WESTERN QUARTER-FINALS
GAME SUMMARIES
GAME 2:
#1 ST. LOUIS BLUES vs #8 SAN JOSE SHARKS
Series tied 1-1
Next Game: Monday April 17th, 2000 10:30pm at San Jose
San Jose forward Mike Ricci said the Sharks were lucky and good. Because of that, they're tied in the Western Conference playoffs.
San Jose, the eighth seed, used two fluke goals and some hard work to get by the top-seeded St. Louis Blues 4-2 Saturday. The best-of-7 series is tied 1-1 and heads to San Jose for Game 3 on Monday night. Ricci's power-play goal with 5:42 left proved to be the difference. But the Sharks were fortunate to even be in the game then.
Bryan Marchment scored the Sharks' second goal with a shot from behind the Blues' net. Gary Suter, who also had an assist, was credited with a goal when defenseman Marc Bergevin threw the puck into his own net.
"Funny things happen," Ricci said. "We'll take that break. But we're not going to rely on those things happening any more."
Ricci's goal came as a result of hard work. With Scott Young serving a double minor for high sticking, Ricci followed up his own shot and shoved the rebound under Blues goalie Roman Turek to give San Jose a 3-2 lead.
Owen Nolan added an empty-net goal with 1:03 to play. Steve Shields made 18 saves for the Sharks, who won for just the third time in 18 visits to St. Louis (3-14-1).
Although the goals by Marchment and Suter were not conventional, San Jose coach Darryl Sutter said his team had nothing to apologize about.
"All the other four goals, other than the empty-net goal, were going to the net goals," Sutter said. "Bergevin makes that play because Ricci's going to the net. You don't get all that razzle-dazzle in the playoffs."
"Goals like that happen all the time," Shields said. "It's just that it's magnified because it's the playoffs."
Blues coach Joel Quenneville questioned his team's thought process.
"We were undisciplined," Quenneville said. "We didn't make a good effort in the second period and some of our decisions were questionable."
Young agreed with his coach.
"In the playoffs, you have to play with controlled emotion, and today we might have gotten a little carried away with our emotion," Young said. "We have to play with a lot more discipline."
San Jose, which will also play host to Game 4 on Wednesday, has not won a playoff game at home since April 28, 1998 -- losing the last four. Young isn't taking anything for granted.
"We're not invincible," Young said. "We knew that. We also expect to play a lot better than we did today."
St. Louis appeared to have the momentum when Stephane Richer tied it 2-2 at 8:35 of the third on a 2-on-1 with Craig Conroy. Conroy carried the puck in on left wing and drew defenseman Marcus Ragnarsson to him. He then passed to Richer, who put it into the wide-open net.
Marchment gave the Sharks a 2-1 lead 3:07 into the period. He chased down a loose puck behind the Blues' goal, and attempted to throw it in front. Instead, it banked in off Turek's pad. Marchment had no goals in 49 regular-season games.
Bergevin gave the Sharks their other goal at 17:10 of the first period when he caught Gary Suter's shot and attempted to throw the puck behind his net, instead sending it past a surprised Turek.
Marty Reasoner also scored for the Blues, his second of the playoffs.
Young, who missed the first game with a separate shoulder, made his presence felt early on by setting up Reasoner's goal. Young bumped Marchment off the puck in the right corner, then skated to the right circle and flicked a shot at Shields. Reasoner tipped it in at 9:54 to make it 1-0.
#2 DALLAS STARS vs #7 EDMONTON OILERS
Dallas leads 2-0
Next Game: Sunday April 16th, 2000 7pm at Edmonton
Kirk Muller joined the Dallas Stars in December and Scott Thornton came aboard in January. At this rate, they might keep playing until late June. Goals from Muller, Thornton and Brett Hull and a punishing defensive attack carried Dallas to a 3-0 victory over Edmonton Thursday night, putting the defending Stanley Cup champions halfway to a first-round sweep of the Oilers. There were more than a few doubts about whether the Stars could return to their high caliber of last postseason, especially after they finished the regular season 0-3-2.
They've quickly shown that even with new players, they can still be effective with their defense-first philosophy and an offense that comes from a variety of sources.
"I don't think anyone in the locker room doubted that we could turn things up a notch when the playoffs began," Stars center Guy Carbonneau said. "I think everyone will be disappointed if we don't go to the end, but there's a long road ahead."
Dallas takes it 2-0 lead to Edmonton for Game 3 Sunday night. The Oilers will be trying to break a nine-game playoff losing streak against the Stars and a 0-9-1 record in their last 10 overall meetings.
"We've got to regroup," winger Georges Laraque said. "We know we can beat that team. We need to get the first goal, get the crowd on our side and get the momentum."
Dallas has scored five goals in two games. Of those scorers, Hull is the only one who was among the team's top five in the regular season.
Instead, the offense has come from guys like fourth-line wing Muller, who was signed off the NHL scrap heap in mid-December, and second-line wing Thornton, who was acquired from Montreal five weeks later.
