WESTERN QUARTER-FINALS
GAME SUMMARIES
GAME 5:
#1 ST. LOUIS BLUES vs #8 SAN JOSE SHARKS
San Jose leads 3-2
Next Game: Sunday April 23rd, 2000 3pm at San Jose
The NHL's regular-season champions are alive in the playoffs, thanks to big games from their biggest names. Chris Pronger snapped a third-period tie with a power-play goal and Al MacInnis and Pierre Turgeon also played pivotal roles as the St. Louis Blues staved off elimination with a 5-3 victory over the San Jose Sharks in their Western Conference first-round series Friday night. The Sharks carry a 3-2 series lead into Sunday's Game 6 in San Jose.
In addition to scoring his second goal of the playoffs, Pronger kept his cool. He spent only two minutes in the penalty box after totaling 24 minutes the first four games.
"What game were you watching?" Pronger joked. "I've been disciplined the whole series."
MacInnis scored his first goal of the playoffs after being shut out on 21 shots the first four games. Turgeon, minus-3 with only two points the first four games, had two assists.
"Their top players were certainly their top players tonight," Sharks defenseman Brad Stuart said. "They did a good job of coming out and throwing everything at us early."
The Blues, who threw away a 3-0 first-period lead before righting themselves, are trying to avoid becoming the first Presidents' Trophy winner since the 1991 Chicago Blackhawks to get eliminated in the first round.
St. Louis never lost more than two straight games in the regular season.
"We've got another day, that's for sure," Pronger said. "The next game is just as huge."
The Sharks had won three straight after losing the playoff opener.
"We're still a confident team," Owen Nolan said. "We didn't expect to sweep them four games. They finished first for a reason."
St. Louis also trailed 3-1 in the first round last year against the Phoenix Coyotes, and prevailed in seven games. Fifteen teams have surmounted a 3-1 series deficit in NHL history, including the Blues on three occasions.
Mike Ricci had a goal and an assist and Vincent Damphor their third first-round upset in seven seasons. Ricci and Stuart scored on the power play for San Jose, which has five man-advantage goals in the series.
Pronger got his second goal of the playoffs at 3:54 of the third, tapping the puck into the net after a cross-ice feed from Jochen Hecht. The goal came with Stephane Matteau off for boarding after running Lubos Bartecko headfirst into the boards.
"It was just a great pass from Hecht," Pronger said. "They started to really sink in deep and it was just a matter of him getting it through the pile and on my tape. It was pretty much an empty net from there."
Scott Young added an empty-net goal with 33.9 seconds left, off another feed from Hecht.
The Blues came out flying, with three good scoring chances stopped by Steve Shields before Ladislav Nagy, a 20-year-old rookie, scored on the rebound of a Dave Ellett drive at 4:04. Thirty seconds later, and only five seconds after Marco Sturm was whistled for high-sticking, MacInnis scored on a slap shot at 4:39.
"Obviously, it's a much bigger relief to win," MacInnis said. "But I've had quite a few shots and haven't had much success, so it's nice to be able to contribute."
At 7:13, Ricard Persson, making his first start of the playoffs, slipped the puck through a maze of skates from the side of the net to make it 3-0.
The Blues took the game's first 10 shots, and goalie Roman Turek didn't even handle the puck until the 10:30 mark. The Sharks got their first shot, by Damphousse from the right circle on a power play, at 13:16 of the first.
San Jose took advantage of Blues penalties later in the period to rally, narrowing the shots gap to 11-7 at the end of the period. Ricci scored his third goal of the playoffs on a backhander from in front of the net on a power play at 18:52.
The Sharks carried the play in the second period, after which the Blues' shots advantage was whittled to 20-19, and tied it on a backhander by Jeff Friesen at 12:26 and a drive from the point by Stuart at 17:03. Friesen notched his first point of the playoffs when his shot deflected off the skate of Blues defenseman Jeff Finley, continuing a trend of fortuitous bounces for the Sharks.
"It's a case where you don't want the second period to end," said Friesen, the Sharks' second-leading scorer with 61 points in the regular season.
Turek was screened on Stuart's goal, which came on a power play.
#2 DALLAS STARS vs #7 EDMONTON OILERS
Dallas wins 4-1
Next Game: Dallas advances to the second round.
Brett Hull is erasing the memory of a horrible regular season with a torrid start to the postseason. Hull, whose goal ended the Stanley Cup finals last season, closed out the Dallas Stars' first-round victory over the Edmonton Oilers by blasting in the winning goal in a 3-2 game Friday night.
"I've been fortunate that a few shots have gone in," said Hull, who led Dallas with three goals and six points in the five-game series. "We've got a lot of guys trying to pick up the slack."
The Stars opened their title defense with an incredibly balanced scoring attack: 11 players scored their 14 goals in the series. Mike Modano was the only other player with more than one.
Jamie Langenbrunner and defenseman Derian Hatcher were the new scorers Friday. Langenbrunner gave Dallas a 1-0 lead by scoring on a power play early in the second period, then Hatcher made it 2-1 just 87 seconds after the Oilers tied it later in the period. Edmonton forced another tie 1:03 into the third period when a shot from behind the net by Jim Dowd caromed off Hatcher's skate and went by goaltender Ed Belfour before he knew what happened.
The winning goal was set up when Joe Nieuwendyk left the puck for Hull in the high slot. Hull, who has more career playoff goals (80) than any player participating in this postseason, wound up and drilled it to the right of Edmonton's Tommy Salo.
