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NHL
© St. Petersburg Times, published April 21, 2003
ST. LOUIS -- The first-round playoff series between the Blues and Canucks has quickly gone from lopsided to a toss-up.
Markus Naslund had a goal and two assists as Vancouver staved off elimination again, beating St. Louis 4-3 Sunday night to force a decisive Game 7.
"We made it pretty hard on ourselves in the third period," Canucks center Trevor Linden said. "But all in all we did what we wanted to do and what we wanted to have, and that's an opportunity for a Game 7."
Whoever wins Tuesday in Vancouver faces the Colorado-Minnesota winner in the West semifinals.
"We're a confident team, we are," said Blues center Doug Weight, who had two goals and an assist. "We believe we're the better team right now and we've got to go prove it."
Mattias Ohlund had a goal and an assist for the Canucks, who scored twice in each of the first two periods. Vancouver had two power-play goals in the second period as the Blues repeatedly hurt themselves with ill-advised penalties.
The Blues made it interesting in the third thanks to goals by Eric Boguniecki and Weight and a 13-2 advantage in shots.
"We had a much better third period," forward Cory Stillman said. "If we could have come out like that at the start, it might have been a different game."
St. Louis has never lost a series in which it led 3-1, but the Canucks have come back twice from that deficit to win.
The Canucks were second in the league in goals in the regular season, and their offense has come to life. After scoring four goals in the first four games, Vancouver has nine in the past two, putting constant pressure on goalie Chris Osgood.
Naslund, second in the league with 104 points in the regular season, had one assist in the first three games of the series. In the past three he has three goals and two assists.
"He's playing with so much confidence," Canucks coach Marc Crawford said. "He's captured the pace of the game, and when skilled players capture the pace and they get the puck, they know what to do with it."
Henrik Sedin and Ed Jovanovski both scored on power-play rebounds in the second period for Vancouver.
Sedin made it 3-1 on the rebound of a shot by Ohlund at 8:52 of the second. Jovanovski's rebound shot on another power play made it 4-1 at 16:12.
The Blues finally answered at 6:21 of the third when Boguniecki scored with a backhand shot while on a rush. Weight scored off a cross-ice feed from Scott Mellanby at 10:13, again on a power play.
FLYERS: Defenseman Eric Desjardins is out 2-4 weeks with a broken bone in his right foot. Philadelphia leads its best-of-seven series against the Maple Leafs 3-2, and Game 6 is tonight in Toronto.
"It's disappointing to go out like this," Desjardins said. "I believe we have a chance to go far. So it's a big disappointment. No doubt about it."
The Flyers' top defenseman blocked a shot midway into the third period of Philadelphia's 4-1 win Saturday.
Philadelphia right wing Mark Recchi said Desjardins can't be replaced.
"You never fill that void that he is going to leave," Recchi said. "You're going to ask a lot of other guys to do different roles."