NHL PLAYOFFS : Whitney Sends Sharks to Semifinals

Ray Whitney scored with 1:54 played in the second overtime Friday night to keep Calgary’s record perfect since the Flames won the Stanley Cup in 1989.

They haven’t won a seventh playoff game at home since.

San Jose kept it that way when Whitney’s goal gave the Sharks a 5-4 victory at Calgary that advanced them to a semifinal matchup with Detroit. That’s a seventh-seeded team against the team that had the best record in the NHL.

It was also the second season in a row in which San Jose has upset a team in the first round of the playoffs.

Calgary outshot the Sharks, 42-21, in regulation, but had to rally with goals by Joe Nieuwendyk and German Titov 42 seconds apart in the third period to tie the game, 4-4.

Chicago 5, Toronto 2--Joe Murphy and Patrick Poulin broke open a close game with goals 26 seconds apart in the third period at Chicago as the Blackhawks beat Toronto in a playoff series for the first time in 57 years.

Chicago, 0-5 in playoff series against Toronto since last winning in 1938, will open the Western Conference semifinals Sunday against Vancouver.

Murphy added a late empty-net goal and Denis Savard and Eric Weinrich also scored for the Chicago, which became only the ninth team in NHL history to win a best-of-seven series after dropping the first two games at home.

The Blackhawks won four of the series’ last five games because they finally got the best of Toronto goalie Felix Potvin, who shut them out three times in last year’s playoffs and in Game 2 of this series.

Vancouver 5, St. Louis 3--Kirk McLean stopped 41 shots, including 25 in the second period, for the Canucks, who got even with Mike Keenan, the coach who beat them in the Stanley Cup finals last season. Keenan then coached the New York Rangers.

The Canucks won for the third time at the new Kiel Center in St. Louis, where the Blues finished the season on a 13-3-1 run, and made Coach Mike Keenan a Game 7 loser for the first time in five games.

Cliff Ronning had a goal and an assist for the Canucks, who were outshot, 44-22, but made the most of their chances against Curtis Joseph. Vancouver scored on two of its first three shots.

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NHL Notes

Right wing Glenn Anderson of the St. Louis Blues was suspended for Friday night’s seventh playoff game against Vancouver and fined $1,000 for a high sticking incident against Canuck defenseman Mark Wotton. . . . The sold-out concert by the rap group Beastie Boys was bumped by Madison Square Garden to make room for next Wednesday night’s Game 3 of the Eastern Conference semifinals between the New York Rangers and Philadelphia Flyers.