Sabres Leave No Doubt in 8-0 Rout

Dave Andreychuk felt sorry for Philadelphia Flyer goalie Roman Cechmanek. There was nothing more to say.

Andreychuk had a power-play goal and two assists as the Sabres scored on five of their first nine shots Saturday and stunned the Flyers, 8-0, at Buffalo, N.Y., to win the first-round playoff series, 4-2.

“It was one of those games, and I’ve been in a few of them where everything goes your way,” said Andreychuk, whose power-play goal gave the Sabres a 4-0 lead late in the first period.

“We got the bounces, we got the breaks. I feel bad for the goalie because he had a great year, a great series. It was just one of those things.”

It was Buffalo’s largest margin of victory in a playoff game, and Philadelphia’s worst playoff defeat. The Flyers have been beaten by six goals three times, the last coming in a 9-3 loss to the New York Rangers 18 years ago in the last playoff game of Flyer Coach Bill Barber’s stellar playing career.

“It sure wasn’t the way we wanted to continue on or finish the series,” a subdued Barber said. “We had a couple of wins, and then it felt like the wheels fell off our wagon.”

It certainly was unexpected.

Through the first five games of the series, two of which were won by the Sabres in overtime, each team scored a total of 13 goals and each held only one two-goal lead.

Pittsburgh 2, Washington 1--Mario Lemieux had a goal and an assist at Washington to raise his all-time playoff point total to 161 as the Penguins moved within a victory of the second round.

Andrew Ference gave Pittsburgh a 1-0 lead only 31 seconds before Lemieux’s goal in the first period. Sergei Gonchar scored for Washington in the second.

Pittsburgh, which has won five of the six playoff series between the teams, improved to 7-0 against Washington in Game 5s. The Penguins lead the best-of-seven series, 3-2, and can eliminate the Capitals on Monday night at Pittsburgh.

St. Louis 2, San Jose 1--Roman Turek stopped 30 shots and the Blues broke open a scoreless game with two second-period goals in 52 seconds at San Jose, wrapping up the first-round series.

Cory Stillman and Pavol Demitra struck for quick scores late in the second, but the Blues owed the victory to team defense and to Turek, who erased memories of last season’s playoff crash-and-burn against the Sharks with a fine performance.

The Blues won the Presidents’ Trophy last season but lost a seven-game series to the Sharks. A year later, with a less glossy regular-season record but much more playoff determination, the Blues earned payback with a 4-2 series victory.

Dallas 3, Edmonton 1--Joe Nieuwendyk returned from a knee injury and scored with 2:53 to play at Edmonton, Canada, helping the Stars wrap up the first-round series.

Nieuwendyk, injured in a knee-on-knee collision with Edmonton’s Scott Ferguson in Game 1 of the series, broke a 1-1 tie at 17:07 of the third, and Mike Modano added an empty-net goal with 44 seconds to play as the Stars won the series, 4-2.

Brett Hull, who tied the score at 1-1 at 8:57 of the third, set up Nieuwendyk at the Edmonton blue line for a shot that beat goalie Tommy Salo between the pads.