NHL ROUNDUP : North Stars Stop Red Wings, 4-2

The Minnesota North Stars are following a familiar script, with a slight twist.

The North Stars, who rode the goaltending of Jon Casey into the Stanley Cup finals last year, got another brilliant performance from Casey Monday night at Detroit for a 4-2 victory over the Detroit Red Wings in their Norris Division semifinal series.

The victory gave the North Stars a 2-0 lead in the series. The North Stars never led 2-0 last year when they shocked the NHL by advancing to the finals.

“There is just no way we could have thought we could win two in Detroit,” Minnesota Coach Bob Gainey said. “No way in the world.”

Last year, Minnesota ousted Chicago and St. Louis in six games, then beat Edmonton in five before losing to Pittsburgh in a six-game final series. The North Stars opened each series on the road last year by winning the first game and losing the second.

The Red Wings outshot the North Stars, 31-20, but Casey was equal to the task.

The North Stars, who ended up 28 points behind the Red Wings in the regular season, had a man advantage twice in the first period and scored both times on Tim Cheveldae, getting power-play goals from Mike Modano and Dave Gagner to take a 2-1 lead.

Derrick Smith scored a second-period goal for Minnesota and Gaetan Duchesne scored into an empty net with seven seconds left in the game.

St. Louis 5, Chicago 3--Jeff Brown broke a 3-3 tie late in the second period at Chicago as the Blues evened their Norris Division semifinal series at one victory apiece.

Brown, a defensemen, sneaked in from the right point, took Bob Bassen’s passout and beat Ed Belfour low to the glove side from the lower right circle at 16:42.

The Blues preserved the lead until Dave Christian scored into an empty net with 21 seconds left in the game, sending the series back to St. Louis.

The Blues, who took the lead 3:24 into Game 1 on Saturday, scored even earlier in Game 2. This time, Stephane Quintal snapped a wrist shot past Belfour at 2:06, taking advantage of a slashing penalty to Steve Smith.

Eighteen seconds later, the Blues’ Nelson Emerson drew a five-minute major and a game misconduct for high-sticking Chris Chelios.

Chelios responded with two goals on the ensuing power play to give Chicago a 2-1 lead.

Ron Sutter tied it for St. Louis at 7:48 with Brian Marchment off for tripping. But the Blackhawks regained the lead when Tony Horacek raced in to take Keith Brown’s dump-in off the backboards and fire a 20-footer past Curtis Joseph at 16:37 for the first even-handed goal of the game.

Brett Hull got his first goal of the series while the Blues were shorthanded, scoring on a breakaway at 5:23 of the second to tie it at 3-3.

Vancouver 3, Winnipeg 2--Tom Fergus, Trevor Linden and Jyrki Lumme scored goals for the Canucks in their Smythe Division playoff victory at Vancouver.