"We know a strength of our team is depth," said Muller, whose first-period goal was the game-winner. "Hopefully that gets everybody going."
Ed Belfour made just 17 saves -- only one against a power play -- while notching his eighth career playoff shutout. Edmonton has just 12 goals on him in the last 11 playoff meetings.
The Oilers really only tested him in the third period, when they fired 10 shots. Edmonton took seven shots or less in the previous five periods.
"They're doing a good job of covering the lanes," Oilers coach Kevin Lowe said. "You've got to give them a lot of credit."
Dallas captain Derian Hatcher set the tone for the defense with 13 hits in Game 1. He had 10 more this game, with several of them steamrolling Oilers off their skates. That led to frustration that took them out of their game and occasionally led to retaliatory hits that landed them in the penalty box.
"In the first two games, we've learned that the room for error is almost zero," Lowe said. "We made a couple of errors and they've killed us."
Oilers goalie Tommy Salo, who made 30 stops in Game 1, again had to be his own best defense -- and couldn't, even though he again made the Stars earn their goals. He made 19 saves.
Muller finished a perfectly executed 3-on-3 with Hull and Modano by blasting a shot over Salo's left shoulder in the first period, then Hull put in a bouncing puck from the lip of the crease with 2:05 left in the second. Thornton scored from in front of the net on a rebound early in the third period.
Hull's goal unfolded a lot like his last playoff goal, the one that beat Buffalo in triple overtime in Game 6 of the 1999 finals.
On that one, Hull was just inside the crease when he pushed in a rebound past a fallen Dominik Hasek. This time, he was just outside the crease and it was Salo on the ice.
Belfour set a record last postseason by allowing one goal or less allowed in 10 games. He's already done it twice this postseason.
"It's a good sign that we're playing well," he said.
The Stars were again without Jere Lehtinen, their best defensive forward until an ankle injury limited him to 17 games. He's still too sore after testing it Sunday in the regular-season finale. He might play Sunday, when Dallas also hopes to have back defenseman Sergei Zubov from a torn knee ligament.
Edmonton's Ethan Moreau, who missed the third period of Game 1 with a bruised thigh, was back on the ice.
#3 COLORADO AVALANCHE vs #6 PHOENIX COYOTES
Colorado leads 2-0
Next Game: Monday April 17th, 2000 9pm at Phoenix
Peter Forsberg added to Phoenix's mounting frustration.
Forsberg had an assist in his first game back from a shoulder injury, and the Colorado Avalanche took control of their first-round playoff series with a 3-1 victory over the Coyotes on Saturday. The game ended with a flurry of penalties as Phoenix vented their frustration by taking shots at Colorado goalie Patrick Roy and defenseman Adam Foote.
"Why not try to get somebody?" said Phoenix forward Keith Tkachuk, who was called for roughing in the final seconds. "Yeah it's frustration. Yeah we lost. We've got a bunch of sore losers on this team. I like that. Why not? It's old time hockey right there."
Chris Drury, Alex Tanguay and Milan Hejduk all scored power-play goals for the Avalanche, who took a 2-0 lead in the best-of-7 Western Conference series. Game 3 is Monday at Phoenix. "We know they're going to battle. They showed us at the end that they're not going to give up," Roy said. "We have to expect to see them working extremely hard in their own building and try to get back in the series."
As they did in Game 1, the Coyotes hurt themselves with penalties. Colorado scored twice with a two-man advantage and went 3-for-7 on power-play chances. The Avalanche are 5-for-16 on the power play in the series.
"We tried the whole game to be more physical. It was the power play again that killed us," Phoenix's Jeremy Roenick said. "At even strength we beat them 1-0. With special teams, they beat us. We have to stay out of the penalty box, and we have to get some breaks in the calls." Forsberg, who separated his right shoulder eight days ago, assisted on Hejduk's goal midway through the second period, slipping a crossing pass through the legs of Phoenix defenseman Teppo Numminen.
Hejduk had no problem flipping the puck past goalie Sean Burke to give Colorado a 3-1 lead.
"The first couple of shifts, yes, they were trying to hit me every time," Forsberg said. "I knew after the first hit, it felt great and I knew there was not going to be any problems."
Benoit Hogue scored the only goal for the Coyotes, beating Roy 5:42 into the second on a quick, one-handed shot with Foote shadowing him just outside the crease.
Burke kept Phoenix in the game throughout the third, thwarting several Colorado scoring chances, but the Coyotes' offense could not solve Roy, who had 25 saves and constantly roamed outside the crease to play the puck.
Roy also exchanged slashes with Roenick in the waning moments, rekindling a rivalry that started in 1996 when Roy said he couldn't hear Roenick's brash comments because his Stanley Cup rings were plugging his ears.
"That is the competitor in him. He doesn't have to apologize for anything," Roenick said.
Keith Carney and Jon Klemm capped the unsightly finish with a short fight, setting the stage for what should be a physical reunion in Arizona.
