Blackhawks Even Series, 2-2

The Toronto-Chicago playoff series remains consistent: The road team wins.

The Blackhawks received goals from Joe Murphy, Murray Craven and Jeff Shantz, 31 saves from Ed Belfour and outstanding efforts from their penalty killers to beat Toronto 3-1 Saturday, their second straight win at Maple Leaf Gardens.

Toronto won the first two games in Chicago, where Game 5 will be played Monday. The best-of-seven Western Conference quarterfinal series is a best-of-three, and the Blackhawks are stuck with home-ice disadvantage.

Jamie Macoun beat a screened Belfour with a long slap shot 1 minute, 57 seconds into the third period to bring Toronto within 2-1 and arouse a capacity crowd of 15,700, but Shantz scored into an empty net with 46 seconds to play.

The Blackhawks are 21-0 in games in which they had a lead after two periods.

Chicago took the lead when Bernie Nicholls won a faceoff to the right of Maple Leafs goalie Felix Potvin. Murphy backhanded a shot from the circle. Potvin stuck out his right leg, but the puck struck his skate boot and continued into the net at 13:28.

Chicago 1 1 1 - 3

Toronto 0 0 1 - 1

First period-1, Chicago, Murphy 1 (Nicholls), 13:28.

Second period-2, Chicago, Craven 1 (Savard, Weinrich), 8:22.

Third period-3, Toronto, Macoun 1 (Sundin), 1:57. 4, Chicago, Shantz 2 (Craven, Diduck), 19:14 (en).

Shots on goal-Chicago 12-10-8-30. Toronto 16-7-9-32.Power-play opp.-Chicago 0 of 3; Toronto 0 of 7.Goalies-Chicago, Belfour 2-2 (32 shots-31 saves). Toronto, Potvin 2-2 (29-27).A-15,746 (15,642).

Blues 5, Canucks 2

Vancouver, British Columbia

Brendan Shanahan scored three goals in the second period and St. Louis stormed back into playoff contention with a win over Vancouver.

The Western Conference quarterfinal series is tied at 2 and Game 5 will be Monday in St. Louis.

Shanahan was coming off a four-point game, but it was the second of two straight losses for the Blues.

Jeff Norton and Glenn Anderson scored the other St. Louis goals as the Blues fired 37 shots at Vancouver goaltender Kirk McLean before a sellout crowd of 16,150.

Vancouver scored both goals against Curtis Joseph on special teams. Pavel Bure scored on the power play in the first and Russ Courtnall scored while the Canucks were shorthanded in the second. Joseph faced 26 shots.

St. Louis 1 3 1 - 5

Vancouver 1 1 0 - 2

First period-1, Vancouver, Bure 3 (G.Courtnall, Ronning), 5:53 (pp). 2, St. Louis, Norton 1 (Shanahan, Chasse), 7:37.

Second period-3, Vancouver, R.Courtnall 2 (Bure), 4:31 (sh). 4, St. Louis, Shanahan 1 (Chasse, Houlder), 8:26. 5, St. Louis, Shanahan 2 (Laperriere, Duchense), 11:17. 6, St. Louis, Shanahan 3 (MacInnis, Duchense), 12:42 (pp).

Third period-7, St. Louis, Anderson 1 (Gilbert, Elik), 13:01.

Shots on goal-St. Louis 12-15-10-37. Vancouver 10-9-6-25.Power-play opp.-St. Louis 1 of 7; Vancouver 1 of 5.Goalies-St. Louis, Joseph 2-2 (25 shots-23 saves). Vancouver, McLean 2-2 (37-32).A-16,150 (16,150).

Flames 6, Sharks 4

San Jose, Calif.

Theoren Fleury scored four goals, two on breakaways, and Calgary beat San Jose to even their Western Conference quarterfinal series at 2 apiece.

Calgary regained the home-ice advantage with the victory, though that hasn’t meant much so far as neither team has a win at home. The best-of-seven series resumes Monday at Calgary.

Fleury, who told reporters before a Game 2 loss to San Jose that Calgary would win the series and he would the lead the way, also had an empty-net goal with 2 seconds left. He also had an assist on Robert Reichel’s wraparound with 9:55 remaining.

San Jose scored twice in the final 5:26. San Jose’s Sergei Makarov finished off a 2-on-2 with a goal and, with defender Jayson More in the penalty box and goalie Arturs Irbe off the ice, Ulf Dahlen knocked in a goal with eight seconds remaining.

Calgary, the No. 2 seed in the West, has yet to lose in four games at San Jose this season, the last two in the playoffs. Seventh-seeded San Jose is 3-1 at Calgary.

Calgary 1 3 1 - 6

San Jose 0 2 2 - 4

First period-1, Calgary, Fleury 2 (Nylander, Housley), 9:08 (pp).

Second period-2, Calgary, Fleury 3 (Housley, Nieuwendyk), 1:19. 3, Calgary, Fleury 4 (Kisio, Zalapski), 3:25. 4, San Jose, Friesen 1, 5:45. 5, San Jose, Rathje 3 (Larionov, Whitney), 10:45 (pp). 6, Calgary, Stern 2 (Otto, Sullivan), 18:01.

Third period-7, Calgary, Reichel 2 (Chiasson, Fleury), 9:55. 8, San Jose, Makarov 2 (Larionov, Pederson), 14:34. 9, San Jose, Dahlen 4 (Rathje), 19:51. 10, Calgary, Fleury 5, 19:57.

Shots on goal-Calgary 14-10-12-36. San Jose 7-9-13-29.Power-play opp.-Calgary 1 of 5; San Jose 1 of 4.Goalies-Calgary, Kidd 2-2 (29 shots-25 saves). San Jose, Irbe 2-2 (35-30).A-17,190 (17,190).