McKee Puts Flyers in a Familiar Spot

Jay McKee managed one goal during the regular season. He matched that total Saturday, giving the Buffalo Sabres control of their playoff series.

McKee wristed a shot past goaltender Roman Cechmanek with 1:58 left in overtime at Philadelphia to lift Buffalo to a 4-3 victory over the Flyers and a 2-0 lead in their Eastern Conference first-round series.

“It was the biggest goal I ever scored,” said McKee, who had never scored in 27 career playoff games and had one goal in 74 appearances this season.

Game 3 is Monday night at Buffalo, N.Y. In the second round of the playoffs last year, the Flyers won four consecutive against the Pittsburgh Penguins after losing the first two games at home.

But Philadelphia, which earned home-ice advantage in this series by defeating the Sabres, 2-1, at Buffalo on the last day of the regular season, is 2-8 overall when it loses the first two games of a playoff series.

“It’s a disappointing loss,” Flyer forward John LeClair said. “We’re in a bit of a hole, but it’s not impossible to climb out of. We found that out last year.”

Buffalo’s Dominik Hasek made 32 saves, and Curtis Brown scored the game-tying goal early in the third.

Cechmanek, who gave up only two goals in a four-game sweep of Buffalo in the regular season, stopped 37 shots.

As the fast-paced overtime neared an end, McKee took a pass from Erik Rasmussen and wristed the puck just inside the far post.

“I just hopped on the ice after a line change and I started going hard into the zone,” McKee said. “I got a great pass from Erik. I was just hoping for a rebound, but I was lucky to catch the far side.”

Toronto 3, Ottawa 0--Curtis Joseph made 37 saves for his second shutout in less than 24 hours, and Gary Roberts scored twice as the Maple Leafs won at Ottawa to take a 2-0 lead in their Eastern Conference first-round series.

Joseph extended his playoff shutout streak against Ottawa to 166 minutes 50 seconds. He has 11 career shutouts in the playoffs.

Sergei Berezin added a goal for the Maple Leafs.

San Jose 1, St. Louis 0--Scott Thornton scored on a breakaway at 13:52 of the second period, and rookie Evgeni Nabokov stopped 28 shots for his first playoff victory as the Sharks evened their Western Conference first-round series at 1-1 with the win at St. Louis.

Thornton, assisted by Vincent Damphousse and Niklas Sundstrom, got behind the St. Louis defense for a clean break and beat Blues goalie Roman Turek with a wrist shot. The breakaway was the first decent scoring chance for San Jose, which managed only three shots in the first period and finished with 19.

Edmonton 4, Dallas 3--Daniel Cleary, Rem Murray and Anson Carter scored power-play goals at Dallas as the Oilers ended a 13-game losing streak at Reunion Arena and tied their Western Conference first-round series at 1-1.

Edmonton goaltender Tommy Salo made 22 saves for his first career victory at Reunion Arena.

Mike Keane, Joe Nieuwendyk and Darryl Sydor scored for Dallas, which had not lost in 14 games.

Pittsburgh 2, Washington 1--Mario Lemieux’s first playoff shot on goal since 1997 found the net at Washington as the Penguins tied their Eastern Conference first-round series at 1-1.

Lemieux assisted on Pittsburgh’s first goal, by Kevin Stevens, then scored the game-winner as the Penguins scored twice in the first period.

Colorado 2, Vancouver 1--Ville Nieminen and Milan Hejduk scored goals 42 seconds apart in the third period at Denver to rally the Avalanche over the Canucks for a 2-0 lead in their Western Conference first-round series.

Patrick Roy had 18 saves for Colorado, and Bob Essensa, making his first playoff start in seven years, stopped 23 shots.