SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) -- For someone who says he can't score goals, Mike Keane certainly makes the ones he gets count.Keane scored his first two goals of the playoffs, including the game-winner in overtime Saturday night, as the Dallas Stars beat the San Jose Sharks 3-2 and advanced to the second round in the Western Conference.
Keane, traded to Dallas from the New York Rangers on March 24, scored just two goals in his 13 regular-season games with the Stars. He had just 19 goals in 121 career playoff games entering Saturday's contest.
For the game-winner, Keane took a pass from Darryl Sydor and beat San Jose goalie Mike Vernon.
"It was a great pass, I took the shot, but I'm not a goal scorer," Keane said. "This is big for me."
The Sharks, seeded eighth in the West, had threatened to take the closely-fought series back to Dallas for Game 7 by jumping ahead 2-0 in the game. But Dallas battled back with two straight goals in the second period and the game-winner at 3:43 into overtime.
That wrapped up the series in six games and sent the Stars on to the Western Conference semifinals.
"We felt that as the game went on, they got more and more tired, and by the end, we started to be able to take advantage of that," forward Guy Carbonneau said. "We started to go wide on them on every attack, and we were able to hold on to the puck more and more. "
The Stars had lost their last five overtime games in the playoffs, including Game 4 of the series against the Sharks last Tuesday in San Jose, and had not won such a game since 1994.
"This would have been a tough pill to swallow, after losing that many overtimes," Dallas coach Ken Hitchcock said. "There's a tremendous feeling of relief in our locker room."
Dallas goalie Ed Belfour stopped 19 shots as the Stars became the first team to win on the road in the series.
The Sharks went up 2-0 when Mike Ricci deftly maneuvered the puck around Belfour at 7:51 into the second period.
But Dallas, which finished with the NHL's best regular-season record, closed the gap just three minutes later with Richard Matvichuk's goal against Vernon. The Stars tied it when Keane knocked in a pass from Mike Modano -- on a Sharks power play.
After the Sharks disputed the Stars' game-winning goal in Game 5, they got a call in their favor in the first period Saturday. Officials determined after video review that forward Joe Murphy did not purposely kick the puck past Belfour on a power play -- giving the Sharks a 1-0 lead.
In Thursday night's 3-2 loss in Dallas, the Sharks complained that officials didn't review the deciding goal by Modano. The Sharks maintained that Dallas center Jamie Langenbrunner was in the crease -- meaning the goal should have been disallowed.
Sharks forward Bernie Nicholls, who was credited with an assist on Murphy's goal, now has assists in each of the last five playoff games.
"The best team won. Modano was a dominant player when he had to be and I think their defense, in the end, was really, really good," said Sharks coach Darryl Sutter. "As the series went on, their defense jumped into the play a lot more and was more of a factor."
Vernon faced 28 Dallas shots.
"Dallas played one of the smartest games they've played all season," Vernon said. "We had a few breakdowns and they capitalized."
Whereas both teams were disciplined on Saturday, sloppy play and penalties had marked the earlier games of the series.
The Stars' top regular-season scorer, Joe Nieuwendyk, was hit hard by San Jose's Bryan Marchment in Game 1, 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, 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.
In Game 3, the Sharks kept it clean for a 4-1 victory. It was the Stars that lost their cool, spurring two fights in the final minutes that resulted in the ejection of Belfour and captain Derian Hatcher.
The Sharks also won their second game at home, 1-0 in overtime.
The game was marked by the sellout crowd's almost incessant taunting of Belfour, who was traded to San Jose from the Blackhawks last season but played just 13 games with the Sharks before leaving for Dallas as a free agent.
A sign in the San Jose Arena read: "We love our Sharks more than we hate Eddie -- and that's a lot."
Even after Keane's game-winning goal, the fans awarded the Sharks with a standing ovation.
#2 COLORADO AVLANCHE vs #7 EDMONTON OILERS
EDMONTON, Alberta (AP) -- There's still life in the Edmonton Oilers.Goaltender Curtis Joseph turned in a brilliant 31-save performance as the Oilers staved off playoff elimination with a 2-0 victory over the Colorado Avalanche on Saturday night.
"Unbelievable!" said Edmonton forward Doug Weight, slash marks and bruises on his body testament to the intensity of the game. "That was the craziest atmosphere I've ever been a part of.
"And what do you say about CuJo? We rely on him so much. It was a tremendous game."
The Oilers forced Game 7 on Monday, clawing their way back from a 3-1 series deficit to tie the Western Conference quarter-final at 3-3.
Weight said the plan for the seventh game won't change.
"We've been preaching this for 10 days: We're going to hit, dump the puck, finish our checks and try to be disciplined," said Weight. "The boys played their hearts out."
Weight set up Drake Berehowsky early in the game and then helped to seal the win with another slick pass to Boris Mironov midway through the third.
The last time the Oilers came back from a 3-1 series deficit was in 1990 against the Winnipeg Jets, when they went on to win their last Stanley Cup.
The Oilers, riding an enormous wave of noise that rolled out from the stands of the sold-out Edmonton Coliseum, grabbed a 1-0 lead in the first period.
Colorado captain Joe Sakic, who was held in check for much of the game, said his team has to get more shots on Joseph. He said he was in awe of the Edmonton crowd and the effect it had on the Oilers."This is one of the loudest buildings I've ever been in," said Sakic. "Now it's a one-game showdown and hopefully we'll come back to the same reception in Denver."
