SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) -- This time it was the Dallas Stars who were sloppy.After criticizing the Sharks for being too rough and undisciplined in the playoffs, the Stars deteriorated in San Jose's 4-1 victory Sunday, narrowing Dallas' advantage in the Western Conference series to 2-1.
Dallas goaltender Ed Belfour and team captain Derian Hatcher were ejected after fights in the final minutes, capping two periods of frustrating play for the Stars, who jumped out to an early 1-0 lead.
The Sharks, however, were playing it smart, staying away from mistakes and costly penalties that marked their first two losses in Dallas.
"Definitely, frustration sets in toward the end of the game when we can't play our game," Belfour said. "It was probably somewhat like the last game in Dallas. We were taking it. And tonight it was probably a little more frustration."
With 1:33 left, Belfour jumped on Sharks forward Shawn Burr and hit him, prompting both teams to go at it. Another fight between the teams broke out just seconds later. Belfour and Hatcher were forced to leave the game, and three other players were assessed 10-minute misconduct penalties.
"I came behind (teammate Marcus) Ragnarsson, trying to set myself up and get a score. The group started to bunch up, and that's when all heck broke lose," Burr said. "For them it must be a horrible sign of frustration to get into one of these battles with us."
Jim Christison, an NHL supervisor, said the tape of the incident would be sent to Brian Burke, the league's director of hockey operations, for review.
"Eddie snapped," defenseman Craig Ludwig said. "Eddie's a very intense goaltender and obviously he didn't like what he saw out there."
Belfour disputed his teammate's claim.
"It wasn't snapping," he said, "They haven't seen snapping."
The Sharks were penalized 21 times for 72 minutes in Friday's 5-2 loss. On Sunday, the Stars were penalized 20 times for 75 minutes. Dallas gave the Sharks 14 power-play opportunities, three of which resulted in goals."It was the flip side of Game 2," said Sharks center Bernie Nicholls. "They were disciplined (on Friday). Today, they took stuff and were undisciplined."
Owen Nolan screamed after beating Belfour with a quick wrist shot from the slot with 6:13 gone in the second period, as Dallas center Bob Bassen served a penalty for high-sticking. It was first time the Sharks had taken a lead in the playoff series.
Nolan's goal, his second of the playoffs, came just 1:07 after John MacLean scored to tie the game at 1-1. MacLean knocked over Stars center Mike Modano, then appeared to catch Dallas off guard by skating in for the goal as Modano knelt at center ice.
Defenseman Al Iafrate padded San Jose's advantage just 1:04 into the third period when his power-play shot from about 25 feet out sailed between Belfour's legs. Belfour, who had a nine-game winning streak going into Sunday's game, stopped 21 shots.
Mike Rathje added the Sharks' third power-play goal with 3:55 to go in the game as Brian Skrudland served time for slashing.
Dallas jumped out to its early lead when, with a two-man advantage, Sergei Zubov knocked the puck over Mike Vernon's left shoulder in the first period.
The Stars had hinted they would seek revenge on the Sharks for what they considered dirty play earlier in the series, but there weren't any blatant skirmishes until the final minutes.
The Stars' top regular-season scorer, Joe Nieuwendyk, was hit hard by San Jose's Bryan Marchment in the first game of the series -- which Dallas won 4-1. Nieuwendyk was likely lost for the remainder of the playoffs with a knee injury.
Then on Friday Modano sustained a mild concussion in a collision with Ragnarsson, and Nolan charged Belfour, knocking him down. Shawn Chambers drew a penalty for tripping Nolan just 1:45 into Sunday's game.
The Sharks finished Sunday with 10 penalties for 36 minutes.
#2 COLORADO AVLANCHE vs #7 EDMONTON OILERS
EDMONTON, Alberta (AP) -- Joe Sakic's blast from the left faceoff circle at 15:25 of overtime lifted the Colorado Avalanche to a 5-4 playoff win over the Edmonton Oilers on Sunday night.
The win gave the Avalanche a 2-1 lead in the best-of-7 Western Conference quarter-final.
Sakic's goal wiped out an Edmonton comeback in which the Oilers tied the game with two goals in the third period.
Claude Lemieux's second goal of the game, at 2:14 of the third period, gave the Avalanche what appeared to be an insurmountable 4-2 lead. But the Oilers battled back with two goals in a 1:21 span to tie the game midway through the period.
Bill Guerin drilled a shot past goaltender Patrick Roy at 11:11 and Oilers captain Kelly Buchberger tied the game 4-4 on a strange play at 12:32.
It seemed at first the play was going to be blown dead on an icing call, but that was waved off because Peter Forsberg appeared he could have played the puck.
Edmonton forward Tony Hrkac gathered in the loose puck in the corner and hit Buchberger with a pass in the slot as the Avalanche let up, assuming an icing call was coming. Buchberger fired a backhander past Roy on the far side to send the Northlands Coliseum crowd of 17,099 into a frenzy.
On Lemieux's second goal, it took video goal judge Bob LeDrew about three minutes to decide if Lemieux -- who was clearly in the crease -- was there before batting the puck past goaltender Curtis Joseph.
