SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) -- It was the greatest goal of San Jose Sharks defenseman Andrei Zyuzin's rookie season, and he didn't even see it.Zyuzin's goal with 6:31 gone in overtime sent the underdog San Jose Sharks to a 1-0 victory Tuesday night over the Dallas Stars and evened their first-round Western Conference playoff series at 2-2.
"It was an awsome feeling," Zyuzin said. "I was wedged between several players and I didn't even see the puck. I made a shot and it went in. I was incredibly lucky."
Zyuzin's hard shot, off a pass from Bernie Nicholls, sailed past Stars goaltender Ed Belfour, who faced 23 San Jose shots.
"All I saw was that the light went on. I didn't even see it go in because there were so many players skating about," said Zyuzin, who just turned 20 in January. "Nicholls was responsible for getting me a great pass."
Stars assistant Rick Wilson didn't think Belfour saw the goal, either.
"The puck had eyes and found its way in," Wilson said.
Sharks goalie Mike Vernon stopped 26 shots for his first playoff shutout since last season with the Stanley Cup-winning Detroit Red Wings. It was his sixth career shutout in the playoffs.
The eighth-seeded Sharks, who finished 31 points behind the NHL-leading Stars during the regular season, now have the opportunity to take a 3-2 lead in the best-of-7 series when it picks up with Game 5 in Dallas on Thursday night. They lost the first two games of the series in Dallas before coming home to San Jose.
"After we got down 2-0, we were in the same position we had been in all year, behind the eight-ball," San Jose coach Darryl Sutter said. "We were not considered a threat."
It was the 27th 1-0 overtime game in Stanley Cup playoff history. The Stars were also the victims the last time it happened, losing to the Edmonton Oilers on April 25, 1997.
The Sharks did not win a single game in overtime all season. It was the first time San Jose had ever hosted an overtime playoff game.
Both teams kept it relatively clean, with just four penalties called -- three against the Stars and just one against the Sharks.
There were only hints of the bad blood that has marked the playoff series between the teams. A small skirmish broke out in front of Belfour's net with 4:05 to go in the second period, but no penalties were called. Belfour complained about a hit he took from Ron Sutter in the third, but again there were no penalties.
One-time Shark Belfour, ejected from Game 3 in the final minutes when it deteriorated into a melee, was taunted frequently during the game by fans chanting his name.
Even when he hit the ice for pregame warmups, Belfour was loudly booed by the crowd that had started to trickle into the San Jose Arena. The signs brought by fans echoed the sentiment: One read, "Eddie's not an eagle, he's just foul," and another said, "No Cup Eddie, get over it."
The latter sign was a reference to Belfour's comments after Sunday's 4-1 San Jose win. He suggested the fans needed to get over the fact that he left the Sharks after just 13 games last season to go to Dallas as a free agent.
That game collapsed into a slugfest in the final minutes, with Belfour jumping on Sharks forward Shawn Burr and punching him. Belfour was ejected from the game, along with team captain Derian Hatcher.
Until that point, the Stars had been complaining about the Sharks' dirty play.
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.In the Stars' 5-2 Game 2 victory, Mike Modano sustained a mild concussion in a collision with Marcus Ragnarsson, and Owen Nolan drew the Stars' ire when he charged Belfour, knocking him to the ice.
That brought about talk about possible retaliation in Game 3. But instead, it appeared the Stars simply became frustrated by the Sharks' tenacious play and the deafening crowd at the arena.
On Tuesday, both teams skated cleanly through the first period with only one penalty called against Dallas right wing Jere Lehtinen for interfering with Nolan. The Sharks, however, appeared to have the early edge, outshooting the Stars 12-5.
With 4:55 gone in the second period, John MacLean grabbed the puck and charged at Belfour, but couldn't score. Just seconds later, the Sharks went on their second power play when Modano was called for tripping, and still came away without a goal.
The Sharks were unable to get a shot on Belfour on their third power play when Hatcher was penalized for holding in the final period.
The Stars got their lone power play in the third period when Sharks forward Mike Ricci was called for interference, but couldn't capitalize on their chance, either.
Stars forward Benoit Hogue said Belfour was the reason the Stars stayed in the game.
"He's the reason we went to overtime. If it weren't for Eddie, this game would have been over a long time ago," Hogue said.