"That's what I'm supposed to do," Hull said. "That's my job. I live to score goals."
By winning in five games, the Stars got the next-best thing to a sweep: three home victories and a split on the road. They desperately wanted to avoid another trip to Edmonton's raucous Skyreach Centre and will get some extra rest before learning their second-round opponent, either Colorado or San Jose.
"I really did not want to jump on a plane tomorrow," Hatcher said. "We wanted to spend Easter at home." The Oilers will be going home again wondering how to beat the Stars -- or, maybe, trying to figure out a way to avoid them. This is the third straight year Dallas has eliminated Edmonton from the playoffs. The Oilers have lost 12 straight games at Reunion Arena.
"We've got to get better as a team and an organization because we've got a couple of years of not getting to the next level," coach Kevin Lowe said. "We need to tweak it here and there."
Said defenseman Tom Poti: "They stick to their game plan for the whole 60 minutes. As a team we have to learn from that."
The Stars won their seventh straight knockout game since 1998. Belfour, celebrating his 35th birthday, made 24 saves as he upped his record to 14-2 in games that can end a playoff series.
Salo, who also stopped 24 shots, fell to 1-8 in the playoffs -- with all the games against Dallas.
The Oilers did not lead in any of the three games at Reunion, but they made this one interesting by matching the Stars shot-for-shot, hit-for-hit and nearly goal-for-goal. Both teams even had about the same number of missed opportunities.
Dallas broke through first with Langenbrunner's goal on the Stars' sixth power play. His point-blank shot came during a 5-on-4 advantage, but at the time it was more like 5-on-2 because Bill Guerin was barely out of the penalty box and Jason Smith had lost his stick.
"We had a couple of bad breaks," forward Ryan Smyth said.
Modano and Nieuwendyk both had two assists. For Modano, the two points give him 84 in his postseason career, breaking the club record set by Brian Bellows. Modano broke Bellows' career franchise goals record this season.
The seventh-seeded Oilers were without Doug Weight for more than 20 minutes in the late second period and early third because of back spasms.
Dallas was without defenseman Sergei Zubov, who skated Thursday and was thought to have had a 50-50 chance of playing. He probably will return for the second round, as could forward Jere Lehtinen.
#3 COLORADO AVALANCHE vs #6 PHOENIX COYOTES
Colorado wins 4-1
Next Game: Colorado advances to the second round.
Missing in action for much of this season, Peter Forsberg is back.
Forsberg, who missed 33 games during the regular season as well as the first playoff game because of injuries, scored the clinching goal as the Colorado Avalanche won their opening-round series, beating the Phoenix Coyotes 2-1 Friday night.
Colorado wins the best-of-seven series 4-1 and advances to the Western Conference semifinals, against either Detroit or Dallas.
After shoveling a perfect pass to Sandis Ozolinsh for the tying goal late in the second period, Forsberg scored the game-winner at 5:43 of the third period. Following a turnover by Phoenix's Juha Ylonen, Adam Foote took a shot from the left circle. Forsberg, stationed in front of the net, deflected it past goalie Sean Burke.
"Tonight, Forsberg was absolutely unbelievable," Coyotes coach Bob Francis said. "That was a pretty dominating performance. He's difficult to contain. He creates so much open ice for everyone else because you've got to be so concerned about him."
Avs defenseman Ray Bourque said Forsberg "was awesome tonight. All night long he really took over the game. If he's not the best in the world, he's right up there, top three."
Forsberg, who is his own worst critic, admitted he has been out of sync. "I haven't been skating that well," he said. "I just felt good tonight. I knew right from the first shift it was going to be a good game." Burke had 29 saves, and Colorado's Patrick Roy had 19.
It was Colorado's seventh straight victory at the Pepsi Center, including its last four regular-season games. The Avalanche haven't lost here since March 20.
The Coyotes lost their 10th straight playoff series, including when the franchise was in Winnipeg. The franchise's last series win was in 1987, in the first round over Calgary.
Francis said his team "put it all on the table. It wasn't enough. We played a better team. It's hard to say anything to my players right now that will make them feel better. The end comes so quickly and with such suddenness."
Neither team scored in a ragged first period that saw Colorado outshoot Phoenix 11-4. Roy stopped Mikael Renberg on a breakaway after a turnover early in the period.
Phoenix's Jeremy Roenick made it 1-0 at 12:31 of the second period with his second goal of the series, beating Roy from the right point after stealing the puck at the Phoenix blue line. Seconds after emerging from the penalty box, Ozolinsh tied it. He streaked down the right side on a 3-on-1, took Forsberg's pass and scored from the right circle at 18:25. It was Ozolinsh's third goal of the series and gave him points in all five games.
"I don't know how long Peter was on the ice, but that was a long shift," Colorado coach Bob Hartley said. "He found the energy to beat their defenseman to the puck, and what a great pass to Ozo. Peter played a great game."
Roy had several acrobatic saves in the third period, including stops of Jyrki Lumme and Roenick in the waning minutes.
"We knew we had to work hard after falling behind 3-0," Roenick said. "We played our hearts out against one heck of a hockey team. They have so much talent and are so deep."
The Avalanche have won nine of 12 playoff series since moving to Colorado in 1995, but this was only the third time they have clinched a series at home.
#4 DETROIT RED WINGS vs #5 LOS ANGELES
Detroit wins 4-0
Next Game: Detroit advances to the second round.