GAME SUMMARIES
Updated: Saturday April 8, 2000 11:29PM EST
Friday April 7, 2000 Toronto at Ny Islanders
Stunned silence linked the Toronto Maple Leafs, the New York Islanders and 8,945 fans after New York goaltender Kevin Weekes went down hard.
Steve Thomas' goal midway through the game secured Toronto's 2-1 victory over the Islanders on Friday night, but it was the injury to Weekes that dominated the game. He was removed from the ice on a stretcher after being hit by Toronto forward Darcy Tucker and slamming his head on the ice.
"It's scary any time you see a collision between a forward and a goaltender," Islanders coach Butch Goring said.
The game was brought to a halt at 15:37 of the second period with Toronto ahead 2-1. As Weekes attempted to kick away a cross-ice pass while in his crease, he couldn't react in time to Tucker, who became airborne when he flipped over defenseman Ian Herbers' skate. Tucker ran into the post and the goalie, and Weekes' head slammed on the ice.
Weekes was down about 15 minutes while trainer Rich Campbell held his head still and five others assisted in getting him onto a stretcher. He was taken to Nassau County Medical Center, where X-rays were normal and the pain had lessened.
Weekes was released from the hospital Saturday. The Islanders said his availability for Sunday's game against the Florida Panthers will be a game-time decision.
Tucker said the incident was an unfortunate accident.
"It was a play where the puck went wide," Tucker said, "and the defenseman cut my feet out from under me. There was nowhere to go. It was a split-second thing, but once you're in midair, you have very little control of your body. I feel really bad and I hope he's OK. It's not something I meant to do."
Herbers, who was given an interference penalty on the play, said Tucker was at fault.
"I think he might have gone to the net a little too hard," Herbers said. "You want forwards to go hard to the net, but you don't want to see the goalie getting hurt."
Toronto, which entered the game with two straight losses, came out with intensity and fired the first eight shots of the game. Igor Korolev fired the 10th shot to give the Maple Leafs a 1-0 lead.
Korolev was sent in on a breakaway off a perfect pass from Mats Sundin, and forced Weekes to go down before putting the puck in the open right side at 17:10.
Thomas scored on a power play at 11:39 of the second period when he took a pass from Jonas Hoglund, cut across the crease and got Weekes to commit before shooting the puck into the open left side.
New York's only goal came 1:47 later when Vladimir Orszagh sent a spinning backhander past Glenn Healy.
Orszagh was called up from Lowell Friday afternoon and made it to the arena in time to join the team in the first period.
"I was getting ready for the game in Lowell," Orszagh said. "I was hoping to score a goal in the minor leagues tonight, but I'll gladly take this instead."
Stephen Valiquette came in to relieve Weekes, and stopped all 11 shots he faced. The loss sets a franchise record for the Islanders, who lost for the 26th time at Nassau Coliseum (9-26-5). The previous record of 25 losses was set in 1972-73, New York's first NHL season.
Wednesday April 5, 2000 Pittsburgh at Toronto
Jaromir Jagr is playing hurt. He's also playing well enough to help the Pittsburgh Penguins clinch a postseason berth.
Jagr, who returned from an injury layoff March 19, had two goals and assist to take sole possession of the NHL scoring lead as Pittsburgh beat the Toronto Maple Leafs 4-2 on Wednesday night.
The win guaranteed Pittsburgh a playoff spot for the 10th consecutive season, while the Leafs failed for the second game in a row to wrap up their first division title since 1962-63.
"I don't feel very good. My health is not at 100 percent," said Jagr, who missed 12 games because of surgery to remove a blood clot from his thigh, and another five with hamstring, thumb and upper back injuries.
"He's amazing. He's doing a lot of the little things," Matthew Barnaby said. "The points haven't really been there but he did great tonight."
The points have been there often enough to put Jagr atop the league with 95 points. He entered Wednesday's action tied with Florida's Pavel Bure, who has 93 points and has played in 11 more games than Jagr has.
Jagr turned a 2-1 deficit into a 3-2 Penguins advantage after two periods. The winger ripped a shot from a bad angle past Curtis Joseph at 8:13 on the power play. He scored his second with 1:35 left when he one-timed a pass from Jan Hrdina at almost the same spot as his first.