Adam Deadmarsh also had two goals for Colorado, and defenseman Sandis Ozolinsh had four assists, including one on Sakic's winner.
Boris Mironov and Doug Weight also scored for the Oilers.
Edmonton played head games with the Avalanche, to no avail. The Oilers altered the visitors bench to match the cramped one that Edmonton complained about at McNichols Arena in Denver.
The bench was moved closer to the boards and the riser behind it was removed, forcing Colorado's equipment staff to build its own on which coach Marc Crawford could stand.
Deadmarsh's second goal of the game, at 9:51 of the second period, put the Avalanche ahead 3-1 and had all the trappings of a back-breaker for the Oilers.
The power-play goal -- the second of the game for the Avalanche -- came just three minutes after Mironov had re-ignited the Oilers and their fanatical sell-out crowd when he scored at 6:50 of the second.
Edmonton battled back on Weight's power-play goal at 16:44 of the second after being badly outplayed for much of the early portion of the furiously paced game.
Weight's first goal of the playoffs came when he redirected a shot by Roman Hamrlik that just trickled behind Roy.
Edmonton came out hard after a fireworks-filled, rock'n'roll-fueled opening ceremony. But Deadmarsh scored just 3:50 into the game to take some of the steam out of the wound-up Oilers, and Lemieux made it 2-0 at 14:19 when Peter Forsberg's pass bounced off Mironov and onto the fiesty Avalanche forward's stick.
#3 DETROIT RED WINGS vs #6 PHOENIX COYOTES
PHOENIX (AP) -- Rick Tocchet and Jeremy Roenick scored power-play goals early in the third period, and Roenick redirected the winner past shocked Detroit goaltender Chris Osgood with 7:13 to play as the Phoenix Coyotes beat the Red Wings 3-2 Sunday to take a 2-1 lead in their Western Conference playoff series.
"We just tried to stay positive and work hard. We had nothing to lose," Roenick said.
"Jeremy is a big-game player," coach Jim Schoenfeld said. "He enjoys the big-game situation. We talked before about pressure and how some people shy away from it, and some guys relish it. Jeremy looks forward to it."
The Coyotes, who trailed 2-0 from the first 1:01 of play, would have had a fourth goal, but Mike Gartner's shot on a breakaway was disallowed because of a two-line pass.
The strong finish reminded Tocchet of Muhammad Ali's famous strategy for wearing out an opponent.
"You blink, and it was 2-0," Tocchet said. "We never even knew what was happening. They went for the knockout in the first period, and we did a little rope-a-dope."
The defending Stanley Cup champions, who hadn't trailed in a playoff series since Colorado eliminated them 4-2 in the 1996 Western Conference finals, get their chance to even the series Tuesday night before returning to Detroit for Game 5 on Thursday.
The Red Wings were 3-1-2 against Phoenix during the season, contributing to the Coyotes' 35-35-12 record and sixth-place playoff position. The last time the franchise made it as far as the second round was when the team was in Winnipeg. In 1987, the Jets beat Calgary in the first round before losing to Edmonton in the second.
This is the franchise's seventh first-round series since then.
Nikolai Khabibulin, who gave up goals to Sergei Fedorov and Brendan Shanahan on two of the Red Wings' first three shots, stopped the next 24 for the win. Three of his stops came in the final 1:24, after Detroit coach Scotty Bowman pulled Osgood for a sixth skater.
For Osgood, it was just the opposite: big start, bad finish.
He came in having allowed 10 goals on 48 shots, including the Coyotes' 7-4 win two days before, and with the memory of being benched throughout last year's playoffs in favor of Mike Vernon.
Osgood stopped 29 shots, including the first 18, in an impressive two periods.
But his effectiveness flagged along with Detroit's defense.The Coyotes started the third period with a power play after Darren McCarty was whistled for roughing Michel Petit at the end of the second. It took 58 seconds for Oleg Tverdovsky to get the first of his three assists with a shot from the blue line.
Osgood had the sizzler in his glove, but lost it, and Tocchet banged it into the net as soon as it hit the ice.
Bowman complained to NHL officials supervisor Wally Harris about the call.
"If you get a power play at the beginning of the period, it's a huge break when the ice is fresh," Bowman said. "The play was over, McCarty brought his hand up, and then Petit flipped him over. We thought it was a soft call, and it meant a lot to them."
The play came back to haunt Detroit again when Igor Larionov went to the penalty box for holding Tocchet 1:59 into the period. Twenty seconds later, Roenick fired a shot from the blue line that glanced off the bottom of Osgood's glove and slid slowly across the line.
Roenick, who had two short-handed goals and four points in the second game, got his fourth goal when he deflected Tverdovsky's shot just under the crossbar, and the Coyotes' intense defense ushered them into the lead in the series.
Each team had six power plays, and the Coyotes killed four in the second period alone, including a 5-on-3 Detroit advantage for 1:25 late in the period. The Coyotes scored on their last two.
