St. Louis vs. Detroit 1:2
Hasek pulled, allows four goals in 15 shots
ST. LOUIS (AP) -- After stuffing the St. Louis Blues for two games, Dominik Hasek look like an ordinary goaltender.
Keith Tkachuk had his first playoff hat trick as the Blues put a huge dent in Hasek's aura of invincibility, beating the Detroit Red Wings 6-1 on Tuesday night.
"They were scoring goals, that was the difference," Hasek said. "A lot of their shots went in. What can I say?"
The Blues shaved their second-round series deficit to 2-1. They got 27 saves from Brent Johnson and will try to even the series Thursday night in St. Louis.
"Hey, we just were getting too many quality scoring chances to not cash in at some point," said Scott Mellanby. "But Thursday's going to be that much harder.
They've got a lot of great players and Hasek's going to bounce back."
Red Wings coach Scotty Bowman could remember only one worse playoff result in his career, an 8-0 loss against an opponent he couldn't remember.
"It was a poor publicity score for sure," Bowman said. "It's a bad score. We're not happy about it."
Tkachuk, who led the Blues with 38 goals during the regular season, has four goals in the postseason. He scored once in each period, putting deflections past Hasek in the first and second periods, then converting Pavol Demitra's setup on a 3-on-2 break in the third.
The game was delayed for several minutes as fans tossed hats onto the ice, and the Blues were warned they'd be penalized for delay of game.
"I was begging for them to stop," Tkachuk said. "I didn't want us to get a penalty."
The power play also came to life for the Blues, who ended an 0-for-10 drought with a pair of goals. Mellanby scored on a two-man advantage in the first period, and Tkachuk's second goal came on a power play for St. Louis, which was 2-for-5 overall. The Red Wings' power play was 0-for-6.
"They capitalized and we didn't," Wings forward Darren McCarty said. "We had some good chances, we just didn't get it done, and they did."
Demitra had three assists and a short-handed goal, and Chris Pronger had three assists for the Blues, who treated Hasek rudely.
Hasek stopped 58 of 60 shots in the first two games, including his eighth career playoff shutout in Game 1. But the Blues built confidence by scoring a pair of third-period goals in a 3-2 Game 2 loss, and they scored twice on eight first-period shots in Game 3.
Tkachuk's third goal at 1:53 of the third made it four goals in only 15 shots against Hasek. Demitra's fourth goal of the playoffs -- on the 16th shot -- chased Hasek at 9:26 as Manny Legace went the rest of the way.
Hasek kept reporters waiting after the game because he was making up for the exercise he missed.
"I had to ride the bike a little bit because I didn't even sweat," Hasek said. "I gave up five goals. I wasn't really busy at all, however. Every third shot was a goal and it's a little disappointing, but I feel better after I ride the bike."
Legace gave up a goal on the first shot he faced, with Jamal Mayers scoring unassisted, making it three goals on three shots in the period for St. Louis.
Rookie Pavel Datsyuk got his second goal of the playoffs off Brett Hull's feed for the Red Wings, who started fast with a 6-1 shots edge in the first five minutes of the game. But the Blues carried play much of the rest of the way.
"We knew they'd come out hot a little bit and try to get up a couple goals from the start," Johnson said. "We took it from there."
Mellanby, a 15-goal scorer in 64 regular-season games whose career best is 32, has been the Blues' big gun in the postseason. He scored his sixth goal and eighth point in eight playoff games.
Tkachuk gave the Blues their first lead of the series, and put the Red Wings in an unaccustomed early hole, when he deflected Demitra's high shot down and in on the Blues' second shot of the game. It ended a string of six straight game-opening goals in the postseason by the Red Wings, who scored on their first shot in Game 2 and their second in Game 1.
It took the Red Wings only 27 seconds to answer. Datsyuk had an empty right side of the net after Hull passed instead of shooting.
St. Louis regained the lead when Mellanby scored with 56.3 seconds left in the period on a 5-on-3 advantage. Mellanby beat Hasek from the left side of the net off a feed from Al MacInnis.
Pronger's second goal of the playoffs gave the Blues, who never led in the first two games, at two-goal advantage.
— Detroit goalie Dominik Hasek on Tuesday's rout
“ I had to ride the bike a little bit because I didn't even sweat. I gave up five goals. I wasn't really busy at all, however. Every third shot was a goal and it's a little disappointing. ”
Game notes
Blues D Alexander Khavanov played for the first time since Game 1 of the opening round. He was a speedier alternative to Marc Bergevin, who played the previous seven games. ... The Blues have lost 11 straight series when dropping the first two games. ... Blues F Ray Ferraro, considered questionable for Game 3 due to an undisclosed injury, took regular shifts. ... Scott Young had the Blues' last playoff hat trick, on April 23, 2000 against the San Jose Sharks.