Rob Brown and Robert Lang also scored for Pittsburgh, while Ron Tugnutt made 31 saves. Josef Beranek had two assists.
"It's always tough coming into Toronto," Tugnutt said. "Jaromir stepped up and showed he's a great captain."
Kris King and Steve Thomas responded for Toronto.
"We still have a couple games left to muck with some things," Leafs GM-coach Pat Quinn said. "I don't think we had a good line tonight."
The Leafs forwards weren't too concerned with backchecking, which led to several scoring opportunities for Pittsburgh.
"I wish we could put it all together," Thomas said. "We played in their end an awful lot but sometimes we stayed out too long and didn't have enough to skate back. I don't think we were too smart out there regarding our defensive positioning."
Lang gave the Penguins a two-goal cushion 1:14 into the third when he turned in Jagr's pass in front of the net.
The Leafs had an excellent opportunity to get back into the game with a two-man advantage for 1:46 but were unable to capitalize.
The Leafs, who are five points ahead of the Ottawa Senators in the Northeast Division, need just one more point in their remaining two games to clinch one of the top three seeds in the Eastern Conference.
The Leafs also remain three points behind the Washington Capitals for second place in the conference.
Monday April 3, 2000 Toronto at Buffalo
Dominik Hasek didn't face a shot for over 20 minutes of play, but the Buffalo goalie was anything but bored as the Sabres jumped back into a playoff spot.
Hasek wasn't tested much, but came up big when needed, as the Sabres hung on for a 3-2 victory over the Toronto Maple Leafs on Monday night. The victory, combined with Carolina's 3-2 loss at Pittsburgh, lifted Buffalo into eighth place in the Eastern Conference.
With 81 points, the Sabres are a point ahead of the Hurricanes -- now out of a playoff spot -- and two ahead of idle Montreal. Buffalo and Montreal have three games remaining, while Carolina will play only two more.
Dixon Ward snapped a 2-2 tie with 4:43 left in the first period, while Buffalo's stifling defense did the rest, limiting the Maple Leafs to eight shots over the game's final 40 minutes.
The Sabres were so dominating that they held Toronto without a shot in the second period. It is the first time the Maple Leafs have had a shotless period in the 45 years the league has been keeping record of the statistic.
"It was a very, very important game," Hasek said. "I just tried to stay focused, and I was focused for all 60 minutes. "It didn't matter if they didn't have any shots, you can't relax against a team like Toronto."
While he faced only 20 shots, Hasek made a brilliant game-saving stop, robbing Jonas Hoglund's one-timer from the slot with 6:31 left.
Miroslav Satan and Michael Peca also scored for the Sabres, who have won six of seven.
Mats Sundin and Sergei Berezin scored for the Northeast-leading Maple Leafs, who wasted an opportunity to clinch their first division title since the NHL went to that format in 1967-68. The last time a Toronto team finished first was in 1963 when there were only six NHL teams.
"No, I never experienced anything like that before. ... It was sad really," Maple Leafs coach Pat Quinn said of the second period. "We could've played better. We had too many passengers, frankly."
The Maple Leafs old record for fewest shots in a period was one, done 10 times and most recently in 1995.
Toronto was outshot 11-0 in the middle period and 20-12 through 40 minutes. The Leafs finally got their 13th shot 20 seconds into the third on a Sundin blast from the right circle.
It was the second time the Sabres held an opponent without a shot in a period. The last time was in 1976 against the Kansas City Scouts.
The only one keeping Toronto in the game was goalie Curtis Joseph, who was solid after giving up three goals on the first seven Buffalo shots.
A wild first period, in which the teams scored two goals apiece over a 4:29 span, ended with Ward's fluke goal with 4:43 left in the frame.
Maxim Afinogenov set it up when he circled the net and directed a shot towards the crease, where Ward was battling for position with Toronto's Gerald Diduck. With Ward looking away, the puck deflected off the back of his skate and through Joseph's legs.
Ward didn't know he scored until he heard Joseph utter an expletive.
