STANLEY CUP PLAYOFFS : Maple Leafs Gamble, Lose as Canucks Even Series

The Toronto Maple Leafs had their eyes on Pavel Bure. They should have been watching Jyrki Lumme.

With Toronto’s checkers concentrating on Canuck scoring star Bure, Lumme got off the shot that beat the Maple Leafs, 4-3, Wednesday night and evened the NHL’s Western Conference final at one game apiece.

“Sometimes I try the back door and when nothing happens, I go back to the point,” Lumme said in explaining his winning goal at 15:46 of the third period on a pass from Trevor Linden. “The whole slot area was wide open so I thought I’d try it.

“The puck kind of bounced off my blade a bit. I was sideways and I went past the net a little so I turned and just got a shot off. I tried to go upstairs and hoped we could get the rebound.”

There was none. Maple Leaf goalie Felix Potvin couldn’t handle the knee-high wrist shot.

Bure, Jeff Brown and Murray Craven also scored for the Canucks, who flew home immediately after the game to begin preparing for Game 3 Friday night.

Dmitri Mironov scored twice and Dave Ellett once for the Maple Leafs, who got all their goals on power plays. Doug Gilmour assisted on all three to increase his league-leading playoff points total to 27.

The decisive power play was made possible when Toronto defenseman Jamie Macoun lost the puck in his own zone, then tackled Cliff Ronning in trying to prevent a 3-on-1 Canuck rush.

Toronto twice fought from behind. Ellett tied it 3-3 with a blue-line slap shot at 4:37 of the third period. After Lumme scored, Canuck goalie Kirk McLean preserved the victory with a huge save with his catching mitt on a Mike Gartner shot.

Mironov became the first Maple Leaf defenseman since Sid Smith in 1949 to score two power-play goals in one playoff period.

Ellett’s goal and two assists give him 14 assists and 17 points, breaking the club record shared by Tim Horton (1962) and Ian Turnbull (1978) for most points by a defenseman in one playoff year.