Sharks Surprise Blues, 4-2

San Jose forward Mike Ricci said the Sharks were lucky and good. Because of that, they’re tied with St. Louis in the Western Conference playoffs.

San Jose, the eighth-seeded team, used two fluke goals and some hard work to get by the top-seeded Blues, 4-2, Saturday at St. Louis. The best-of-seven series is tied, 1-1, and moves to San Jose for Game 3 Monday night.

Ricci’s power-play goal with 5:42 left proved to be the difference. But the Sharks were fortunate to even be in the game then.

Bryan Marchment scored the Sharks’ second goal with a shot from behind the Blues’ net. Gary Suter, who also had an assist, was credited with a goal when defenseman Marc Bergevin threw the puck into his own net.

“Funny things happen,” Ricci said. “We’ll take that break. But we’re not going to rely on those things happening any more.”

Ricci’s goal came as a result of hard work. With Scott Young serving a double minor for high sticking, Ricci followed up his own shot and shoved the rebound under St. Louis goalie Roman Turek to give San Jose a 3-2 lead.

Owen Nolan added an empty-net goal with 1:03 to play. Steve Shields made 18 saves for the Sharks, who won for only the third time in 18 visits to St. Louis (3-14-1).

Although the goals by Marchment and Suter were not conventional, San Jose Coach Darryl Sutter said his team had nothing to apologize for.

“All the other four goals, other than the empty-net goal, were going-to-the-net goals,” Sutter said. “Bergevin makes that play because Ricci’s going to the net. You don’t get all that razzle-dazzle in the playoffs.”

“Goals like that happen all the time,” Shields said. “It’s just that it’s magnified because it’s the playoffs.”

St. Louis Coach Joel Quenneville questioned his team’s thought process.

“We were undisciplined,” Quenneville said. “We didn’t make a good effort in the second period and some of our decisions were questionable.”

Young agreed with his coach.

“In the playoffs, you have to play with controlled emotion, and today we might have gotten a little carried away with our emotion,” Young said. “We have to play with a lot more discipline.”

San Jose, which also will play host to Game 4 on Wednesday, has not won a playoff game at home since April 28, 1998--losing the last four. Young isn’t taking anything for granted.

“We’re not invincible,” Young said. “We knew that. We also expect to play a lot better than we did today.”

Pittsburgh 2, Washington 1--Jaromir Jagr snapped a wrist shot past Olaf Kolzig at 5:49 of overtime and the Penguins seized a two-game lead in their Eastern Conference series by beating the Capitals at Pittsburgh.

With defenseman Ken Klee off for his second penalty in a span of six minutes, Jagr, who set up Pittsburgh’s first goal, held the puck on his stick in the right circle. Then, with Kolzig apparently expecting him to pass, Jagr whistled a shot past Kolzig’s glove and into the center of the net. Pittsburgh was 0 for 8 on the power play until Jagr scored his 56th career playoff goal and fourth game-winner in overtime.

Jagr has a goal and five assists so far in the series after being sidelined most of the final two months of the season because of various injuries. However, he still was able to win the scoring title.

Colorado 3, Phoenix 1--Peter Forsberg had an assist in his first game back from a shoulder injury, and the Avalanche took control of its first-round series by beating the Coyotes in Denver.

Chris Drury, Alex Tanguay and Milan Hejduk--all in their first two seasons in the league--scored for Colorado, which took a 2-0 lead in the best-of-seven Western Conference series. Game 3 is Monday at Phoenix.

As they did in Game 1, the Coyotes hurt themselves with penalties. Colorado scored twice with a two-man advantage and went three for seven on power-play chances. The Avalanche is five for 16 on the power play in the series.

Toronto 5, Ottawa 1--Steve Thomas scored twice and Darcy Tucker, Mats Sundin and Sergei Berezin added one each as the Maple Leafs took a 2-0 lead in their Eastern Conference series by beating the Senators at Toronto.

Sami Salo was the only Ottawa player to put a puck behind Curtis Joseph, who played another strong game.