WESTERN QUARTER-FINALS
GAME SUMMARIES
GAME 2:
#1 DALLAS STARS vs #8 EDMONTON OILERS
Dallas leads 2-0
Next Game: Sunday April 25th, 1999 9:30pm at Edmonton
Jere Lehtinen and Guy Carbonneau both scored for the second game in a row to give the Dallas Stars a 3-2 victory over the Edmonton Oilers on Friday night and a 2-0 lead in their Western Conference series.
Jamie Langenbrunnner scored the game-winner with his first goal of the playoffs. His goal at 14:22 of the third period made it 3-1 before Edmonton's Doug Weight scored his first of the series with 3:11 remaining to make it a one-goal game again.
Game Two of the first-round series looked much like the opener, with both teams playing a grinding, tight-checking game.
Both goaltenders were strong, with Edmonton's Tommy Salo stopping 31 shots and Dallas' Ed Belfour turning away 17. Dallas outshot the Oilers 34-19.
Carbonneau, who at 39 is the oldest skater on any team in the playoffs, scored his second of the playoffs just 2:34 into the game, two seconds after a penalty to the Oilers' Bill Guerin expired.
Carbonneau spun and snapped a wrist shot past Salo from the slot after taking a feed from Dave Reid and fending off a hook by Rem Murray. On Wednesday, Carbonneau scored the game-winner to give Dallas a 2-1 victory.
The Stars were unable to capitalize on a 1:32 two-man advantage that came at 10:13 of the first on penalties to Murray and Chad Kilger. Salo turned away two strong one-timers from Brett Hull to keep it 1-0.
Both goaltenders turned away several strong chances to keep it scoreless for the next 48:54, until Edmonton's Mike Grier stuffed a wraparound chance behind Belfour at 11:28 of the third to tie the game.
Dallas rebounded quickly, when Lehtinen scored on a rebound from in front of the net 1:48 later.
In spite of Dallas' ineffective power play, which went 0-for-6, the Oilers put themselves back on their heels by spending much of the game in the penalty box. Dallas played a whopping 11:15 of the first period on the man advantage. Edmonton went 0-for-3 on the man advantage as well, to keep both power plays scoreless for the series.
Edmonton got a little spark _ but no points _ from the early return of their leading scorer, Guerin, who wasn't expected back from a knee injury until Sunday. He was injured April 12 against San Jose.
#2 COLORADO AVALANCHE vs #7 SAN JOSE SHARKS
Colorado leads 2-0
Next Game: Wednesday April 28th, 1999 10pm at Colorado
With all of the Colorado Avalanche's offensive weapons, rookie Milan Hejduk surprisingly gave them a two-game advantage in the playoffs. Hejduk scored 7:53 into overtime Monday night as the Avalanche beat the San Jose Sharks 2-1. With the win, Colorado took a 2-0 series lead to Denver for the next three games.
"I don't think I'm a hero," the young Czech said. "I'm just a normal hockey player."
Hejduk, who had 14 goals and 34 assists in the regular season, took a pass from Colorado captain Joe Sakic and fought off Sharks left wing Jeff Friesen in front of the crease to beat goalie Mike Vernon.
"It was a great pass from Joe," he said. "I was just in front of the net."
Afterward, the entire team engulfed the smiling rookie right wing along the boards, while Vernon hit the goal post angrily with his stick.
"I tried to deflect the puck that Sakic shot at me, and I did and it went beck to Hejduk," he said. "I tried to block it, but it came back and he just whacked it."
The Avalanche tied the game late in the third period on Adam Foote's goal. Foote's wide point shot rebounded off the boards, bounced off Vernon and trickled into the net as he fell to the ice amid a tangle of players around the crease.
Vincent Damphousse, traded to the Sharks from Montreal on March 23, sent the puck from the left point past Colorado goalie Patrick Roy with 3:02 gone in the third period to give San Jose the 1-0 lead.
Roy, who stopped 23 shots, faced 43 San Jose shots in Saturday's series opener, which the Avalanche won 3-1. He now has 101 playoff victories, an ongoing NHL record.
