Age Serves Stars Well in Victory Over Oilers

Dallas’ Grumpy Old Men are making life miserable for the Edmonton Oilers.

John MacLean scored the tying goal with 4:22 left in regulation, then assisted on Kirk Muller’s winner 8:01 into overtime, giving the Stars a 4-3 victory Thursday night at Dallas and a three-games-to-two lead in the first-round series.

Mike Keane, the third member of the line of 30-something veterans, assisted on both goals as the Stars recovered from an early third-period meltdown.

“To me it’s fitting, because the entire team followed their lead all night,” Dallas Coach Ken Hitchcock said.

The series has featured four overtime games and all five games have been decided by one goal.

Muller, 35, MacLean 36, and Keane, 33, have played a combined 393 playoff games and are still coming up big.

“That’s why Keane, Muller and MacLean are a sought-after commodity, because they’re gritty and score big goals at key times,” Oilers Coach Craig MacTavish said.

St. Louis 3, San Jose 2--Rookie Bryce Salvador scored on a slap shot from the point at 9:54 of overtime at St. Louis as the Blues regained control of their first-round series.

Dallas Drake forced the extra period with his fourth goal of the series with 2:48 to play and added an assist, giving him seven points in the series.

Pierre Turgeon set up both the tying goal and the game-winner and has a team-leading nine points in the series.

The Blues, who were the NHL’s best regular-season team last season and then lost to the Sharks in a seven-game first-round series, can close them out in Game 6 Saturday in San Jose.

Teemu Selanne had two assists for his first points of the series for the Sharks.

Philadelphia 3, Buffalo 1--Mark Recchi scored the go-ahead goal and Roman Cechmanek made 25 saves as the Flyers remained alive at Philadelphia.

The Sabres lead the series, three games to two.

Simon Gagne and Chris Therien also scored for Philadelphia, which has never rallied from a 3-1 playoff deficit.

Dominik Hasek made 30 saves, but lost his temper midway through the third period and earned a misconduct penalty.

With one second remaining in a 4-on-3 power play, Recchi gave the Flyers a 2-1 lead by blasting a shot past Hasek with 3:58 left in the second.