Oilers Even Series by Beating Stars

Mike Comrie scored a power-play goal at 17:19 of overtime as the Edmonton Oilers beat the Dallas Stars, 2-1, Tuesday night to even their Western Conference first-round series at Edmonton, Canada.

Jamie Langenbrunner high-sticked Comrie at 16:21, and the rookie forward made the Stars pay in Game 4 of the series that has featured three overtime contests.

Ryan Smyth, stationed behind the net, fanned on a centering pass but Comrie pushed the puck behind goalie Ed Belfour for the winner.

“It was awesome,” Comrie said. “We still have a long series left, but it feels great to win.”

Tommy Salo got the Oilers to overtime with a spectacular save off Mike Modano as regulation drew to a close. A sprawling Salo got a piece of his glove on the drive and deflected it.

Buffalo 4, Philadelphia 3--After the Sabres squandered two leads, Curtis Brown scored 6:13 into overtime at Buffalo, N.Y.

The Sabres grabbed a 3-1 lead in the best of seven series, winning for the second time in overtime. All four games have been decided by one goal.

It was Brown’s first career playoff overtime goal, and second tally of the series.

San Jose 3, St. Louis 2--Rookie goalie Miikka Kiprusoff, a last-minute replacement for Evgeni Nabokov, made 39 saves, and San Jose scored three second-period goals as the Sharks evened their playoff series with a Game 4 victory at San Jose.

Kiprusoff got the start when Nabokov came down with flu.

Dallas Drake scored a desperate goal for St. Louis with 24.8 seconds left, but Kiprusoff held on for his first playoff victory.

New Jersey 4, Carolina 0--New Jersey captain Scott Stevens is two for two--in bone-crunching hits.

The defenseman set the tone early with a jarring check that knocked out Carolina captain Ron Francis as the Devils dominated the Hurricanes at Raleigh, N.C., en route to a 3-0 lead in the series.