In Matter of Minutes, Dallas Is Star-Struck by Oilers

A sneaky slap shot and a well-executed break. With those two plays early in the second period, the eighth-seeded Edmonton Oilers grabbed a long-awaited series lead over their postseason nemesis, the top-seeded Dallas Stars.

Ryan Smyth popped a short-handed goal between the legs of goaltender Marty Turco, then Shawn Horcoff beat him on the glove side, sending the Oilers to a 2-1 victory Wednesday night in the opener of their Western Conference playoff series at Dallas.

Edmonton leads the Stars in the playoffs for the first time since 1997, when the Oilers won in seven games. Dallas won postseason meetings in 1998, ‘99, 2000 and ’01 and never trailed in any of those series.

Game 2 is Friday night at Dallas.

“It’s only the first game,” Horcoff said, “but it’s definitely gratifying.”

The Oilers came in thinking their best chance to pull off the upset would be to get to Turco early in his first playoff game. He looked solid in turning away seven first-period shots and was bolstered by a 1-0 lead on a power-play goal by Mike Modano.

Then Turco gave up two goals in a 3:48 span early in the second period and Dallas never recovered. A spurt of penalties in the third left the Stars down at least one man the final 4:06, draining their comeback hopes.

“We surprised ourselves,” said Modano, who hit a post early in the first.

“We had a chance to take control, but we didn’t do it. We need to generate more chances. We need more than one goal.”

New York Islanders 3, Ottawa 0 -- Few believed Coach Peter Laviolette’s claim that the Islanders were better than the Senators.

In the Eastern Conference series opener, his team proved him right.

Dave Scatchard, Alexei Yashin and Shawn Bates scored, and Garth Snow earned his first career playoff shutout to lead New York to a stunning victory over the top-seeded Senators at Ottawa.

One day after Laviolette proclaimed his eighth-place team was superior to the Presidents’ Trophy-winning Senators, the Islanders backed him.

“Our team on many occasions in big games has played big games,” Laviolette said.

New York got goals from Scatchard and Yashin in the first period. Bates then scored midway through the second to knock Ottawa completely off its game.

Ottawa has a history of disappointing its fans in the playoffs. Despite seven consecutive postseason appearances and three 100-point seasons in five, the Senators have only two series victories and none when they have home-ice advantage.

Toronto 5, Philadelphia 3 -- Mikael Renberg scored a power-play goal with 5:39 left, leading the Maple Leafs in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference series at Philadelphia.

The Flyers outshot the Maple Leafs, 31-15, but Toronto scored four goals on its first 13 attempts against Roman Cechmanek. Alexander Mogilny had three goals for his first playoff hat trick, and Tie Domi also scored for the Maple Leafs.

Ed Belfour made 28 saves for Toronto, which has won four consecutive first-round series.

New Jersey 2, Boston 1 -- Jamie Langenbrunner scored twice and Martin Brodeur had 26 saves to lead the Devils in the opener of their Eastern Conference series at East Rutherford, N.J.

Bryan Berard scored for the Bruins in the first game of a series that matches teams coming off embarrassing first-round losses last season. There were plenty of hard hits, and both teams played with a chippiness that could make this an interesting series.

Langenbrunner staked the Devils to a 2-0 lead with goals in the first two periods. Brodeur made them stand up with three good saves down the stretch after Berard scored early in the third.