Chicago Victory Gives Ducks Hope

Enforcer Bob Probert scored twice in the Chicago Blackhawks’ 5-2 victory over the Toronto Thursday, helping the Mighty Ducks’ playoffs chances but hurting the Maple Leafs’ hopes for the home-ice advantage in the first round.

The Ducks must win their remaining two games and hope Toronto loses to Edmonton in its final regular season game Saturday.

“Saturday night will be really big,” Toronto defenseman Dave Ellett said. “We’ll be playing for a playoff spot.”

Inconceivable as it may have seemed earlier in the week, the Maple Leafs could yet be overtaken by Calgary, Vancouver, Winnipeg and the Ducks and be knocked out of postseason action completely.

“We have to be disciplined in order to play the game and we got away from that,” Toronto Coach Nick Beverley said. “We didn’t do enough the rest of the game to take advantage of a good start.

Chicago trailed, 2-1, 17 seconds into the second period of the fight-filled game at Chicago. But goals by Bernie Nicholls, James Black, Tony Amonte and Probert gave Chicago a 5-2 lead after 40 minutes.

Probert also scored in the first period. Tough guys Jim Cummins of Chicago and Nick Kypreos of Toronto fought three times.

Wendel Clark and Doug Gilmour scored for the Maple Leafs (33-36-12), who remained one point behind St. Louis (32-34-15) in the race for home-ice advantage in the Western Conference.

New Jersey 3, Washington 2--The defending Stanley Cup champions remained in playoff contention by rallying from a two-goal deficit and getting 24 saves from goalie Martin Brodeur in Landover, Md.

New Jersey and the Tampa Bay Lightning both have 86 points in the battle for the eighth and final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference. Tampa Bay has two games left, New Jersey one.

The Devils are trying to avoid becoming the first defending Stanley Cup champion in 26 years to fail to qualify for the playoffs the following season.

Bill Geurin’s goal at 13:01 of the second period proved decisive for New Jersey, which completed a five-game sweep of Washington.

OTHER GAMES

Boston clinched its 29th consecutive playoff berth, a professional sports league record, with a 3-2 victory over visiting Hartford. . . . John LeClair’s 51st goal of the season clinched Philadelphia’s 3-2 victory over Montreal at the Spectrum that clinched the Atlantic Division title for the Flyers. . . . Mario Lemieux started a four-goal outburst in the second period that led Pittsburgh to a 5-3 victory at Ottawa. . . . Joe Sakic’s 51st goal of the season and backup goalie Stephane Fiset’s 44 saves led Colorado to a 3-2 victory at St. Louis.