Sharks Take a Big Bite Out of Blues

Owen Nolan scored twice and San Jose broke a four-game home losing streak in the playoffs, defeating top-seeded St. Louis, 2-1, Monday night at San Jose to take a 2-1 lead in the first-round Western Conference playoff series.

The Sharks, who did not qualify for the playoffs until the final week of the season and who went 0-4-1 against St. Louis during the regular season, have won the last two games of the series.

Game 4 of the best-of-seven series is Wednesday at San Jose.

The Blues, who got their only goal from Scott Young, had the NHL’s best record during the regular season and went a league-best 27-10-4 on the road. But St. Louis never led Monday night, despite outshooting the Sharks, 32-22.

Nolan scored the deciding goal 4:40 into the third period. Mike Rathje’s shot from the slot was stopped by goalie Roman Turek, but Nolan got to the loose puck and skated around the prone Turek before sliding the puck into the net.

Steve Shields, who made 31 saves for the Sharks, made three saves in the final minute--including one of Al MacInnis’ slap shot from just inside the blue line. Earlier in the third, he made a glove save from close range against Young while the Blues were on a power play.

The Sharks had not won at home in the playoffs since April 28, 1998.

Pittsburgh 4, Washington 3--Jiri Slegr’s slap shot beat goaltender Olaf Kolzig with 4:32 remaining and the Penguins, luring the Capitals into an unwanted shootout, seized a 3-0 lead in the Eastern Conference playoff series at Pittsburgh.

Jan Hrdina scored twice--with four goals, he has as many as Washington in the series--as the seventh-seeded Penguins moved within a victory of their second playoff upset in two seasons.

The Penguins eliminated top-seeded New Jersey a year ago and need one more victory to oust the second-seeded Capitals, who failed to hold a 1-0 lead for the second successive game.

“We feel good at 3-0 but they’ve got three of the next four there,” the Penguins’ Robbie Brown said.

Penguin goaltender Ron Tugnutt said, “The fourth game is always the hardest to win.”

Game 4 will be Wednesday night in Washington, where Pittsburgh won, 7-0, in Game 1, followed by Game 5, if necessary, Friday. The quirky schedule, which wound up benefiting the Penguins, resulted from scheduling conflicts at Mellon Arena and ABC-TV’s request to televise Game 2.

Ottawa 4, Toronto 3--Rob Zamuner’s second goal past an angry Curtis Joseph helped the Senators end an eight-game playoff losing streak Monday night at Kanata, Canada.

The Leafs lead the best-of-seven Eastern Conference first-round series, 2-1. Game 4 is Wednesday night at the Corel Centre.

Joseph faced only 15 shots and was given a misconduct penalty for abusing referee Mick McGeough after Zamuner’s second goal, at 14:17 of the third period.

The goalie, incensed at interference in the crease as Alfredsson wrestled with defenseman Cory Cross, skated out to argue, “lost an edge” and took McGeough down with him. Joseph stayed in the game as Cross served the penalty.

“If I was going to do that to a referee--which I wouldn’t do--I wouldn’t slide into him and have him fall on top of me,” a much calmer Joseph said after the game. “I was just frustrated. I could see the puck and couldn’t get to it.”

The NHL is likely to review the incident to determine if a suspension is warranted.

Colorado 4, Phoenix 2--Adam Deadmarsh scored twice in the third period, including an empty-netter with 24 seconds to play, and the Avalanche pushed the Coyotes to the edge of elimination at Phoenix.

The Avalanche have a 3-0 lead in the best-of-seven first-round Western Conference series. The Coyotes must win Game 4 at home Wednesday night to avoid their ninth consecutive first-round exit since 1987.