Red Wings Finally Eliminate Blues, 3-1

Last year it took seven games, and then some, for the Detroit Red Wings to get past the St. Louis Blues.

It was considerably easier this time around as the Red Wings wrapped it up in six games Sunday, getting power-play goals from Viacheslav Kozlov and Brendan Shanahan in a 3-1 victory at St. Louis.

“We wanted to treat this as a Game 7,” Shanahan said. “We wanted to play like it was the deciding game.”

Last spring the Blues took Detroit to double-overtime in Game 7 of the second round. The effort appeared to take its toll when the Red Wings, after posting an NHL record with 62 victories, lost to Colorado in the Western Conference finals.

“You don’t want to put yourself in that position,” Detroit captain Steve Yzerman said.

The Red Wings were two of seven with the man advantage and ended the series with six power-play goals after getting shut out on 14 chances in the first two games. Kirk Maltby added a third-period goal for Detroit.

While the Red Wings continue their quest for their first Stanley Cup since 1955, the Blues haven’t made it past the second round since 1986.

The Blues hastened their demise with ill-timed penalties and a weak offense. Mike Vernon faced only 11 shots in the first two periods and 25 overall.

Dallas 3, Edmonton 2--Mike Modano skated around the ice like a man possessed. He knew, though, exactly where he was going and what he wanted to.

Modano scored at 14:42 of the third period after running the Oiler defense ragged, lifting the Stars to victory at Edmonton and forcing a seventh and deciding game of their Western Conference playoff series.

“I saw some ice. . . and made a quick move to the middle,” said Modano, who stripped the puck from defenseman Luke Richardson and skated around the Oiler zone in circles as the teams played four skaters aside. He left several defenders standing still.

Modano ripped a shot that deflected off Edmonton center Doug Weight and past goalie Curtis Joseph for his fourth goal of the series.

“We finally got a break,” Modano said. “Now we’ll see what we can do with home ice. We’ve had our backs against the wall a number of times this series, and now it’s a real test. Everyone will be pumped up Tuesday.”

Mike Grier and Marius Czerkawski scored goals for Edmonton.

Buffalo 3, Ottawa 0--Backup goalie Steve Shields, replacing injured Dominik Hasek, recorded his first NHL shutout as the Sabres beat the Senators at Ottawa to force a seventh game in their playoff series.

Shields, who entered the third game of the series when Hasek sustained a knee sprain, made his third consecutive start and stopped 31 shots.

Brian Holzinger gave Buffalo a 1-0 lead in the first period, Alexei Zhitnik added a goal in the second and Jason Dawe finished the scoring in the third for the opportunistic Sabres, who had few other scoring chances.

Senator wing Phil Crowe charged into the crease and hit Shields with 1:59 to play, but the goaltender got up and finished the game.

“Tonight we just decided to come out here and put everything else aside,” Shields said.

“I think the last five games we were just trying to hard; tonight we just decided to relax and play our style of game--have fun and forecheck hard and capitalize on our opportunities.”