Montreal vs. Carolina 2:1
Montreal outscored again, but it doesn't matter
MONTREAL (AP) -- Donald Audette struggled for three periods to get a shot on goal and failed. It finally came less than three minutes into overtime and rocked the Molson Centre.
Audette scored his team-leading fifth goal of the playoffs just 2:26 into the first overtime Tuesday night, giving the Montreal Canadiens a 2-1 victory over the Carolina Hurricanes.
The winning goal came off a faceoff in the Carolina zone, and Hurricanes ace Rod Brind'Amour was victimized on the draw. Yanic Perreault somehow got the puck to Audette, who beat goalie Kevin Weekes with a quick shot from the low slot.
"I don't think he was ready for that one," Audette said of Weekes, who finished with 18 saves. "I had a step on the defenseman and just took one step and it was enough. The puck stayed up in the air and I stepped into it. I think I beat him with the quickness of the shot."
Brind'Amour, who won 16 of 22 faceoffs in the game, was as stunned as anybody.
"It happens," he said in a silent dressing room. "It went right up in the air behind me, and for a second everyone froze. It landed nice for him, and he got a good shot off. Those little things are frustrating. You do that 1,000 times and it wouldn't happen like that."
The Canadiens got another strong performance in goal from Jose Theodore, who made 33 saves, and gained a 2-1 lead in the best-of-seven series, which resumes here Thursday night. It was Carolina's first overtime loss after two wins against New Jersey in the first round.
"You gear yourself up for a seven-game series, and we expect it to be a hard-fought battle," Carolina captain Ron Francis said. "We still feel capable of winning. We had a lot of chances. We just have to find a way to bury one."
Saku Koivu, who leads Montreal in scoring with 10 points, got his fourth goal of the playoffs at 9:03 of the second period to break a tense, scoreless duel between Theodore and Weekes.
Andreas Dackell set up the goal, intercepting a pass by Carolina defenseman Sean Hill just outside the Hurricanes' zone. Dackell closed in on Weekes from the right and zipped a perfect goalmouth feed to the diminutive Canadiens captain, who deflected it past Weekes before he could move his pads.
The Hurricanes, held to just one goal in Game 2 -- on a power play with a two-man advantage -- wanted to create traffic in front of Theodore to break the concentration that produced 81 saves on 84 shots in the first two games.
There wasn't much traffic, but early in the third period the Hurricanes finally spoiled Theodore's bid for his first playoff shutout as they turned up the pressure.
After rookie Erik Cole split the Montreal defense but failed to get off much of a shot, defenseman Bret Hedican trapped the puck at the left point. He fired a shot through a screen, and Bates Battaglia deflected it past Theodore at 3:24 for his second goal of the postseason.
Theodore, who made 15 saves in the period, forced the overtime with brilliant pad saves on hard drives by Glen Wesley and Hill in the final minute of regulation.
"We're up 2-1, but I think any of the games could have gone either way," Koivu said. "We know what they can do. They're a strong team, so we can't be overconfident."
Prior to playoff games at the Molson Centre this year, the Canadiens are using their glorious past for inspiration. Black-and-white photos of heroes of the team's 24 Stanley Cup-winning teams -- Maurice Richard, Jean Beliveau, Guy Lafleur and Toe Blake head the pantheon -- are superimposed on the ice. They made an encore appearance right before the overtime as the capacity crowd of 21,273 cheered on their beloved Canadiens.
"The fans are amazing," Koivu said. "We missed the playoffs the last three years, but when you don't do well you don't feel like this is the place you want to be. It seems like the guys are more comfortable playing here than three years ago. I haven't felt this anywhere before."
“ The fans are amazing. It seems like the guys are more comfortable playing here than three years ago. I haven't felt this anywhere before. ”
— Saku Koivu on success after the futility in Montreal.
Game notes
Montreal defenseman Patrice Brisebois, who sat out the first two games with injuries, played his normal shift. ... Jeff O'Neill, who led the Hurricanes with 31 goals in the regular season, returned after a one-game suspension. He nearly scored what would have been the winner in the third period. He had five shots in regulation ... Entering the game, both teams were perfect in one-goal games: Carolina 2-0 and Montreal 4-0. ... Montreal has outscored opponents 11-5 in the third period despite being outshot 115-64 in nine games.
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Mats
Ich werde keinerlei Prognosen, den Ausgang der nächsten Saison betreffend, abgeben!
AC/DC rules!
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und das meine Flimmerkiste gerade streikt.
Ich hab zwar mit dem Satz "Drop the gloves!" gedroht, aber half leider nix! 