WESTERN QUARTER-FINALS
GAME SUMMARIES
GAME 4:
#1 ST. LOUIS BLUES vs #8 SAN JOSE SHARKS
San Jose leads 3-1
Next Game: Friday April 21st, 2000 7pm at St. Louis
Call it a fluke. Call it a stroke of luck. Most of all, call it what it was -- a surprising, dramatic game-winning shot.
Gary Suter's slap shot from just inside the blue line skipped into the net with 8:37 remaining and the San Jose Sharks beat the St. Louis Blues 3-2 Wednesday night to take a 3-1 lead in their playoff series.
"I think we have to be taken seriously now," San Jose's Tony Granato said. "We got a good bounce, but what the heck? It's still a goal. In hockey, there are not many pretty goals but they all count. It's getting harder every game to get the win and we'll take any goal, whether it bounces in or not.
The best-of-seven series moves back to St. Louis on Friday for Game 5 with the top-seeded Blues, who finished the regular season with the NHL's best record, on the brink of elimination. But they've fought back from a 3-1 deficit as recently as last season, when they came back to beat Phoenix 4-3 in a first-round series.
"Everybody expects when you finish first that it would be easy, but we knew otherwise," St. Louis' Pierre Turgeon said. "We felt all along that they're a better team than they showed in the regular season.
"I felt once we weathered the storm and scored our power-play goal, that would turn things around. We're getting the puck to the net but we're not getting the bounce. We need to take a page out of last year's book and hope to get some bounces. We're certainly frustrated. It's not easy to come back from 3-1 all the time but we did it last year and we hope to do it again."
San Jose, 0-4-1 in five regular season meetings against the Blues, is one win from duplicating its 1994 feat, when it ousted Detroit in a first-round series as a No. 8 seed.
The winning shot was set up when Alexander Korolyuk threw the puck across the ice and it bounded off the boards to Suter, who wound up for a slap shot near the blue line. The puck took a bounce off the ice and shot between goalie Roman Turek's stick-side arm and his leg.
"It looked like a knuckleball. Boom, boom, it was in," St. Louis coach Joel Quenneville said.
Added Suter: "It looked like a trick shot. We've gotten some lucky bounces throughout these games. It dipped when it hit the ice and bounced about two feet up and went in. It changed directions on him."
St. Louis pulled its goalie with 1:26 left to no avail.
Down 2-0, the Blues tied it by scoring twice in a 36-second span of the second period. With the Blues on the power play, Turgeon got off a pass to the unguarded Jochen Hecht and Hecht wristed the puck past goalie Steve Shields from just outside the crease at 12:54 for his third goal of the playoffs.
Just a few seconds later, St. Louis evened it. Jamal Mayers got off a shot that Shields stopped but before he could cover up the rebound, Mike Eastwood skated in and put the puck in the net for his first goal of the series.
St. Louis had a chance to take the lead in the final seconds of the period, but Scott Young's shot at the end of a breakaway hit the right post and bounced away.
San Jose went up 2-0 on Mike Ricci's second goal of the series 1:37 into the second. Stephane Matteau picked up the puck in St. Louis' zone after a Blues turnover and dished off to Ricci. He skated toward the goal and faked a cross-ice pass to Niklas Sundstrom, getting Turek leaning toward the opposite end before slipping the puck into the corner of the net.
San Jose's first goal was set up by a battle along the boards. Mike Rathje and Chris Pronger both were scrambling for the puck when it popped loose and dribbled into the left faceoff circle. Rathje spun around the defender and knocked the puck toward Sturm, who got enough of his stick on it to drive the puck past Turek for the score 6:08 into the game.
Both teams managed only five shots during the opening period, with the Sharks going 0-for-3 on the power play and St. Louis failing to get a shot until 7:04 left. Shields stopped Turgeon's shot from up close by throwing out his left leg to block it.
#2 DALLAS STARS vs #7 EDMONTON OILERS
Dallas leads 3-1
Next Game: Friday April 21st, 2000 9pm at Dallas
The Dallas Stars leaned on their veterans to lead them to the brink of another playoff series victory. Brett Hull, Mike Modano, Guy Carbonneau and Joe Nieuwendyk carried the defending Stanley Cup champions to a 4-3 win Tuesday night and a 3-1 lead in their first-round series against the Edmonton Oilers. The Stars can advance in the Western Conference playoffs with a win at home Friday night.
Oilers goalie Tommy Salo appeared screened by defenseman Igor Ulanov when Carbonneau's shot from the high slot went over his glove hand, breaking a 3-3 tie just 5:01 into the final period.
Carbonneau, a 40-year-old center, atoned for a first-period misconduct penalty he earned for complaining about the refereeing.
"When I came back to the bench, I wanted to try to help the team," he said. "Obviously that goal was a good start."
Bill Guerin scored all three goals for Edmonton. Hull, Modano and Richard Matvichuk also scored for Dallas.
Guerin played down his hat trick, his first-ever in the playoffs and the second by an Oilers player in two games. Doug Weight had three goals in Edmonton's 5-2 win Sunday.
