scored the third goal we turned the game around."
McKay got the eventual game-winner with 5:58 to play by re-directing a pass by Bobby Holik into an open net for his third goal in the last two games.
"After the second period all we said was we just have to go 20 minutes to get a lead in the series," McKay said. "We've done it before. We were at home and all we had to do was work hard, and that's what we did."
The Devils dominated the opening 36 minutes and built a 2-0 lead on goals by Scott Stevens and McKay while limiting the Penguins to just six shots.
However, everything fell apart in a 13-second span dominated by Kovalev, who also assisted on Miller's goal.
Kovalev first set up Hatcher for a goal right in front and then tied the game by putting in his own rebound.
On the first goal, Robert Lang was pushed off the puck to the left of the net. Kovalev collected it, circled to the left boards and then sent a hard pass on goal that Hatcher re-directed past Brodeur at 16:08.
The puck came right back into the Devils' zone after the ensuing faceoff and Kovalev scored right in front after Devils defenseman Lyle Odelein deflected the puck to him. Brodeur, who had 14 saves, stopped his first shot, but the second fluttered into the net.
Stevens scored for the Devils at 16:04 of the second period with a great move in the closing seconds of a power play. Stevens skated past a poke-check by Kovalev, split the defense and beat Barrasso with a shot from between the circles.
McKay got his first, tapping the rebound of Holik's shot into an open net at 11:47 of the second period. Barrasso stopped Holik's shot from the left circle, but he lost sight of it after it fell at his feet.
#2 OTTAWA SENATORS vs #7 BUFFALO SABRES
Buffalo wins 4-0
Next game: Buffalo advances to the next round
#3 CAROLINA HURRICANES vs #6 BOSTON BRUINS
Boston leads 3-2
Next Game: Sunday May 2nd, 1999 7:30pm at Boston
Anson Carter scored on a backhander with 5:15 left in the second overtime as the Boston Bruins defeated the Carolina Hurricanes 4-3 Friday night to take a 3-2 lead in the Eastern Conference series.
The Bruins came into the second OT holding a 47-31 lead in shots on goal, and Carter's breakaway goal on Carolina's Arturs Irbe was Boston's 52nd shot.
Joe Thornton and Ray Bourque assisted on Carter's game-winner in the longest game in Carolina franchise history.
Boston has a chance to improve to 21-5 all-time in 26 Stanley Cup series after winning the fifth game with a victory Sunday in Game 6 at the FleetCenter.
If necessary, Game 7 would be played in Greensboro on Tuesday.
Boston had seized the momentum in the best-of-7 series with three goals in a span of 1:52 early in the third period, erasing a 2-0 deficit and quieting the boisterous pom-pom waving sellout crowd at the Greensboro Coliseum.
But Sami Kapanen, back in the lineup after missing Game 4 in Boston with a bruised knee, sent the game into overtime with 1:45 left in regulation, taking a centering pass from Gary Roberts and smashing it past Byron Dafoe.
Ron Francis, also back after missing three games with a sprained ankle, added an assist on the game-tying goal as regulation ended with the teams tangled in a glove-shoving, pushing match that has been typical of the hard-hitting series.
Ray Sheppard scored in his franchise-record fourth straight postseason game late in the second period as Carolina took a 2-0 lead _ its first two-goal lead of the series.
But the Bruins, who had outscored Carolina a combined 6-2 in the third periods of the previous four games, came out aggressively to start the final 20 minutes and the complexion of the game quickly changed.
Bourque, quiet offensively most of the series, scored 34 seconds into the period to begin the scoring barrage, netting his 36th career playoff goal.
Fellow defenseman Darren Van Impe followed with a power-play goal a minute later as Roberts was off for boarding and the noisy crowd grew anxious and quiet.
Less than a half-minute later, P.J. Axelsson converted his first playoff goal of the series off a turnover by Marek Malik and the momentum was Boston's until Kapanen's first goal of the series tied the score at 3-3.
