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NHL briefs

Compiled from Times wires

© St. Petersburg Times, published April 20, 2001

Flyers frustrate Hasek, hang in

PHILADELPHIA -- The Flyers took Dominik Hasek off his game and took their Eastern Conference quarterfinal series back to Buffalo.

Mark Recchi scored the go-ahead goal as the Flyers beat the Sabres 3-1 Thursday night to narrow their deficit in the best-of-seven series to three games to two.

"We just bought ourselves a few more days," said Keith Primeau, who had two assists.

Philadelphia has never rallied from a 3-1 deficit. Before this game, it had lost seven consecutive elimination games dating to 1989.

With one second remaining in a four-on-three power play, Recchi gave the Flyers a 2-1 lead by blasting a shot past Hasek's glove with 3:58 left in the second period.

The Flyers took their first two-goal lead of the series 3:17 into the third on Chris Therien's goal off a faceoff won by Daymond Langkow. Hasek set up the faceoff when he tossed his glove and the puck into the air after making a save.

Philadelphia got more physical, particularly with Hasek. With 12:40 left in the game, Primeau crashed the net, got tangled with defenseman James Patrick and barreled into the goaltender. When no penalty was called, Hasek threw down his blocker in disgust, drawing a 10-minute misconduct.

"I know he's coming out at my knees," Hasek said. "I was protecting myself. That's why I was so upset."

"That's asinine," Primeau said.

BLUES 3, SHARKS 2 (OT): Rookie Bryce Salvador scored his first playoff goal on a slap shot from the point at 9:54 of overtime as host St. Louis regained control of the series.

"I looked up and saw an open lane," Salvador said. "I'm like, "Holy cow, get this thing on the net!' "

The Blues can win the series in Game 6 on Saturday in San Jose.

The Blues' Dallas Drake force the extra period with 2:48 to play.

St. Louis won despite another sparkling effort from San Jose backup goalie Miikka Kiprusoff, making his second career playoff start. Kiprusoff, playing in place of the injured or ill Evgeni Nabokov in consecutive games, had 35 saves in his eighth NHL game.

The Sharks said Nabokov had the flu for Game 4, and the diagnosis didn't change for Game 5. The San Jose Mercury News reported that Nabokov had a back injury, and he didn't make the trip.

STARS 4, OILERS 3 (OT): Dallas wasted a two-goal lead, but Kirk Muller scored 8:01 into overtime to give it a 3-2 series lead.

The Stars will try to end the series, which has had four OT games and all five decided by one goal, on Saturday in Edmonton.

The Stars led 2-0 and dominated play through two. Then Anson Carter, Doug Weight and Eric Brewer scored on consecutive shots in 2:57 in the third to put Edmonton up with 14:31 left.

John MacLean wristed a shot past goaltender Tommy Salo to tie the score with 4:22 to play.

Mike Keane, the third member of Dallas' line of 30-something veterans whose names are on the Stanley Cup five times, assisted on MacLean's and Muller's goals.

"To me it's fitting, because the entire team followed their lead all night," coach Ken Hitchcock said.

Late Wednesday

DETROIT -- The Kings have 8 minutes, 40 seconds' worth of momentum going for them.

A lot of Detroit fans went to bed figuring the Red Wings would protect a 3-0 lead after two periods at the Staples Center. Those who did were dismayed, if not stunned, to learn the Kings tied the score over the final 6:07 and won 4-3 on Eric Belanger's first career playoff goal 2:36 into overtime.

Los Angeles, posting its first consecutive playoff victories since 1993, evened the West series at 2.

"I just see it as evening up the series right now," Kings coach Andy Murray said. "We'd love Game 6 to be the game where we can close the series out."

AVALANCHE 5, CANUCKS 1: With the rest of the West in a free-for-all, Colorado has time to plot strategy after sweeping the Canucks.

The Avalanche planned to take two days off after closing the series in Vancouver. It next plays the lowest remaining seed. A second-round series would not start until Tuesday at the earliest.

"It's good any time you can give guys time to refuel after they've played 82 games and four hard playoff games," center Chris Drury said.

In this series, neither team led by more than one goal in any of the first three games, and Colorado led 1-0 in the third Wednesday before scoring three times in 38 seconds to pull away.

-- SportsTicker contributed to this report.

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