NHL Playoffs Roundup : Canucks Beat Flames, 6-3, and Force a Seventh Game

If one had been asked to predict which series wouldn’t go seven games, it would probably have been the Smythe Division semifinal between the Calgary Flames and the Vancouver Canucks.

But the Canucks continued to make believers out of the National Hockey League experts Thursday night at Vancouver, Canada, as Jim Sandlak, Rich Sutter and Garth Butcher scored in a span of 2:18 late in the second period to help the upstart Canucks defeat the Flames, 6-3, and tie their Stanley Cup series at three games apiece.

The seventh and deciding game will be played Saturday at Calgary. The Flames finished first in the Smythe Division and the Canucks fourth, 43 points behind.

Sandlak tied the score at 17:26 of the second period at 2-2, and Sutter put the Canucks ahead at 19:29. Just 15 seconds later, Butcher scored his first goal of the playoffs.

Brian Bradley and Sutter added insurance goals in the third period, with Sutter getting his second into an empty net.

Canuck goaltender Kirk McLean faced 32 shots, while Vancouver fired 25 times at Mike Vernon of the Flames. Vernon had blanked Vancouver, 4-0, in Game 5 for his second shutout of the series.

Philadelphia 4, Washington 3--Rich Tocchet’s second goal of the game with 3:19 left at Philadelphia carried the Flyers past the Capitals and into the Patrick Division finals.

It was the seventh straight season that the Capitals, who finished the regular season in first place, had failed to get past their division in the playoffs. The Flyers finished the regular season in fourth place.

The Flyers will meet the Pittsburgh Penguins in a best-of-seven division final starting Monday night at Pittsburgh. The Penguins reached the final with a four-game sweep of the New York Rangers.

Tocchet, who had an earlier goal and an assist, shot from the right corner, the puck glancing off Washington goalie Pete Peeters’ left skate into the net.

Chicago 7, Detroit 1--Wayne Presley scored three times, including a record third short-handed goal, and Steve Larmer added two goals, leading the Blackhawks to a series-clinching victory over the Red Wings at Chicago.

Presley scored a goal in the second period 26 seconds after Larmer had broken a 1-1 tie. He added a power-play goal at 7:29 of the third period and completed his hat trick with a short-handed goal at 11:05.

The three short-handed goals by Presley tied an NHL playoff record set by Bill Barber of Philadelphia against Minnesota in 1981.

The Blackhawks, who finished fourth in their division, advanced to the divisional finals starting next Tuesday at St. Louis.