With the crowd of 17,099 lifting the roof off the arena, Berehowsky beat Avalanche goalie Patrick Roy for his first of the playoffs and a 1-0 lead at 3:10 of the first period.
Joseph was at a loss to describe the game and his performance.
"I'm just happy we won this thing," he said. "We said if we could get this thing to a Game 7, anything can happen. We've done a lot of work to get there and hope we can finish it off."
Weight slipped across the Colorado blue line and spotted Berehowsky sneaking into the slot, slipping a perfect pass on to the defenseman's stick.
Once the Oilers had the lead they held on to it, thanks to Joseph.
Joseph turned back several good Colorado scoring chances, including a sparkling pad save on Sakic's wrist shot from the slot in the first period and another similar save in the second on a blast from Adam Foote.
The Oilers and Joseph also caught a huge break early in the second period when the Avalanche had a goal disallowed, just when it looked like Colorado was building some momentum.
Colorado's Valeri Kamensky knocked in a puck on a wild scramble in front of Joseph after the Edmonton defense had collapsed.
"I was hoping the replay would go for us," said Joseph. "I was hoping he was in the crease. We haven't had one go for us in a long time."
But referee Stephen Walkom went to the video review and ruled that Kamensky's foot was in the crease.
After that, the Avalanche seemed off their game as the Oilers' speed and hitting frustrated Colorado.
If not for the strong goaltending of Roy, Edmonton could have held a much wider margin on the scoreboard.
Colorado complained on the first Edmonton goal that Oilers forward Mike Grier was in the crease. Walkom, however, refused to go to video review.
#3 DETROIT RED WINGS vs #6 PHOENIX COYOTES
PHOENIX (AP) -- Too much Brendan Shanahan. Too much Sergei Fedorov. Too much Steve Yzerman. Too much speed and experience in must-win playoff games. And one lucky break.The Detroit Red Wings, who wanted to close out their first-round series in Phoenix, got the job done Sunday. The 5-2 victory seemed inevitable after Fedorov scored Detroit's fourth goal with a fluke shot that bounced off the boards and the skate of the Coyotes' goaltender.
"It was as big a shock to me as it was to Jimmy Waite," Shanahan said. "We all thought the puck had traveled behind the net. I was looking for it on the other side."
Shanahan had two goals and Yzerman had one and two assists as the Red Wings beat a first-round opponent in six games for the third straight year.
The defending Stanley Cup champions advanced to the second round for the seventh straight postseason and will play either St. Louis or Colorado. The matchup will be determined by the outcome of the Edmonton-Avalanche game Monday night.
Detroit also got a goal from Brent Gilchrist, and Chris Osgood made 22 saves to win his third consecutive game and send the Coyotes to their seventh first-round exit in as many playoffs for the franchise since 1987.
Yzerman and Gilchrist made it 13 Detroit goal-scorers in the series, a statistic that speaks volumes about the team's depth. Phoenix had seven players who scored goals.
"We were that way all through the regular season," center Kris Draper said. "We didn't have a 30-goal scorer, but we had a lot of guys with 10 goals or more. You know Sergei and Steve are going to get their goals, but we've always had someone there to step up when it was needed."
Jeremy Roenick and Keith Tkachuk scored for Phoenix, each time staking the Coyotes to a one-goal lead.
But the game was decided when the Red Wings outshot the Coyotes 18-4 in the second period and scored three times to take a 4-2 lead into the third.
Phoenix overcame a two-goal deficit in the third period to win Game 3, but it was out of question this time with Waite in goal instead of Nikolai Khabibulin, who has a groin pull. The backup faced 37 shots and stopped 32 under constant pressure.
"There's no excuses in this lockerroom," Tkachuk said. "We're absolutely disappointed. It's a frustrating situation."
The first four Detroit goals came on power plays, an oddity considering that the Red Wings were 3-for-33 with a man advantage in the series and went 18 straight power plays without a goal until Yzerman tied it 1-1 with 4:32 left in the first period.
Detroit scored on three of its next seven power plays, going 4-for-9 in all.
Roenick scored his fifth goal on the first Phoenix power play, backhanding a crossing pass from Rick Tocchet past Osgood's stick side 7:03 into the game. But Detroit killed the next four Phoenix power plays, allowing the Coyotes just 12 shots in the final two periods.
The Red Wings tied it with 4:32 left in the first period on a wrist shot by Yzerman, who flipped the puck over Waite's left shoulder when Waite crouched too soon.
Yzerman, the team's leading scorer in the regular season, broke two droughts with his first playoff goal while ending the string of power-play failures.
"I'd been trying to pass it across the crease in a number of similar situations," Yzerman said. "But their defensemen were always in good position. So I said to myself, `I think one of these times, I'll hold onto the puck and step towards the net and shoot it.' That's what I did."
Shanahan, who missed the first two games because of an injury, tied it 2-2 just 3:45 into the second period when he one-timed a shot from the top of the circle, and made it 3-2 with another one-timer from the slot with 5:50 left in the period, his third goal.
Fedorov got No. 6 when he tried to dump the puck. It found a gap in the boards, kicked out, glanced off the back of Waite's skate and slid into the net before Waite turned around.
Yzerman fed Gilchrist for a breakaway goal midway through the third period.
"I think we competed," Tocchet said. "We let them off the hook in Game 4, and that hurt us. You only get so many chances to win a cup in your career. There's a lot of disappointed guys in this room."