"This isn't the time of year to worry about points and goals," Guerin said. "Hat tricks are good but you've got to win."
Dallas capitalized on Edmonton defensive lapses to take a quick 2-0 lead in the first period.
Hull, who also had an assist, scored on a rebound at 5:02 after the Oilers' Tom Poti failed to clear the puck.
"Brett did what he had to do," Dallas coach Ken Hitchcock said. "He scored and he was ready to load it up every shift."
Nieuwendyk didn't score, but had his best game of the series, menacing the Oilers in the offensive zone and rattling one shot off the crossbar.
"He was a threat and we were able to come at people with a bit of a one-two punch," Hitchcock said of Nieuwendyk.
Matvichuk caught the Oilers running around in their own end 48 seconds later and scored on a slap shot from the point.
But Guerin tied the game before the period was finished.
Modano gave the Stars a 3-2 lead in the second when he cut through the slot and fired a rebound past Salo. The Stars continued to swarm around the Dallas net, but couldn't put the Oilers away.
"It was simply a case of us stopping (the game plan of) shooting the puck," Oilers coach Kevin Lowe said. "The positive was we were able to battle back on a team that doesn't allow that to happen very often."
With less than two minutes to go in the second, Guerin walked in to the left of goalie Ed Belfour and hammered a long slap shot that skipped over Belfour's glove hand and into the net.
That sent the 17,100 fans at Skyreach Centre into a frenzy for the second consecutive game. Hats, white foam noodles and foam puckheads cascaded down to salute the hat trick.
The crowd taunted Belfour early and often. They heckled him in warmups, during the national anthem and throughout the game, sarcastically chanting "Belfour! Belfour!" and waving a forest of white foam noodles in his direction.
Stars forward Blake Sloan was knocked out of the game early after he was hit in the face with a stick. Edmonton center Todd Marchant, believed to be the victim of a hard Derian Hatcher hit, was out for the second straight game.
#3 COLORADO AVALANCHE vs #6 PHOENIX COYOTES
Colorado leads 3-1
Next Game: Friday April 21st, 2000 9:30pm at Colorado
After coach Bob Francis promised the Phoenix Coyotes good results if they continued to improve, goalie Sean Burke tried his hand at prophecy.
"Like he said before the game, 'You give me two (goals), and I'll take care of business,"' Francis said. "Fortunately, we gave him three, and you just can't say enough about Sean's performance."
The Coyotes took a page from the Colorado Avalanche's playbook, jumping ahead quickly and hanging on for a 3-2 victory Wednesday night to remain alive in the postseason.
Mikael Renberg got the winner 38 seconds into the second period, and Burke, who allowed 12 goals in the first three games, made 36 saves.
The Avalanche still hold a 3-1 lead in the best-of-7 Western Conference series and could close it out by winning Game 5 Friday in Denver.
But the fourth game was sweet redemption for the Coyotes, who followed Francis' advice and improved their play each game after a 6-3 debacle in the opener.
It didn't pay off until this one, easily the best effort by Burke and his teammates.
Phoenix had a 3-0 lead early after goals by Trevor Letowski, Travis Green and Renberg.
Benoit Hogue assisted on the first two scores.
"Once we got the lead, I felt we'd be tough to beat," Keith Tkachuk said. "Especially when we haven't had the lead to speak of in the series. So now we've just got to stay alive."
Burke's inspired goaltending helped the Coyotes hang on despite intense pressure after the Avs had to abandon their series-long strategy of sitting on a lead.
Adam Deadmarsh, who scored the winner in Game 3, made it close by scoring with 3:58 left in the game.
He stopped the puck with his chest while crossing the slot and flipped a back-hander to beat Burke on the stick side.
"He made some big saves," Deadmarsh said. "We weren't shooting the puck real well, so it was a combination of both, and it didn't help us any."
Colorado took 19 shots in the second period, but only managed a power-play goal by Dave Andreychuk, who deflected a slap shot by Adam Foote 6:03 into the period.
Burke recovered to make several spectacular stops, including a glove save on a shot by Stephan Yelle on a 3-on-1 late in the second and a chest rejection against Andreychuk during another power play 8:00 into the third.
"The second period, we knew they were going to come back strong," Burke said. "That team did not want to go back and play Game 5 and we knew that, so when they started rolling at us pretty good, I felt it was an opportunity for me to step up a little bit."
The win was Burke's first in the postseason since April 24, 1998, when he was with Philadelphia, and improved his career record to 11-17.
Patrick Roy, the NHL career leader with 113 postseason wins, had 28 saves but was stunned by Phoenix's early onslaught.
"It was just one of those games where we couldn't buy a goal when we started getting the chances, and we had a tough first period," Roy said.
The Coyotes vowed to come out strong, and outshot Colorado 15-6 in the first period.
The offensive intensity seemed to changed their luck, too. After complaining about strange bounces for three games, the Coyotes got just their second lead in the series on an unusual score by Letowski.
The rookie center, battling for the puck behind the net, fired a hard pass out toward the slot. But it hit the back of Roy's stick at the edge of the crease and angled in 3:31 into the game.
