Demitra Lifts the Blues in OT

After a slow start in the playoffs, Pavol Demitra is the St. Louis Blues’ go-to guy again.

The team’s leading scorer continued a postseason surge when he scored from the right side of the net 2:43 into overtime for a 3-2 victory over the Dallas Stars Monday night in Game 3 of a best-of-seven Western Conference semifinal series.

“Everybody tried to help me and I’m back,” said Demitra, who also had an assist on the Blues’ second goal. “I’m just happy and I’m enjoying my time on the ice and enjoying my time with the puck.”

Two less-likely sources of St. Louis offense, faceoff specialist Mike Eastwood and rookie Jochen Hecht, also scored for the Blues in the victory that cut the Stars’ series lead to 2-1 heading into Game 4 Wednesday night.

Demitra has five goals and eight points in the playoffs, and three of the goals have come in the last two games. He was 10th in the NHL with 89 points, but had entered the game a team-worst minus-four.

The game-winner came off a setup from Geoff Courtnall. Demitra knifed in front of a Dallas defenseman and beat Ed Belfour to put an early end to the Blues’ fifth overtime game in 10 postseason games.

“Somebody made a nice pass out of the corner,” Belfour said. “I wish I could have gotten further out. Demitra made a nice shot.”

The Stars, who earned a franchise-record 114 points in the regular season, missed a chance to put the Blues in an almost hopeless situation. Only two teams have recovered from a 3-0 series deficit, the last being the New York Islanders in 1975 against the Pittsburgh Penguins.

“We never thought about losing,” Demitra said. “We know we can beat Dallas, and we proved it.”

Dallas, which got goals from Darryl Sydor and Brett Hull, won Game 2 in overtime on a goal by Joe Nieuwendyk. The Stars’ franchise-record six-game playoff winning streak came to an end.

“As much as you don’t want to lose, you can’t win them all,” said Hull, who played his first postseason game in St. Louis since leaving the Blues after 10 seasons. “You have to battle harder because it’s the playoffs.

“The team that makes the most mistakes usually loses, and tonight it was us.”

Sydor forced the overtime with his first goal of the playoffs at 9:08 of the third. Grant Fuhr got a glove on Pat Verbeek’s drive from the slot, and Grant Marshall got his stick on the rebound before Sydor tapped it in.

Hecht, who was with the Blues for three games during the regular season, gave St. Louis a 2-1 lead at 4:52 of the third.

NHL Notes

Detroit Red Wing center Igor Larionov is expected to miss the next two games of the Western Conference semifinals after dislocating a finger on his left hand in Sunday’s victory over the Colorado Avalanche. Larionov, 38, was injured while taking a faceoff in the second period. He sat out the third period, when the Red Wings put the finishing touches on a 4-0 victory that gave them a commanding 2-0 lead in the best-of-seven series.

The Philadelphia Flyers re-signed right wing Mark Recchi to a five-year contract, eight days after they were eliminated from the first round of the playoffs. Financial terms of the deal for the five-time all-star were not disclosed. Recchi, who could have become an unrestricted free agent July 1, was awarded a then-record $4.5-million salary by an arbitrator last August.