"It got a little ugly, but that's normal," Tanguay said. "They're going back home and they have a good team and they just wanted to show us we weren't going to get easy ones when we get to Phoenix."
The game started out as a replay of the opener as Colorado converted two power plays -- including a 5-on-3 -- in the first five minutes.
Drury skated untouched down the left side, crossed into the center and beat Burke on a backhand shot at 3:31, and the rookie Tanguay scored from in close 56 seconds later to make it 2-0.
"We want to assume some responsibility," Phoenix coach Bob Francis said. "We took some unnecessary penalties that resulted from high emotion and that is going to happen. Unfortunately three power-play goals were the difference in the game."
#4 DETROIT RED WINGS vs #5 LOS ANGELES
Detroit leads 2-0
Next Game: Monday April 17th, 2000 10pm at Los Angeles
Larry Murphy has played in over 200 playoff games and he's still seeing new things. Murphy watched in surprise Saturday as his Detroit Red Wings beat the Los Angeles Kings 8-5 in the highest-scoring playoff game since 1993, taking a two-game lead in their Western Conference first-round series. "Before playoff games, you think the game through in your mind, and you think you have a pretty good idea what is going to happen," said Murphy, who also played in the highest-scoring game in postseason history, Edmonton's 10-8 win over the Kings in 1982.
"I never dreamed anything like this would happen," Murphy said. "I'll just bet that even if we win the Stanley Cup, there won't be another game like this."
Martin Lapointe scored three times and Kris Draper and Nick Lidstrom each added two goals for Detroit, while Ziggy Palffy had two goals for the Kings and Luc Robitaille had a goal and two assists.
The series, which the Red Wings lead 2-0, continues at Los Angeles on Monday and Wednesday.
"I think we proved today that we aren't going to go away," Kings coach Andy Murray said. "They had a lot of chances to bury us tonight, and we wouldn't let them. We kept hanging around."
The game was the highest-scoring playoff game since Los Angeles won 9-6 at Calgary on April 29, 1993.
"The only other game I've seen like this was one year in the Stanley Cup finals when we (Montreal) played Chicago," said Red Wings coach Scotty Bowman. "You had two of the greatest goalies around in Ken Dryden and Tony Esposito, and we were trying to clinch the Cup at home. Chicago won 8-7. There's just nothing the goalies can do in these games."
Lapointe's only other NHL hat trick came in Detroit's 8-2 victory over the New York Rangers on March 26.
"Obviously, it is really special to get three goals in a playoff game, but this isn't the type of hockey that we are used to," Lapointe said. "I'm sure that both teams are going to make some serious defensive adjustments before Game 3."
The game got off to one of the wildest starts in playoff history, with six goals in the first 6:56. They were the fastest six goals opening a playoff game since records were first kept in 1943-44. It broke the previous mark of 10:22 set by Detroit and Toronto on April 7, 1988.
Detroit needed just 93 seconds to take a 2-0 lead, aided by two turnovers by the Kings defense.
First, Garry Galley lost the puck to Vyacheslav Kozlov at the blue line, and despite two saves by Fiset, Brendan Shanahan was able to knock home a rebound for his first of the playoffs.
Just 38 seconds later, Kirk Maltby blocked Jere Karalahti's clearing pass and set up Lapointe at the hashmarks for his first goal.
The Kings got back into the game when Luc Robitaille knocked the puck home after a goal-mouth melee at 2:04. But the Wings regained their two-goal edge when Draper took advantage of Bob Corkum's giveaway to score at 3:32.
That still didn't end the offensive explosion, as Palffy scored on a rebound at 4:55, and Lapointe answered with his second goal on a rebound at 6:56.
For the last 13 minutes of the period, the game belonged to the Kings, as they outshot Detroit 15-2. But only Sean O'Donnell scored, putting home a loose puck on a delayed penalty at 19:36.
That pulled the Kings within 4-3 after one, but Detroit regained their composure and moved the lead to three goals early in the second.
Draper got his second of the game at 3:27, sending Stephane Fiset to the bench with a long slap shot from the left wing. Fiset gave up five goals on just 17 shots.
"I thought we really let Stephane down tonight," Murray said. "I told him that it wasn't his fault -- we were giving them goals on silver platters. You can't give a team like Detroit that many free pucks."
Jamie Storr got off to a spectacular start, stopping Draper on a breakaway, but couldn't stop Lapointe from getting his hat trick on the power play at 9:33.
The Kings made it 6-4 at 11:43, as Murphy lost the puck at the edge of the crease and Craig Johnson flipped it over Osgood.
Palffy got Los Angeles with 6-5 at 1:11 of the third, taking a long pass from Stumpel and sliding the puck under Osgood for his second of the game.
Lidstrom moved the margin back to two with a power-play goal at 9:18, then added an empty-netter in the final minute.
"These games just pop up from time to time," Bowman said. "It wasn't what we would have liked tactically, but it was certainly great for the fans and TV."