Green made it 2-0 -- the first time Phoenix enjoyed a two-goal lead -- when he scored with 2:28 left in the period after a beautiful display of teamwork.
Dallas Drake took the puck from Joe Sakic along the boards and back-handed a pass to Hogue, who sent it to Green for a one-timer in the slot.
Renberg also scored from the slot after a pass from Tkachuk.
#4 DETROIT RED WINGS vs #5 LOS ANGELES
Detroit wins 4-0
Next Game: Detroit advances to the second round
The Staples Center lights finally came on after a 25-minute delay. The Detroit Red Wings' penalty-killing unit kept the Los Angeles Kings' power play in the dark.
Pat Verbeek and Larry Murphy scored power-play goals 1:57 apart late in the first period and Chris Osgood earned his eighth career playoff shutout as the Red Wings beat the Kings 3-0 Wednesday night to sweep their first-round series.
"The sick part is, it's not even their big guys who made that big a difference," Kings center Ian Laperriere said, citing Kris Draper, Kirk Maltby, Darren McCarty and Martin Lapointe as the most physical Red Wings in the series.
Sergei Fedorov scored an empty-netter on a breakaway with 51 seconds remaining. Some of the numerous red-and-white-clad Red Wings fans tossed octopuses entwined with strips of red cloth onto the ice after Fedorov's third goal of the series.
The Red Wings clinched the Western Conference series in Scotty Bowman's 100th playoff game as coach. His playoff record of 67-33 in seven seasons with Detroit includes consecutive Stanley Cup championships.
"When you look at the series, the difference was our penalty killing against their power play and our power play was very productive," Bowman said. "In the third period, they threw everything at us. The Kings are a pretty aggressive team. They're not easy to play against and they take a lot out of you."
Osgood made 25 saves for his second 2-0 shutout of the series. Detroit won the first game by the same score. Stephane Fiset stopped 25 shots.
"The penalty killing was huge and when we made mistakes there, Ozzie came up big for us," Verbeek said. "He made some saves that were outstanding. I was just really impressed by how cool and calm he was in there. He saw the puck really well."
The Kings were swept out of the playoffs for the seventh time in franchise history and second in three years, having lost four straight to St. Louis in 1998. They have lost 12 consecutive playoff games since winning Game 1 of the 1993 Stanley Cup finals against Montreal.
"Everybody looks at a four-game series as a blowout, but this wasn't a blowout at all," McCarty said. "This was a battle, each shift, game in and game out. We're close to playing exactly the way we want to play. We're competing every shift and our work ethic is there."
The start of the third period was delayed for 25 minutes when a computer glitch knocked out the arena's halogen lights, and both teams were sent back to their dressing rooms. The game's first delay occurred in the second period when two plexiglass panels broke, resulting in a seven-minute stoppage.
Los Angeles went 0-for-23 on the power play in the series -- including 0-for-7 Wednesday -- against a Detroit penalty-killing unit that tied for first in the NHL this season. "Power play, penalty kills, specialty teams. They dominated and we didn't," said Kings captain Rob Blake, who was limited to four shots in 31 minutes. "When your power play doesn't score at all, the guys on the ice for those are the ones that have to be accountable."
The Kings were done in by ill-advised penalties once again. They lost 2-1 after two high-sticking penalties led to Detroit power-play goals in Game 3 Monday.
"We know what we did wrong again. They were smarter all series. They didn't retaliate like we did," Laperriere said. "Even if you were hitting or slashing them, you didn't see any retaliation. We took way too many penalties and it hurt us again."
With Jozef Stumpel off for crosschecking Chris Chelios, Verbeek gave Detroit a 1-0 lead with his only goal of the series at 17:10 of the first period.
Mattias Norstrom was called for holding Fedorov's stick, which set up Murphy's first goal of the series that put Detroit ahead 2-0 at 19:41.
A shot by Brendan Shanahan hit the post, resulting in a wild six-player crease scramble that caught Fiset at the bottom. With his legs blocked, Fiset wasn't able to get up and Murphy, a former King in the playoffs for the 17th consecutive season, fired a sharply angled shot from the left side into an open net.
"McCarty ran at me and he was sitting on me," Fiset said. "He's right on top of you and the referee doesn't see that. That's bad. That gave them a lot of momentum."
Murray said one of the two referees was told by the other officials that McCarty interfered with Fiset, but the referees didn't see it.
"To us, McCarty came in behind him and bumped him and he wasn't pushed," Murray said. "We're not going to condemn the refereeing. It was a real scramble in front of the net. At the time, I was not real pleased, but we didn't score on our power play, we didn't score any goals."
Twice the Kings had power-play chances in the second period, but never seriously threatened when they failed to get traffic in front of Osgood and wasted precious seconds setting up shots that went awry.
Trailing 2-0, one of the Kings' few scoring chances in the third came at 16:27. Osgood made a kick save of Nelson Emerson's shot, then smothered Emerson's rebound attempt while falling on his back to force the whistle.