NHL PLAYOFFS : Maple Leafs Alive in Sudden Death

Randy Wood kept the season alive for the Toronto Maple Leafs in sudden death.

Wood scored 10 minutes into overtime as the Maple Leafs beat the Chicago Blackhawks, 5-4, Wednesday night to force a decisive Game 7 in their first-round Western Conference playoff series.

Mats Sundin carried the puck behind Chicago’s net with a great rush down ice.

“I figured if Mats couldn’t stuff it he’d at least pop it out into the slot, which luckily happened,” said Wood, who scored twice. “I was just looking for any garbage that was going to be lying around the crease.”

Bingo.

“I saw there were guys crashing the net,” Sundin said. “There was no time to think. Everything just happened.”

Game 7 is Friday night.

“They’re a proud team, and so are we,” said Chicago forward Denis Savard, who had an outstanding game. “I said all along this series would go back and forth. “We just couldn’t finish them off tonight.”

Chicago outshot Toronto, 52-38, including, 7-3, in overtime. The Blackhawks’ Murray Craven sent a shot off a goal post four minutes into overtime, but it just wasn’t to be Chicago’s night--despite the Blackhawks outplaying Toronto for all but the second period.

Dmitri Mironov, Tie Domi and Mike Ridley also scored for Toronto. Dirk Graham, Savard, Joe Murphy and Brent Sutter scored for Chicago.

Chicago was down, 4-1, early in the third period after Wood scored a power-play goal at 55 seconds, beating Jeff Hackett with a wrist shot from the right-wing circle.

Then the Blackhawks rallied.

“It was one of the weirdest games I’ve ever been involved in,” said Toronto defenseman Todd Gill. “We were up, we were down . . . we were all over the place.”

San Jose 5, Calgary 3--Craig Janney scored a pair of unassisted goals as the Sharks evened their series at three games apiece at San Jose.

The Sharks’ victory broke the Flames’ three-game winning streak and sends the series back to the Saddledome in Calgary for Game 7 on Friday.

The Sharks took a 3-2 lead in the second period when right wing Jeff Odgers knocked the puck past Calgary goaltender Trevor Kidd at 13:17. It was Odgers’ first goal of the playoffs.

Janney widened the margin to 4-2 with 16 seconds left in the second period when his shot from the slot went between Kidd’s legs.

Ray Whitney scored for the Sharks at 8:38 of the third period, before Calgary’s Paul Kruse got the final goal of the night, shorthanded, at 17:35.

San Jose had opened scoring for the first time in the playoff series with Sandis Ozolinsh’s goal at 3:15 of the first period.

But the Flames raised the tension level, using their superior speed to outshoot the Sharks, 13-3, and take a 2-1 lead by the end of the first.

St. Louis 8, Vancouver 2--Bret Hull had two first-period goals and an assist and Esa Tikkanen had two goals and two assists as the Blues routed the Canucks at Vancouver to force a decisive seventh game in their series by tying at 3-3.

The Blues outshot the Canucks, 35-25.