‘Bad-Bounce Goal’ Gives Flyers 2-0 Series Edge

Trent Klatt was just following one of hockey’s oldest truisms: “If you put the puck on net, funny things happen.”

Klatt’s shot toward goal popped into the air and bounced behind Pittsburgh goalie Ken Wregget, who knocked the puck in to give the Flyers a 3-2 playoff victory over the Penguins on Saturday night at Philadelphia.

The goal, with 6:20 left to play, gave the Flyers a 2-0 lead in the best-of-seven Eastern Conference series.

Wregget said he tried to sweep the puck into the corner but instead it jumped off his stick into the air, then fell behind him. As he scrambled to try to cover it, Wregget pushed it over the line.

“It was a bad-bounce goal,” Wregget said. “Goals aren’t always pretty and that was one of them.”

The Flyers trailed, 1-0, and, 2-1, in the third period, getting goals by Joel Otto, John LeClair and Klatt to again hand the Penguins a loss on the road.

New Jersey 4, Montreal 1--John MacLean scored two power-play goals and set up another goal as the Devils defeated the Canadiens at East Rutherford, N.J., to take a 2-0 lead in their first-round playoff series.

Martin Brodeur shut out the Canadiens for the first 54-plus minutes and Bill Guerin and Bobby Carpenter added goals.

MacLean got the first two goals on shots from the left faceoff circle. He one-timed a pass from Dave Ellett between Jocelyn Thibault’s pads at 5:56 of the opening period, and made it 2-0 at 11:29 of the second period, taking a pass from Scott Niedermayer and threading a shot between Thibault and the goal post.

Devil left wing Dave Andreychuk underwent surgery to have his broken left ankle realigned and a screw inserted. He will be sidelined two to four weeks.

Ottawa 3, Buffalo 1--Daniel Alfredsson had a goal and an assist, and the Senators capitalized on Dominik Hasek’s lapses in the victory at Buffalo.

Alfredsson scored 18 seconds into the third period as the Senators tied the first-round series, 1-1. All three Ottawa goals came off rebounds usually handled by Hasek, who gave up a goal early and never recovered.

The Senators gave the Sabres problems with their neutral-zone trap and grabbed a much-needed victory as the series shifts to the Corel Centre for Game 3. Ottawa held Buffalo to 24 shots against Ron Tugnutt.

Andreas Dackell and Steve Duchesne scored to give the Senators a 2-1 lead after the first two periods. Duchesne gave Ottawa a 2-0 lead 8:37 into the second period.

Randy Burridge brought Buffalo within a goal 57 seconds later off a give-and-go with Brian Holzinger.