WESTERN QUARTER-FINALS
GAME SUMMARIES
GAME 6:
#1 DALLAS STARS vs #8 EDMONTON OILERS
Dallas wins 4-0
Next Game: Dallas advances to the next round
#2 COLORADO AVALANCHE vs #7 SAN JOSE SHARKS
Colorado wins 4-2
Next Game: Colorado advances to the next round
The Colorado Avalanche have their traditional scoring threats: Theo Fleury, Joe Sakic, Peter Forsberg. So it was a bit surprising when rookie Milan Hejduk became the difference in the first round of the playoffs against the San Jose Sharks. He sent the Avalanche to the second round with his overtime goal Monday night for a 3-2 victory. In Game 2 of the series, he had the overtime goal to give Colorado a 2-1 victory -- also at the San Jose Arena.
"He's a cool, calm kind of kid, and I'm happy for him," Fleury said. "It was great to see."
Hejduk beat goalie Mike Vernon from out in front of the crease, rebounding Sakic's shot.
"The situation was a three-on-three. The puck was on the boards, I was in the middle. I went to the net and looked for the rebound," he said. "The puck came right to my stick. It was the perfect rebound."
The Avalanche, who came into Monday's game with a 3-2 advantage in the series, won all three games played in San Jose. They face Detroit in the second round.
The Sharks, of course, concluded their season.
"We played our hearts out," coach Darryl Sutter said. "How can we be frustrated?"
The Avalanche won the first two games in San Jose in a series that was delayed three days because of the shootings at Columbine High School in suburban Denver.
The Sharks rebounded to win the next two games in Denver, but the Avalanche finally won at home Saturday to take a 3-2 advantage into Monday night's game.
In overtime, the Avalanche killed off a four-minute penalty after Dale Hunter was sent off for high sticking 1:55 into the extra period.
"It was tough," Sakic said. "That's the way we expected it."
Jeff Friesen beat screened Colorado goalie Patrick Roy from just out in front of the crease with 11:51 gone in the third period to give the Sharks a 2-1 lead. Roy, who stopped 27 San Jose shots, held up his hands in disbelief.
But the Sharks' celebration was short-lived. Colorado defenseman Sandis Ozolinsh, a former Shark, grabbed a loose puck and beat Vernon between the legs with 6:31 left in the period on a power play with Friesen off for interference.
The Sharks missed a chance in the last minute of the period when Roy turned away Jeff Norton's shot as the goalie was falling to the ice.
Vernon finished with 30 saves.
After both teams went scoreless in the first period, Fleury rebounded Forsberg's shot underneath Vernon's outstretched right leg to give the Avalanche a 1-0 lead with 12:52 gone in the second. Fleury was suddenly hot in the playoffs after starting the series rather quietly. He had his first two goals in Colorado's 6-2 victory Saturday in Game 5.
The Sharks tied it with 3:31 left in the period on Bill Houlder's power-play goal, a shot from the left circle that fluttered over Roy's shoulder and into the net.
"One of our advantages was that every time they attacked us, we were able to get a second wind, and counter-attack," Colorado coach Bob Hartley said.
The Sharks were stung midway in the third period by injuries. Defenseman Marcus Ragnarsson was slammed by Colorado's Chris Drury into the edge of the boards while the Avalanche door was open and left the game with a bruised leg. Teammate Marco Sturm left the ice minutes earlier with a jaw injury.
Roy got his 103th playoff victory.
"It's disappointing when you come that close against a hockey team like that," Friesen said. "We had them, and then we let them get away."
#3 DETROIT RED WINGS vs #6 ANAHIEM MIGHTY DUCKS
Detriot wins 4-0
Next Game: Detroit advances to the next round
#4 PHOENIX COYOTES vs #5 ST. LOUIS BLUES
Series tied 3-3
Next Game: Tuesday May 4th, 1999 10:30pm at Phoenix
The Phoenix Coyotes' season isn't the only thing at stake now.
After the St. Louis Blues forced Game 7 with three straight goals Sunday in a 5-3 victory, Phoenix coach Jim Schoenfeld's future with the team is in serious jeopardy. So serious that he guaranteed a victory Tuesday night.
"I would tell you that I'll stake my job on it, but that's already been done," Schoenfeld said. "So I'll just say we're going to win Game 7."
The Blues, who trailed 3-1 in the series but have won the last two games, reacted mostly with amusement to Schoenfeld's bold words.
"If they don't, I guess he's in trouble," captain Chris Pronger said with a smile.
Even Schoenfeld's players were a bit surprised to hear it.
"Who starts that?" captain Keith Tkachuk said to reporters. "You guys? We don't need any of that before Game 7."
The Blues had their biggest offensive game of the series without a point from Al MacInnis, their leading scorer the first five games. Defenseman Jeff Finley, who scored only one goal in the regular season, broke a third-period tie.
"It's always exciting to score," Finley said. "When you don't do it very often and you get a goal like that, it feels great. That's the biggest goal of my career, definitely."
Finley had a goal and two assists in 30 regular-season games with the Blues and has only eight goals in 385 career games. Until this game he also had been one of the Blues' weak links on defense with a minus-four for the series.
But he had two big shots in the crucial sequence. Nikolai Khabibulin stopped Finley's first drive from the left point, but Pierre Turgeon gathered in the rebound and swept a backhand pass out front. Finley skated in a few strides before blasting the game-winner at 8:59.
Craig Conroy scored twice, including a late third-period goal that made it a two-goal gap for the Blues. Conroy closed it out with a rebound shot with 4:11 to go.
Scott Young, who got the winner in overtime in Game 5, had a goal and an assist for the Blues. Turgeon, a disappointment most of the series, had three assists as the Blues perhaps surprised a crowd of 16,629, their smallest in the playoffs since April 22, 1992.
The Blues had lost their last five playoff games at home, dropping Games 3 and 4 to Phoenix and falling three times in the second round against Detroit last season.
"If you depend on one or two guys in the playoffs, you won't win," Turgeon said. "Those scores are so huge." Now the Blues will try to complete the climb and avoid a fourth first-round exit in six seasons.
Such comebacks used to be extremely rare, but six teams, including the Blues in 1991, have done it this decade. The Coyotes haven't made it out of the first round since 1987, when they were in Winnipeg, and coughed up a 3-1 series lead in 1990 and '92.
"I don't think anybody from the past is still there," said Mike Stapleton, perhaps forgetting that Tkachuk and Teppo Numminen were around in '92. "We can't carry their baggage with us. The Coyotes are a new organization, so I don't think we bring that with us."
Stephen Leach and Teppo Numminen also scored for the Coyotes. Dallas Drake, who leads the Coyotes with four goals and three assists, failed to score for the first time in the series.
Stapleton gave the Coyotes the early lead with his first career playoff goal at 2:20, blasting a slap shot over Fuhr's left shoulder. The Blues answered 36 seconds later as Conroy scored on a two-on-one break, and St. Louis took the lead on Young's power-play goal at 8:25.
Turgeon faked a shot before feeding the puck in the slot to Young and he beat Khabibulin one second before a roughing penalty to Shane Doan was to expire.
The Coyotes got off only one shot in the first 12 minutes of the second period, then scored twice in a span of 1:33 to take the lead. Leach scored on a rebound at 12:18 after Oleg Tverdovsky hit the goal post, then Numminen made it 3-2 when he scored off a cross-ice feed from Robert Reichel at 13:51.
Leach's goal came after a lengthy review. The Coyotes' Louie DeBrusk was in the crease, but it was ruled he was pushed.
Pronger tied it for the third time with another power-play goal, tapping in the rebound of a slap shot by Young from the point at 17 minutes.