Stars center Guy Carbonneau was scratched from the game because of a bruised elbow. He was listed as day-to-day.
#2 COLORADO AVLANCHE vs #7 EDMONTON OILERS
EDMONTON, Alberta (AP) -- Claude Lemieux continued his post-season heroics Tuesday night, scoring his third goal of the NHL playoffs to power the Colorado Avalanche to a 3-1 win over the Edmonton Oilers.Colorado took a commanding lead in their best-of-7 Western Conference quarter-final series, holding a 3-1 lead heading back to Denver for Thursday's Game 5.
Lemieux ripped a hard shot from the right circle that caught Oilers goaltender Curtis Joseph leaning the wrong way and the puck found the far corner for the game-winner.
Lemieux was sent in on the partial break on a perfect pass from Peter Forsberg just seconds after the Oilers themselves had come close to taking a 2-1 lead.
After spotting Colorado two-goal leads in the first three games of the series, the Oilers finally managed to score first against the Avalanche.
Edmonton opened the scoring when Ryan Smyth scored a power-play goal at 17:52 of the first period for his first of the series. Smyth dashed down the right side and whipped Doug Weight's crisp cross-ice pass behind Avalanche goaltender Patrick Roy.
The Edmonton lead was shortlived in the furiously paced game, however, as Colorado stormed back to score 17 seconds later while the raucous sellout crowd of 17,099 was still celebrating the Oiler goal.
Forsberg scored into an open net after the Oilers failed to clear the zone and goaltender Curtis Joseph ended up flopping around on his back when he fell reacting to a shot that changed direction.
#3 DETROIT RED WINGS vs #6 PHOENIX COYOTES
PHOENIX (AP) _ Igor Larionov, Vyacheslav Kozlov and Jamie Macoun scored second-period goals as the Detroit Red Wings regained home ice by beating the Phoenix Coyotes 4-2 Tuesday night.
The defending Stanley Cup champions return to Detroit for Game 5 on Thursday tied at 2-2 in the series. Game 6 will be in Phoenix on Sunday, and the Red Wings will have the seventh game, if needed, at home Tuesday.
It was a nick-of-time recovery for the Red Wings, who have not trailed by two games in the postseason since Colorado eliminated them in the Western Conference finals in 1996.
Detroit goaltender Chris Osgood had allowed 13 goals in three games. This time, he gave up a power-play goal to Rick Tocchet in the first period and a goal to Shane Doan in the third, but also had 32 saves.
And the Red Wings, with some of their injured players back on the ice, looked more like the team that has reached the conference finals three straight years.
Larionov and Kozlov scored on two of the 19 Detroit shots on Nikolai Khabibulin before Khabibulin was removed 9:10 into the second period because of a groin pull. Macoun, who had no goals in 77 regular-season and playoff games, made it 3-1 with a rebound goal against Jimmy Waite.
Nicklas Lidstrom increased the lead to 4-1 with another goal against Jimmy Waite, who faced 20 shots.
Brendan Shanahan, whose sore back kept him out of three games until Phoenix's 3-2 win in Game 3 Sunday night, and Martin Lapointe, who missed that game with a hamstring pull, assisted on Macoun's goal.
Kris Draper started at center after missing three games, and the inference was clear: The Red Wings are getting well.
Just before Macoun scored with one second left in the second period, Detroit killed a double power play, the result of two penalties on Brent Gilchrist.
The Detroit power play continued to lag. The Red Wings went scoreless in five opportunities against the Coyotes and 11 straight since the second game, dropping to 3-of-27 for the playoffs.
The Coyotes scored on their second advantage, when Tocchet, his back toward Osgood, flipped the puck toward the crease. It bounced off Osgood's skate and between his pads with 9:47 left in the first for Tocchet's fifth goal.
The Red Wings gave a sign of what was to come near the end of the first period, when Sergei Fedorov scored on a slap shot. But Tomas Holmstrom was in the crease, and the score was disallowed.
Detroit tied it 1-1 on Larionov's goal, his second. Khabibulin made a kick save of a shot from the circle by Shanahan, and Larionov tucked the rebound into the net on Khabibulin's stick side 3:22 into the second period.