Vernon, who faced 16 Colorado shots in the third period alone, had 35 saves. He had been so tough in goal until Foote's shot that the loud sellout crowd at the San Jose Arena regularly rewarded him with a chant of "Ver-non! Ver-non!" "It's really tough to win when the other team gets so many chances. One or two are bound to go in," Damphousse said. "I think we should have crashed Roy more than we did; he was still making key saves."
There had been a question whether Sharks coach Darryl Sutter might start backup Steve Shields, who was hot down the stretch in the regular season. But Vernon, 0-5-1 in his past six starts, has more playoff experience, with Stanley Cup titles with Calgary and Detroit.
The Sharks had a great chance midway through the second period when Marco Sturm caught Roy out of goal. Sturm had a seemingly wide-open shot from in front of the crease, but Roy dived toward the goal and miraculously stopped the puck with his stick.
"I was desperate out there. I did everything I could to get to it," Roy said. "Fortunately for us, I got it."
The Avalanche were without defenseman Alexei Gusarov, who sprained his left knee in a collision with teammate Theoren Fleury in Game 1. Gusarov is out indefinitely, and will probably miss the rest of the series.
San Jose was without defenseman Andrei Zyuzin, who is serving the second of a two-game suspension for slashing Anaheim left wing Jim McKenzie on April 17.
The series was delayed because of the mass killings at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colo., outside of Denver. The first two games had been scheduled for last Wednesday and Thursday nights in Denver. In honor of those slain, the series did not start until Saturday in San Jose.
Also Monday, it was announced the Avalanche and Denver Nuggets are being sold by Ascent Entertainment Group Inc., to a partnership controlled by Bill Laurie and his wife, Wal-Mart heiress Nancy Walton Laurie for $400 million. The sale is pending approval by the NHL, the NBA and the city and county of Denver.
#3 DETRIOT RED WINGS vs #6 ANAHIEM MIGHTY DUCKS
Detriot leads 2-0
Next Game: Sunday April 25th, 1999 3pm at Anahiem
Detroit coach Scotty Bowman describes Paul Kariya and Teemu Selanne as the best 1-2 punch in the NHL in more than 20 years, yet so far they've been no match for the flurry the Red Wings have thrown at the Anaheim Ducks.
On Friday night it was Brendan Shanahan providing the knockout punch, with two goals and an assist as the Red Wings defeated the Ducks 5-1.
The Red Wings, who swept the first two games of only one series last season en route to their second straight Stanley Cup, head to Anaheim with a 2-0 series lead entering Sunday's game. The Ducks have only been in two playoff series before, winning one, and have never overcome a 2-0 deficit.
Detroit defensemen Nicklas Lidstrom and Chris Chelios continued to counter Selanne and Kariya, as Bowman again matched them against the second and third leading scorers in the league this season. Lidstrom and Chelios held them to even fewer chances Friday night, but Selanne managed to score his second goal of the series at 9:11 of the third on a power play to end Chris Osgood's shutout bid.
The Red Wings were 3 of 9 on the power play while the Ducks, who had the top power-play unit in the league this season with a 25.5 percent success rate, were 1 of 4.
Sergei Fedorov added a pair of assists for the second straight game, and Tomas Holmstrom, Doug Brown and Steve Yzerman, who had a hat trick Wednesday, added a goal each.
The game was not as hard hitting as Game 1, when the Red Wings checked and whacked their way to a 5-3 win. Instead, the Red Wings used a suffocating defense and an opportune offense to take control.
And they took control from the outset, scoring just one minute in. Playing against the line of Kariya, Selanne and Steve Rucchin, Yzerman picked up the puck in the right corner in the Ducks' end and cycled it back to Fedorov. Fedorov, who usually plays on a different line, skated it behind the net, drew two Ducks toward him and passed it across in front to the wide-open Shanahan.
Shanahan made it 2-0 at 10:14 with a power-play goal. Lidstrom pokechecked the puck from Marty McInnis at center ice, Shanahan picked up the loose puck, skated it in and blasted a slap shot from the top of the left circle past a partially screened Guy Hebert.
