Toronto Eliminates Pittsburgh
The only thing certain for the Pittsburgh Penguins is where they won’t be going: the Stanley Cup playoffs’ Eastern Conference finals.
The bankrupt franchise was eliminated from the postseason Monday night when former Penguin Garry Valk scored the first two playoff goals of his career to help the Toronto Maple Leafs to a 4-3 overtime victory over the Penguins in Game 6 of the conference semifinals at Pittsburgh.
The Penguins now face an uncertain future in bankruptcy court that could see the franchise sold to Mario Lemieux’s investment group, dissolved or moved by next month.
The Maple Leafs, in danger of falling behind in the series, 3-1, only five days ago, won the final three games, two in overtime.
“There’s such a fine line between winning and losing in overtime,” Mats Sundin said of Toronto’s 3-0 overtime record in the playoffs this season. “When we get into overtime, we seem to find a way to win.”
Toronto advances to the conference finals, against either the Buffalo Sabres or Boston Bruins, for the first time since 1994.
After Yanic Perreault won a faceoff for Toronto in overtime, Sergei Berezin’s shot rebounded off goaltender Tom Barrasso to a skidding Valk, who pushed it into the empty net as he left his skates.
“When he is shooting, I’m trying to go to the net,” Valk said. “Barrasso stepped on it and it came loose. I tried to crosscheck [Jiri] Slegr out of the way and the puck was just laying there. It was an ugly garbage goal.”
For the Penguins in this series, it was overtime and out. Coincidentally, the Penguins were one of the NHL’s best regular-season teams in overtime: 7-1-14.
“In overtime, it’s whoever gets the lucky bounce,” the Penguins’ Rob Brown said. “They got two of them.”
Dallas 2, St. Louis 1--Mike Modano scored on a rebound at 2:21 of overtime as the Stars reached the Western Conference finals with a Game 6 victory at St. Louis.
Brett Hull assisted on both Dallas goals and set up the winner against his former team. Hull skated around the net with the puck and shot a low backhander into Grant Fuhr’s skates. Modano was stymied on his first rebound shot, but the second got through for his fourth goal and 11th point of the playoffs.
Four of the last five games in the series between the NHL’s regular-season champions, who had 114 points, and the Blues, who had 87, went to overtime. Each team won twice.
The Stars will play the Colorado Avalanche or the Detroit Red Wings in the conference finals.
Dallas’ Derek Plante tied the score with 6:02 to play in the third period with his first point in six playoff games.
Al MacInnis scored his first goal of the second round on his 29th shot for the Blues, who went to overtime in seven of their 13 postseason games. St. Louis won four of them, including a double-overtime victory over the Phoenix Coyotes in Game 7 of the first round.
Plante tied the score with a soft sliding shot that went between teammate Mike Keane’s legs in front of the net before eluding Fuhr. Fuhr had just righted himself after being accidentally tripped by MacInnis.
Plante, who had six goals and 20 points in the regular season, was a healthy scratch in Games 4 and 5.