Lightning Claim First In History
Brian Bellows’ goal at 9 minutes, 5 seconds of overtime gave the visiting Tampa Bay Lightning a 2-1 victory over the Philadelphia Flyers and evened their best-of-7 playoff series at one game apiece.
Tampa Bay, a 4-year-old franchise, is in the playoffs for the first time.
Bellows broke into the zone down the slot, shifted slightly to his right, then beat Flyers goalie Ron Hextall with a 18-foot slapshot from just inside the right faceoff circle.
Lightning goalie Daren Puppa came up with several big stops in OT.
Tampa Bay 0 0 1 1 - 2
Philadelphia 1 0 0 0 - 1
First Period-1, Philadelphia, Hawerchuk 2, 1:48 (pp). Second Period-None. Third Period-2, Tampa Bay, Selivanov 1 (Cullen, Zamuner), 4:02. Overtime-3, Tampa Bay, Bellows 1 (Hamrlik, Gratton), 9:05. Shots on goal-Tampa Bay 4-5-12-5-26. Philadelphia 8-7-5-6-26.Power-play opp.-Tampa Bay 0 of 5; Philadelphia 1 of 8.Goalies-Tampa Bay, Puppa 1-1 (26 shots-25 saves). Philadelphia, Hextall 1-1 (26-24).A-17,380 (17,380).
Maple Leafs 5, Blues 4 (OT)
Toronto
Mats Sundin’s goal 4:02 into overtime lifted Toronto over St. Louis, tying the best-of-7 series at one game apiece.
The Blues lost goaltender Grant Fuhr (right knee ligament) for the rest of the opening playoff round.
St. Louis 1 2 1 0 - 4
Toronto 3 0 1 1 - 5
First Period-1, Toronto, Gartner 1 (Warriner, Muller), 10:24. 2, Toronto, Clark 1 (Domi, Gilmour), 14:42. 3, St. Louis, Corson 2 (Kravchuk, Gretzky), 16:55 (pp). 4, Toronto, Sundin 2 (Gilmour), 18:40. Second Period-5, St. Louis, Huddy 1 (Twist, MacTavish), 3:50. 6, St. Louis, Baron 1 (Noonan, MacTavish), 18:26 (sh). Third Period-7, St. Louis Hull 2 (Corson, Kravchuk), 10:44 (pp). 8, Toronto, Muller 1 (Murphy, Schneider), 14:10 (pp). Overtime-9, Toronto, Sundin 3 (Gilmour, Schneider), 4:02 (pp).
Shots on goal-St. Louis 12-10-9-3-34. Toronto 18-8-12-1-39.Power-play opp.-St. Louis 2 of 8; Toronto 2 of 9.Goalies-St. Louis, Fuhr (11 shots-11 saves), Casey 0-1 (9:16 first, 28-23). Toronto, Potvin 1-1 (34-30).A-15,746 (15,746).
Canadiens 5, Rangers 3
New York
Vincent Damphousse scored his second goal of the game with 3:26 left to break a tie and give Montreal a win over New York and a 2-0 lead in their playoff series.
Montreal 2 1 2 - 5
N.Y. Rangers 0 1 2 - 3
First period-1, Montreal, Damphousse 3, 7:14 (sh). 2, Montreal, Recchi 1 (Damphousse, Wilkie), 18:29 (pp). Second period-3, Montreal, Odelein 1 (Koivu), 5:43 (sh). 4, New York, Momesso 1 (Kovalev, Beukeboom), 16:01. Third period-5, New York, Momesso 2 (Samuelsson, Nemchinov), 7:12. 6, New York, Samuelsson 1 (Graves, Karpovtsev), 12:17. 7, Montreal, Damphousse 4 (Recchi, Popovic), 16:34. 8, Montreal, Bureau 1 (Damphousse), 19:54 (en).
Shots on goal-Montreal 15-5-9-29. New York 13-9-16-38.Power-play opp.-Montreal 1 of 4; New York 0 of 9.Goalies-Montreal, Thibault 2-0 (38 shots-35 saves). New York, Richter 0-2 (28-24).A-18,200 (18,200).
Canucks 5, Avalanche 4
Denver
Rookie Corey Hirsch, starting in place of goalie Kirk McLean, allowed three first-period goals, but settled down for the final 50 minutes as Vancouver beat Colorado to even the best-of-7 series at one game apiece.
Vancouver 2 2 1 - 5
Colorado 3 0 1 - 4
First period-1, Colorado, Forsberg 3 (Kamensky, Gusarov), :59. 2, Vancouver, Odjick 1 (Kucera, Belanger), 3:00. 3, Colorado, Ricci 1 (Krupp, Keane), 4:52. 4, Vancouver, Mogilny 1 (Lumme, Gelinas), 6:09. 5, Colorado, Ozolinsh 2 (Young, Simon), 9:57 (pp). Second period-6, Vancouver, Linden 1 (Courtnall, Hedican), 4:08. 7, Vancouver, Gelinas 1 (Linden, Mogilny), 10:41 (pp). Third period-8, Vancouver, Odjick 2 (Ronning, Lumme), 2:20. 9, Colorado, Sakic 2 (Kamensky, Gusarov), 10:06.
Shots on goal-Vancouver 10-9-10-29. Colorado 11-8-13-32.Power-play opp.-Vancouver 1 of 4; Colorado 1 of 9.Goalies-Vancouver, Hirsch 1-0 (32 shots-28 saves). Colorado, Roy 1-1 (29-24).A-16,061 (16,061).
xxxx NHL PLAYOFFS Washington at Pittsburgh, 4:30 p.m. (ESPN) Winnipeg at Detroit, 4:30 p.m. (ESPN2) Calgary at Chicago, 5:30 p.m.