Blues Complete Sweep of Stars

No one’s calling Roman Turek a weak link anymore.

Another big game from Turek, a supposed liability in goal heading into the playoffs, helped the St. Louis Blues advance to the NHL’s final four for the first time in 15 seasons.

Turek made 32 saves in another dominant effort against his old team as the Blues completed a shocking sweep of the Dallas Stars with a 4-1 Game 4 victory Thursday night at St. Louis. Turek gave up only six goals on 112 shots in the series.

“Roman was by far the most valuable player of this series,” teammate Scott Young said. “We’re getting the best goaltending there is.”

Dallas reached the Stanley Cup finals the last two years, winning in 1999.

“We’ve had a wonderful run, but it’s over,” Coach Ken Hitchcock said. “We have to look at ways to retool to get back to the top.”

The Blues, who were eliminated in the first round last spring after winning the Presidents’ Trophy, completed their first sweep since taking out the Kings in the first round in 1998.

“It’s unbelievable we won four-nothing,” Turek said. “If somebody told me this before we started playing the first game, I wouldn’t believe them.

Toronto 3, New Jersey 1--Mats Sundin got help on offense and the Maple Leafs clamped down on defense at Toronto.

Sundin registered his third goal and sixth point of the Eastern Conference semifinal series, while checking center Shayne Corson and Sergei Berezin also scored.

The Maple Leafs evened the best-of-seven series, 2-2.

The game was marred with 7.4 seconds remaining when Devil defenseman Scott Niedermayer was knocked cold--and had to be carted off the ice on a stretcher--by an elbow to the head from Toronto’s Tie Domi.

Niedermayer was able to walk into the Devil dressing room after the game.

Niedermayer was skating along the left boards when Domi caught him across the head well behind the play.

Domi was assessed a “deliberate injury” penalty, which carried an automatic suspension that will last until NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman rules on the issue.

The Maple Leafs announced that Domi will have an NHL disciplinary hearing today.

Around the league

Veteran forward Igor Larionov was told by Detroit that it will not pick up his $2-million option, opting for a $200,000 buyout instead. Larionov’s agent, Don Baizley, said the sides are talking about a new deal for next season.