Sheppard's goal from an almost impossible angle to the left of Dafoe with 4:41 left in the second period was Sheppard's fifth of the series _ tying Detroit's Steve Yzerman for the NHL postseason lead _ and ninth in 10 career postseason games against the Bruins.
Carolina scored the first goal for the third straight game in the series.
Bourque failed to clear the puck on a Carolina power play 3:49 into the game and Steve Chiasson made him pay, blasting a high slap slot past a screened Byron Dafoe for a 1-0 lead.
It was the first goal for Chiasson, who missed 46 games because of a shoulder operation, since the season-opener Oct. 10 against Tampa Bay.
#4 TORONTO MAPLE LEAFS vs #5 PHILADELPHIA FLYERS
Toronto leads 3-2
Next Game: Sunday May 2nd, 1999 7:30pm at Philadelphia
Overtime is the best time for the Toronto Maple Leafs. Yanic Perreault's goal 11:51 into overtime gave the Maple Leafs a 2-1 victory Friday night over the Philadelphia Flyers and a 3-2 lead in the Eastern Conference quarterfinal series.
Toronto now has lost only once in 15 sudden-death situations since last autumn, including a 6-1-7 regular-season showing.
Perreault took a pass from Garry Valk, skated to the lower lip of the faceoff circle to the left of John Vanbiesbrouck, and lifted a low backhander that went under the goalie's catching mitt near the post.
"I wanted to protect the puck with my left leg so that's why I tried to get a backhand shot on Vanbiesbrouck," said Perreault. "In overtime, you're just trying to get the puck on the net.
"That's the main thing. Gary Valk made a nice play at the blue line. Two of their guys went to him and that gave me some space to the outside."
Philadelphia's Keith Jones and Toronto's Dimitri Yushkevich exchanged first-period goals.
Each team had 34 shots on goal in a game that could have gone either way.
Vanbiesbrouck has been beaten at least three times by bad-angle backhanders in the series.
"It went in, that's about it," was all he would say about Perreault's shot.
Games 6 is Sunday night in Philadelphia. If a Game 7 is necessary, the teams will return to the Air Canada Centre on Tuesday night.
"We knew this series was going to be tight and close," said Perreault, whose goal was the biggest of his career since a 1996 shootout shot helped Canada beat Russia in the semifinals of the world championship. "They're playing really solid defensively _ they're a big team.
"We're not going to get that many chances every game so every goal is important."
Said Vanbiesbrouck: "We're doing a good job, we really are. We just didn't get the break. One goal either way has been the difference."
Toronto captain Mats Sundin hit the crossbar 6{ minutes into overtime.
Then, 11:40 into overtime, Philadelphia's Rod Brind'Amour had the puck alone in front of Toronto goalie Curtis Joseph.
"I didn't want him to go all the way around me so I stretched out and fortunately I got enough of (the puck) and it rolled over me," said Joseph, who smothered the puck in the crease.
"Mats (Sundin) was just about to put his hand on it and he said, `Thank goodness,' I beat him to the punch."
Toronto then went the other way and Perreault ended the game to the delight of a capacity crowd of 18,800.
The Flyers have lost seven consecutive playoff overtime games since a 1995 sudden-death win.
"It could have been our best game of the series," said Joseph. "Give a lot of the credit to a lot of guys who did a lot of little things right, and we skated well."
Toronto's defense kept the front of the crease a lot clearer than it had in Game 4, a 5-2 Flyers win.
"We had good body position on their forwards," said Maple Leafs defenseman Chris McAllister. "We kept them more to the outside instead of near the crease.
"Cujo got to see most of the pucks tonight."
Jones scored on a wraparound 1:52 into the game, and Yushkevich threaded a long wrist shot through a group of players at 9:16 on a power play.
Toronto lost Yushkevich in the third period with a cut arm.
"I thought we were wearing them down in overtime," said Flyers coach Roger Neilson. "They were down to five defensemen.
"But they got the goal."
Maple Leafs coach Pat Quinn got the defensive effort from his forwards that was lacking in Game 4.
"It's not really our style, but our guys answered the bell in that territory," he said.