EASTERN SEMI-FINALS
GAME DAY PREVIEWS
GAME 5:
#4 TORONTO MAPLE LEAFS vs #8 PITTSBURGH PENGUINS
Series tied 2-2
Game time: Saturday May 15th, 1999 7:30pm at Toronto
The Pittsburgh Penguins and Toronto Maple Leafs face off in the pivotal Game Five of their Eastern Conference semifinal series tonight at the Air Canada Centre.
There has been no home-ice advantage in this series with each team splitting two games at home and on the road. The Maple Leafs are 3-2 at home this postseason while the Penguins have split six road games.
Toronto squared the best-of-seven series in Game Four on Thursday when Sergei Berezin scored 2:18 into overtime to give the Maple Leafs a 3-2 win.
The Leafs continued to get production from their newly created top line of captain Mats Sundin, Lonny Bohonos and Steve Thomas. The trio has combined for six goals and eight assists in the last three games. Sundin leads Toronto with four goals and seven points.
Toronto is just 1-for-14 on the power play in this series and 6-for-48 overall in the playoffs. Pittsburgh is 3-for-15 ith the man advantage against the Leafs and 7-for-41 overall.
Despite a nagging groin injury, Penguins star right wing Jaromir Jagr continues to produce. He scored his fourth goal of the playoffs in Game Four and has 10 points in seven games. Center Martin Straka leads the Pens with six goals and 13 points.
Both teams have injury problems. Pittsburgh played without left wing German Titov and right wings Alexei Kovalev and Alexei Morozov in Game Four. Maple Leafs center Steve Sullivan missed his second straight game Thursday with back spasms.
The series shifts back to Pittsburgh for Game Six on Monday.
#6 BOSTON BRUINS vs #7 BUFFALO SABRES
Buffalo leads 3-1
Game time: Sunday May 16th, 1999 2pm at Boston
With goaltender Dominik Hasek on top of his game, the Buffalo Sabres look to eliminate the Boston Bruins today when the teams face off in Game Five of their Eastern Conference semifinal series.
The Sabres split two games in Boston before taking control of the series with a pair of wins at home. Buffalo is 7-1 in the postseason, allowing just 13 goals.
Hasek made 24 saves en route to his fifth career playoff shutout and captain Michael Peca contributed a goal and an assist in Buffalo's 3-0 blanking of the Bruins on Friday.
Besides the obvious stellar play of Hasek, Peca has been huge for the Sabres in this series. Not only has he held Bruins center Jason Allison without a point for four games, he has two goals and two assists in this series and three goals and seven assists in the eight playoff games.
Hasek, who is battling a deep bruise above his right knee, has been in net for all eight postseason games, posting a sparkling .957 save percentage.
Buffalo has scored one power-play goal in each of its eight postseason games, going 8-for-38 overall.
The Bruins have been outshot 123-96 in this series.
Boston has trailed three games to one in 18 previous series and never has rallied to win, losing Game Five on 15 occasions.
Should the Bruins prolong the series, Game Six would be Tuesday in Buffalo.