Shanahan set up the third goal at 13:43, driving toward the net with the puck. Matt Cullen was able to knock the puck free, but it went straight to Holmstrom in front and he beat Hebert.
The three points in the first period by Shanahan matched a team record, set by five Red Wings previously.
Kariya had said one of the keys for the Ducks was to cut down on giving up goals in the first 5 minutes and last 5 minutes of the period. But in addition to giving up the goal in the first minute of the period, Jason Marshall took a high sticking penalty, hitting Brown in front of the net at 17:30. And Brown scored on the ensuing power play, beating Hebert with a shot in the top right corner with 43 seconds left in the period.
Yzerman made it 5-0 with a power-play goal in the second period, deflecting in a slap shot by Mathieu Dandenault from the left point.
And Selanne and Kariya were even less effective than they were in Game 1. Selanne, who had only two shots on Wednesday, scoring on one, got five on Friday, but only two were dangerous, both in the third period on the power play long after the game had been decided. Kariya, who led the league this season with 429 shots and had a goal and two assists on Wednesday, had only one shot on Friday.
The Ducks let their frustration show at 6:13 of the third period when Anaheim's Stu Grimson went after Chelios. Grimson got 6 minutes for roughing and a 10-minute misconduct, while Chelios and Darren McCarty, who came to Chelios' aid, each got roughing minors.
#4 PHOENIX COYOTES vs #5 ST. LOUIS BLUES
Series tied 1-1
Next Game: Sunday April 25th, 1999 2pm at St. Louis
At least temporarily, the Phoenix Coyotes broke a spell against Grant Fuhr in a must-win game.
Shane Doan scored the winning goal 8:58 into overtime Saturday, and the Coyotes beat the St. Louis Blues 4-3 to end Fuhr's playoff domination of their franchise and tie the first-round series 1-1.
It was a dramatic comeback for the Coyotes, who had their only lead at 3-2 on Keith Carney's unassisted goal late in the third period, only to see Pavol Demitra tie it with 3:18 left.
Had the Coyotes lost, they would have faced a 2-0 deficit going into Game 3 Sunday and the prospect of possibly not returning to the America West Arena, where they began the first round with home ice advantage for only the third time in 14 postseason appearances.
Nikolai Khabibulin had seven of his 31 saves in the extra period, including a spectacular flurry when he stopped shots by Al MacInnis, Blair Atcheynum and Pascal Rheaume in a five-second span about 7:00 into the overtime. He improved to 8-9 in the playoffs.
Dallas Drake, who scored Phoenix's first goal, began the winning sequence when he recovered a loose puck behind the net, reversed direction and shoveled a pass to Doan, who tapped it past Fuhr.
Teppo Numminen and Keith Carney scored in the third period for the Coyotes, who trailed 2-1 when the period began.
MacInnis had a goal and two assists for the Blues, who got their second goal from Pierre Turgeon. MacInnis and Demitra scored on two of St. Louis' four power plays.
Fuhr, prevented from tying Billy Smith for second in NHL history with 88 playoff victories, had 24 saves. He was in goal for the Edmonton Oilers in 1985 and 1987, when they ended the Winnipeg Jets' only two trips beyond the first round in 13 previous postseason appearances. Fuhr, who earned a 3-1 victory over the Coyotes on Thursday, fell to 16-2 lifetime against the Jets-Coyotes in the playoffs.
It was the Coyotes' fifth victory in 11 playoff overtimes, and the 19th loss for the Blues in 40 extra sessions.
Numminen's ended Phoenix's 0-for-10 streak on power plays in the series, tying it 2-2 at 2:15 of the third period.
For the second straight game, MacInnis silenced the crowd by scoring early.
MacInnis, who scored 11 of his 20 regular-season goals on power plays, slapped the puck at Khabibulin from high in the slot. Khabibulin got his glove on the 100 mph blast, but it came out and dribbled over the line 5:31 into the game.
The Coyotes, who didn't score until their 26th shot of the first game, cashed in on their 11th to tie it 5:53 into the second period, when Drake scored his fourth goal in 23 playoff games with a wrist shot.