Just over three minutes later, Kozlov sent Fedorov's crossing pass into the net for his first goal. With 6:25 gone in the second, the Red Wings had the lead and a permanent hold on the momentum.
#4 ST. LOUIS BLUES vs #5 L.A. KINGS
INGLEWOOD, Calif. (AP) -- The sweet toot of a referee's whistle signaled playoff nirvana for the St. Louis Blues. The short, sharp blast meant no game-tying goal for the Los Angeles Kings.It was yet another break for the Blues in a 2-1 victory Wednesday night that gave them a 4-0 sweep of the first-round series.
The Blues became the first NHL team to advance, something they failed to do last year when they were beaten in the first round by eventual Stanley Cup champion Detroit.
"We got all the breaks in this one," Blues defenseman Al MacInnis said. "The Kings probably deserved a little more fate than what they got."
What Los Angeles didn't get that might have forced overtime was the game-tying goal in the third period.
The Kings, making their first playoff appearance in five years, closed the gap to 2-1 eight minutes into the third on Jozef Stumpel's goal. That revived the sellout crowd of 16,005 at the Forum, which got even louder barely two minutes later.That's when Glen Murray redirected a shot the Kings and the crowd believed was the game-tying goal at 9:50. Murray's redirection slowed down when it hit Blues goalie Grant Fuhr, but it kept moving and slid 2 inches over the goal line.
But referee Stephen Walkom, who was too far away to see the puck go in, whistled the play dead, and the goal didn't count. The crowd showered trash on the ice and repeatedly shouting expletives.
"Getting that goal called back was a huge lift for us," said Craig Conroy, whose first career playoff goal put St. Louis ahead 2-0. "They had us running around. They came out strong; they weren't giving up by any means."
Unlike his teammates on the bench, Fuhr knew the score wasn't going to change on the play. He made 29 saves for his fourth straight victory in the series.
"I heard the whistle, so you stop worrying about the puck after you hear the whistle," he said. "We're happy to get rid of them now. That team is only going to get better."
With about five minutes remaining, Fuhr kicked out a shot by Vladimir Tsyplakov and the Kings went on to their third straight one-goal loss after being routed 8-3 in the series opener.
"Outside of the first game, we played them real tough," Kings forward Ray Ferraro said. "But we made some mistakes. We took too many penalties and they got big goals when they needed them and we didn't."
Pavol Demitra, who had two goals and an assist in Game 1, gave St. Louis a 1-0 lead at 8:05 of the second period when he scored on a rebound feed from Geoff Courtnall, who got the pass off despite being checked from behind by Aki Berg.
The Kings survived a scare moments earlier when Steve Duchesne broke out of the penalty box and had the puck cleared to him. Stephane Fiset came out of the net attempting to smother the puck, but he went by Duchesne, who never got the shot off.Conroy put St. Louis ahead 2-0 at 3:22 of the third. Fiset made the initial save of Conroy's wrist shot from the right circle with his blocker, but the puck went up in the air and deflected off the knob of Fiset's stick into the net.
"I had a good head of steam and I came over flying. The `D' was coming on me so I just decided to throw it at the net and hope for the best," Conroy said. "(The puck) hit something. I don't know what it hit, but it was kind of a knuckleball going in there. I was never so happy to see a puck go in the net, just to give us a little cushion."
Fiset stopped 32 shots in his first start since getting pulled in the 13th minute of the second period of Game 1 after allowing five goals on 27 shots.
Jamie Storr, who replaced Fiset in the opener and then lost the next two games, did not play after being diagnosed Wednesday with post-concussion syndrome. His head was knocked into the crossbar on a hit by Geoff Courtnall in Monday night's game, which the Kings lost 4-3.
"I knew they were going to come after me a bit, especially if the score got out of hand," Courtnall said. "Early on, they took a couple (hits), but it wasn't too bad. It wasn't as bad as I thought it might be."
The crowd booed Courtnall, whose younger brother, Russ, plays for the Kings, each time he touched the puck early in the game. The Kings played Geoff tight, and wound up drawing some penalties.
"It wasn't part of our game plan to go after Geoff, but emotion gets in the way in the heat of the moment," Matt Johnson said. "You couldn't let him skate by you without giving him a jab, and that's what we were doing, and we got caught."