"We played the first period the way we wanted to," said Shanahan, who returned to action for the first time since back pain forced him to sit out the last game of the regular season. "Then we stopped playing and tried to hang on."
#4 ST. LOUIS BLUES vs #5 L.A. KINGS
INGLEWOOD, Calif. (AP) -- Brett Hull got goosebumps. St. Louis coach Joel Quenneville expressed amazement. The Los Angeles Kings yelled highway robbery.The Kings were within 10 minutes of their first NHL playoff victory in five years Monday night when Sean O'Donnell's ejection led to a five-minute power play for St. Louis.
The Blues scored four goals in a 3:07 span, including Terry Yake's go-ahead goal, for a 4-3 victory. They lead the best-of-7 series 3-0, with Game 4 Wednesday night at the Forum.
"It was a huge win for us," Quenneville said. "We needed to get the first one and it was pretty amazing after that."
Leading 3-0 after two periods, the Kings appeared to have their first win of the series in hand when O'Donnell received the costly penalty at 8:44 of the third period. It was preceeded by a delayed penalty on the Kings' Ian Laperriere for boarding up ice.
O'Donnell got tossed by referee Don Koharski for going after Geoff Courtnall, who had charged Kings rookie goalie Jamie Storr. O'Donnell jumped on Courtnall and tossed a variety of punches.
"It's the biggest game of our season and the guy runs the guy from the blue line. You could see him picking up speed and he runs our goalie," O'Donnell said as players slammed doors in an angry Kings locker room. "Sure, I hit him, but it was in the back of the head. It was nothing, nothing."
Courtnall didn't retaliate and eventually skated away with a charging minor, which was offset by Laperriere's boarding minor.
"I was just chasing him (Storr) on the forecheck," said Courtnall, the older brother of Kings right wing Russ Courtnall. "He got in the way and I didn't try to hit him as hard as I did, but I hit him. Then all heck broke loose after that. It sure was nice sitting in the penalty box."A sellout crowd of 16,005, attending the first NHL playoff game in Los Angeles in five years, booed and tossed their giveaway black towels on the ice in protest.
Kings coach Larry Robinson was livid at Koharski.
"He robbed us of a game, plain and simple," Robinson said. "The guy attempts to injure, runs our goalie. He could've put him out of the game and he gets a two-minute for charging. It's just a disgrace.
"He (Koharski) took the life out of a bunch of kids who worked their tails off. It's an absolute disgrace and he's a veteran official," said Robinson, who promptly got up and walked out on reporters.
Koharski declined to talk to a pool reporter after the game, so supervisor of officials Sam Sisco spoke for him.
"He saw Courtnall skate down the lane. He saw Jamie Storr come out of his crease just a little. The goaltender stuck out his stick, Courtnall bumped the goaltender and the goaltender went down," Sisco said.
"O'Donnell jumped Courtnall and proceeded to throw punches, and therefore, he got the major and game misconduct."
Storr, the 22-year-old making his second career playoff start, saw his shutout bid vanish in a barrage of pucks.
First, Pascal Rheaume scored for St. Louis at 9:59. Hull scored his first goal of the series a minute later. Pierre Turgeon tied the game 3-3 when he redirected Al MacInnis' shot into the net. With 28 seconds left on the power play, Yake scored the go-ahead goal against a stunned Storr.
"That's the officiating. They did what they have to do," said Storr, trying mightily to hold back tears. "I'm real disappointed in myself. I felt that I should have played a bit better. I let the team down."
O'Donnell didn't take it well, either. He was still seething after spending the final 10 minutes in the locker room.
"They always say you don't want a ref to decide a game, but that's exactly what he did. He stole the game from us with an idiotic call." Grant Fuhr outstanding in the first two games when he made 50 of 54 saves, stopped 25 shots for St. Louis.
Chris Pronger and MacInnis had three assists each for the Blues.
"I got goosebumps just thinking about it," Hull said of the comeback. "No one would have thought we were going to do it. We thought as a group, `Just keep playing hard and you never can quit,' but I don't know if anyone really believed we'd get four goals and win the game."
The Kings could have expanded their 3-0 lead, but they failed to score on separate two-man advantages in the second and third periods.
The Blues had scored first in six previous games against the Kings, and it appeared they might do so again when Los Angeles began the game with three straight penalties. But the Kings killed off each one.
Ian Laperriere, Yanic Perreault and O'Donnell each scored his first career playoff goal for the Kings.
Los Angeles finally scored first against the Blues when Laperriere, a former Blues player, deflected a shot by Steve McKenna at 11:01 of the first period.
With MacInnis off for holding, Luc Robitaille kept the puck in at the blue line and rifled a shot at the net. The puck was going wide when Perreault deflected it past Fuhr to give Los Angeles a 2-0 lead at 19:51 of the first.
Robitaille, one of only two holdovers from a Kings team that reached the Stanley Cup finals in 1993, assisted on their third goal for his second point of the game.
O'Donnell knocked in a rebound of Robitaille's shot, beating Fuhr stickside even as St. Louis' Jim Campbell fell on top of a sprawled O'Donnell. Aki Berg earned an assist for his second career playoff point.
