Hawks Win 2-Ot Thriller

NHL playoffs

Being the much better team didn’t help the Colorado Avalanche bury the undermanned Chicago Blackhawks.

Desperate to avoid a 3-0 deficit in their first-round playoff series, the Blackhawks outhustled and outworked the defending Stanley Cup champions before finally winning 4-3 Sunday on Sergei Krivokrasov’s goal 11:03 into the second overtime.

“Obviously, they’re more skilled than us,” Blackhawks captain Chris Chelios said. “It just shows what a lot of hard work can do. We’re going to have to play on emotion, and that’s what we did tonight.”

The Blackhawks, playing without injured centers Alexi Zhamnov, Murray Craven and Brent Sutter, won despite blowing a 3-1 third-period lead.

“They were all over us, especially the first two periods,” Colorado’s Joe Sakic said. “It was like we were standing there watching. It was a combination of us not being as hungry and them playing desperate hockey.”

Said Colorado coach Marc Crawford: “There’s no mystery to the game. The hardest working team usually wins.”

Jeff Hackett made 48 saves to earn his first playoff victory for the Blackhawks, who finished 26 points behind Colorado during the regular season and lost the first two games of the series by 6-0 and 3-1 scores.

On the winner, Krivokrasov picked up a loose puck at center ice and beat defenseman Sandis Ozolinsh along the left boards. He cut in front of the net, waited for defenseman Jon Klemm to slide through the crease, and wristed a shot over Patrick Roy’s shoulder.

Blackhawks 4, Avalanche 3, 2 OT

Colorado 0 1 2 0 0 - 3

Chicago 1 1 1 0 1 - 4

First period-1, Chicago, Daze 1 (Carney), 9:38.

Second period-2, Colorado, Jones 1 (Sakic, Lemieux), 10:59. 3, Chicago, Amonte 1 (Weinrich, Suter), 13:51.

Third period-4, Chicago, Daze 2 (Probert), 4:00. 5, Colorado, Porbet 1 (Yelle, Lacroix), 14:25. 6, Colorado, Lemieux 3 (Foote, Gusarov), 17:28.

First Overtime-None.

Second Overtime-7, Chicago, Krivokrasov 1, 11:03.

Shots on goal-Colorado 4-12-14-16-5-51. Chicago 9-19-9-14-6-57.Power-play opp.-Colorado 0 of 7; Chicago 0 of 2.Goalies-Colorado, Roy 2-1 (57 shots-53 saves). Chicago, Hackett 1-2 (51-48).A-17,385 (20,500).

Oilers 4, Stars 3, OT Edmonton, Alberta

Three Edmonton goals within two minutes turned a shutout into a tie that Kelly Buchberger ended at 9:15 of overtime as Edmonton beat Dallas.

Down 3-0 with exactly four minutes to play in the third period, the Oilers rallied on goals by Doug Weight, Andrei Kovalenko and Mike Grier, sending 17,099 fans at Northlands Coliseum into a frenzy.

Dallas 2 1 0 0 - 3

Edmonton 0 0 3 1 - 4

First period-1, Dallas, Modano 2 (Zubov), 4:53 (sh). 2, Dallas, Hogue 1 (Sydor, Harvey), 18:53 (pp).

Second period-3, Dallas, Nieuwendyk 2 (Hogue, Verbeek), 8:07.

Third period-4, Edmonton, Weight 2, 16:00. 5, Edmonton, Kovalenko 1 (Marchant, Mironov), 17:44 (pp). 6, Edmonton, Grier 2 (McGillis, Richardson), 17:56.

Overtime-7, Edmonton, Buchberger 2 (Lindgren, Mironov), 9:15.

Shots on goal-Dallas 11-13-10-8-42. Edmonton 11-7-17-6-41.Power-play opp.-Dallas 1 of 6; Edmonton 1 of 6.Goalies-Dallas, Moog 1-2 (41 shots-37 saves). Edmonton, Joseph 2-1 (42-39).A-17,099 (17,099).

Rangers 3, Panthers 0 Miami

Wayne Gretzky scored a goal and an assist as New York tied the Eastern Conference playoff series 1-1.

Mike Richter earned his seventh career playoff shutout by stopping 31 shots for the Rangers. Florida won Game 1 by the same score behind goaltender John Vanbiesbrouck.

The Rangers got two goals in less than two minutes from Gretzky and Esa Tikkaken as New York blitzed the Panthers in the second period and outshot them 44-31 in the game.

New York 0 2 1 - 3

Florida 0 0 0 - 0

First period-None.

Second period-1, New York, Gretzky 1 (Lidster), 13:15. 2, New York, Tikkanen 1 (Graves, Messier), 14:58 (pp).

Third period-3, New York, Robitaille 1 (Gretzky, Sundstrom), 3:29.

Shots on goal-New York 13-19-12-44. Florida 14-8-9-31.Power-play opp.-New York 1 of 5; Florida 0 of 6.Goalies-New York, Richter 1-1 (31 shots-31 saves). Florida, Vanbiesbrouck 1-1 (44-41).A-14,703 (14,703).

Coyotes 4, Ducks 1 Phoenix

Darrin Shannon scored two first-period goals and Keith Tkachuk had one, and Nikolai Khabibulin held off Anaheim with 30 saves.

Anaheim still leads 2-1 in the best-of-7 Western Conference quarterfinal.

Gartner and Oleg Tverdovsky got their first points of the playoffs, Cliff Ronning had three assists, and Khabibulin allowed just one goal by Paul Kariya in seven Anaheim power plays.

Anaheim 1 0 0 - 1

Phoenix 3 0 1 - 4

First period-1, Phoenix, Shannon 1 (Ronning, Roenick), 1:18. 2, Phoenix, Shannon 2 (Quint), 8:50. 3, Phoenix, Tkachuk 3 (Ronning), 14:01. 4, Anaheim, Kariya 3 (Daigneault, Mironov), 18:49 (pp).

Second period-No scoring.

Third period-5, Phoenix, Gartner 1 (Tverdovsky, Ronning), 15:28.

Shots on goal-Anaheim 11-9-11-31. Phoenix 7-12-7-26.Power-play opp.-Anaheim 1 of 7; Phoenix 0 of 6.Goalies-Anaheim, Hebert 2-1 (26 shots-22 saves). Phoenix, Khabibulin 1-2 (31-30).A-16,210 (16,210).

Red Wings 3, Blues 2 St. Louis

Brendan Shanahan and Steve Yzerman scored power-play goals to end a dominating run by St. Louis Blues’ penalty killers.

Igor Larionov had two assists for Detroit, which took a 2-1 lead in the best-of-seven series.

The Red Wings were 0-for-14 on the power play the first two games and 2-for-9 in Game 3. They had the man advantage for 14:32 out of the first two periods to end a Blues’ streak of 35 consecutive penalties killed over a seven-game span.

Detroit 1 2 0 - 3

St. Louis 1 1 0 - 2

First period-1, Detroit, Draper 2 (Maltby, Kocur), 2:40. 2, St. Louis, Hull 1, 17:09.

Second period-3, Detroit, Shanahan 1 (Murphy, Larionov), :39 (pp). 4, St. Louis, Murphy 1 (Hull), 6:36 (pp). 5, Detroit, Yzerman 1 (Lidstrom, Larionov), 15:22 (pp).

Third period-None.

Shots on goal-Detroit 13-10-6-29. St. Louis 3-8-15-26.Power-play opp.-Detroit 2 of 9; St. Louis 1 of 5.Goalies-Detroit, Vernon 2-1 (26 shots-24 saves). St. Louis, Fuhr 1-2 (29-26).A-19,273 (19,260).