"I didn't see the puck go in," Ward said. "I just felt it hit my foot. I'll take those any day."
Sundin opened the scoring 4:24 in. After Satan tied it 56 seconds later, the Sabres went ahead when Peca redirected Vaclav Varada's centering pass at 8:16.
Toronto tied it after 37 seconds when Berezin snapped a shot past Hasek, who was bumped by a hard-charging Nikolai Antropov.
Saturday April 1, 2000 Toronto at Washington
Want to figure out the Toronto Maple Leafs as the playoffs approach? Simple. They lose to the bad teams and beat the good ones.
The Washington Capitals have the opposite problem. After piling up wins in a soft stretch of their schedule, they've ended a franchise-record run with back-to-back home losses against playoff teams.
For Toronto, add Saturday's 4-3 victory over the Capitals, a thrilling battle of division leaders, to recent impressive victories over New Jersey, St. Louis and Detroit.
The Maple Leafs have looked unimpressive in home losses Atlanta, Chicago and the New York Islanders.
"I don't understand it," said left wing Steve Thomas, who had a goal and an assist. "I guess, on the flip side, we're beating the good teams, and that's who we're going to meet in the playoffs."
Four Toronto players scored, three after blatant defensive errors, as the Maple Leafs built a 4-1 lead and staved off a third-period rally for their first win at Washington since 1994.
The victory moved Northeast Division-leading Toronto (96 points) within one point of Southeast Division-leading Washington (97) in the seeding race for the Eastern Conference playoffs. New Jersey leads the Atlantic Division with 99 points.
Thomas, Jonas Hoglund, Yanic Perreault and Sergei Berezin scored for the Maple Leafs, who played their third game in four nights and had lost four of six. Curtis Joseph stopped 24 shots, including a momentum-changing kick save on Ulf Dahlen's penalty shot in the first period.
"Boy, the panic threshold got tested," Toronto coach Pat Quinn said. "We're in and out, real good and not so good.
"We know we have a good team. Some nights we're not there. I can understand why we've been vacant for the last little while. We're looking down the road, we've got the playoff thing socked up, we've had some adversities that were tough. The key is going to be collecting it for that first round."
Down 4-1 after two periods, the Capitals rallied with goals from Steve Konowalchuk with 17:17 to play and Glen Metropolit with 11:07 remaining. It was Metropolit's second of the game and fifth this season.
The Capitals outshot the Maple Leafs 11-5 in the third, but couldn't get the equalizer.
The Capitals, who lost in overtime to Pittsburgh on Thursday, had gone 96 days without losing back-to-back games, the longest such stretch in team history. It was only the fifth time all season that the Caps have failed to gain a point in a home game.
"It's good that it happens now, because sometimes it's like no one listens and you are able to get away with playing against an Atlanta or New York Islanders because they can't compete with you," Washington coach Ron Wilson said. "I've got to get our defense out of this funk."
The game's first score came at 3:57 of the first when Thomas' slap shot from the point caught goalie Olaf Kolzig off guard.
Metropolit tied it on a more dramatic play. Joe Reekie's shot from the point was deflected high in the air and fell into the crease. Metropolit got to the puck before Joseph did, poking it in at 7:19.
Joseph stopped Dahlen on the penalty shot just 21 seconds later. The shot was awarded when a Toronto player covered the puck in the crease.
Mats Sundin and Hoglund worked a 2-on-1 break for Hoglund's score at 18:53 of the first, and Perreault, sprung on a neutral zone pass from Dimitri Yushkevich, outraced Dahlen on a breakaway to put Toronto up 3-1 at 5:44 of the second.
Berezin got the fourth from close range at 9:57 of the second.
The Capitals played without right wing Peter Bondra, day-to-day with a shoulder strain, and center Andrei Nikolishin, day-to-day with a recurring abdominal strain.
Wilson had complained that he was tired of seeing basketball results rotating with hockey results on the MCI Center scoreboard, interfering with his scoreboard-watching during the Capitals' playoff chase. On Saturday, nothing but hockey results were shown, wiping even the NCAA's Final Four off the scoreboard.