Ricci, Sturm Help Sharks Win

Mike Ricci had four points, Marco Sturm scored twice and the San Jose Sharks beat the Colorado Avalanche, 4-2, Wednesday night at Denver in a playoff game shadowed by the recent shooting tragedy at a suburban high school.

Before the game, the crowd observed a moment of silence for the victims of the Columbine High School tragedy.

It was the Avalanche’s first game at McNichols Arena since the shootings. The first two games of the Western Conference series, originally scheduled in Denver, were postponed, and the series opened in San Jose instead.

The loss was the first for Colorado after winning two in San Jose.

Ricci, who scored in the first period, helped put the Sharks ahead at 9:52 of the third period when he stole the puck from Adam Deadmarsh at the blue line and fed Sturm, who beat goalie Patrick Roy from the right circle.

Barely three minutes later, Ricci, who played on Colorado’s Stanley Cup championship team in 1996, shoveled the puck ahead to Sturm on a breakaway, and Sturm’s second goal made the score 3-1 at 13:08.

Philadelphia 5, Toronto 2--On a night when the Flyers finally tamed Cujo, they got the kind of ferocious playoff performance at Philadelphia they’ve been expecting from John LeClair.

Philadelphia bombarded Curtis Joseph with 41 shots for the second straight game. Five of them went in, and the Flyers tied their series with Toronto, 2-2.

The Flyers had been reeling from a Game 3 loss that was tarnished by the accusation of a racial slur. But LeClair scored two goals to help send the series back to Toronto even.

Energized and confident, as they were in the first 118 minutes of the series, the Flyers avoided the unenviable task of having to try to come back from a 3-1 series deficit. It’s been done only 14 times in seven-game series since 1939.

Boston 4, Carolina 1--Landon Wilson and Don Sweeney finally scored and the Bruins finally won another playoff game at Boston, evening their series with the Hurricanes at 2-2.

It was only the Bruins’ second win in their last 13 home playoff games and first in their last five.

Sweeney tied the score with 1:42 left in the second period, then Wilson put the Bruins ahead on a power play at 3:54 of the third period.

Around the League

King right wing Russ Courtnall underwent arthroscopic surgery on his left shoulder Wednesday to repair a partially torn tendon and remove scar tissue in his rotator cuff. . . . Calling the possible loss of Canada’s NHL teams “tragic,” Industry Minister John Manley said the federal government was ready to pitch in to save the country’s struggling teams. “I’m able to say that there is a willingness to be part of a solution,” Manley said.