Upstart Panthers Finish Off Bruins in Five

Bill Lindsay didn’t pick on any rookies when he scored the goal that gave the Florida Panthers their first series victory in their first NHL playoff.

Lindsay beat Boston’s Ray Bourque, four times the NHL defenseman of the year, and Bill Ranford, the goaltender who took Edmonton to the 1990 Stanley Cup before coming to the Bruins, and scored the goal that gave the Panthers a 4-3 victory on Saturday in Miami.

Florida, in only its third NHL season, won the series, 4-1, over a Boston team that has been in the playoffs 29 seasons in a row.

It was the third time in four years and the second season in a row that the Bruins have lost a first-round playoff series.

On the deciding foray, Bourque tripped Lindsay as he skated by on the right wing, but Lindsay batted the puck between Ranford’s legs at 15:03 before falling to the ice.

“He gave me a good whack, but somehow I stayed on my feet,” Lindsay said. “You are just trying to put it on net--any way, any how.”

Lindsay’s goal helped Florida become the sixth team to win its first Stanley Cup playoff series.

“I was concentrating on the puck,” Ranford said. “It was a chip shot that got over my glove. Had I known he was falling down, I might have played it differently.”

Boston had tied the game for the second time, 3-3, at 12:29 of the third period on a power-play goal by Sandy Moger that was set up by a controversial penalty call on Florida’s Scott Mellanby for interference with the goaltender.

Replays showed Ranford punching Mellanby while the wing set up in front of the net.

St. Louis 2, Toronto 1--Steve Leach scored with 5:57 to play for the Blues, who advanced to the second round of the playoffs for the first time in three seasons by winning at home.

Leach, who had 11 goals in the regular season, picked up a loose puck after a Toronto clearing effort deflected off a Maple Leaf player. He caught another break on the winner when his slap shot from the slot went in off the skate of defenseman Dave Ellett for his second goal of the playoffs.

The Blues, who won the series, 4-2, lost in 1995 in the first round to Vancouver. They had finished the regular season 1-7-4.

Philadelphia 6, Tampa Bay 1--Bob Corkum scored and had two assists for the Flyers, who won at St. Petersburg, Fla.

Philadelphia won the series, 4-2, after taking the last three games against the Lightning.

The Flyers scored goals 55 seconds apart in the opening period in building a 3-1 lead. Then, after keeping the Lightning scoreless in a five-minute power play, Corkum gave Philadelphia a 4-1 lead with a wrist shot that rolled over Daren Puppa’s arm and into the goal.

Colorado 3, Vancouver 2--Joe Sakic scored his seventh goal of the playoffs at 17:18 of the third period for the Avalanche, who finished their series with the Canucks with a victory in Denver.

Colorado won the first-round series, 4-2, and advanced to a series against the winner of the Winnipeg-Detroit series.

NHL Notes

St. Louis Blues’ goaltender Grant Fuhr had surgery Saturday to repair torn knee ligaments suffered in Game 2 of the first-round playoff series against Toronto. . . . James Hudspeth, a Toronto fan, was charged with common assault as the result of an incident in which a drink was tossed at St. Louis Coach Mike Keenan after Thursday’s game.