Maple Leafs Step Up and Kaberle Wins It

The Toronto Maple Leafs took the lead in their playoff series with their best game yet.

Still, it took more than 27 extra minutes to get the victory Monday night.

Tomas Kaberle scored his second goal of the game at 7:20 of the second overtime as the Maple Leafs beat the Philadelphia Flyers, 4-3, for a 2-1 lead in the Eastern Conference quarterfinal playoff series.

“Philadelphia dominated us in the first and second games both with shots and the physical game, but tonight we did a lot better job,” said Toronto’s Mats Sundin, whose team was outshot, 67-32, in the first two games.

After Sundin skated around the back of the net and put a shot on goalie Roman Cechmanek, Kaberle backhanded the rebound over Cechmanek.

Kaberle tied the score at 2-2 in the second period, and Alexander Mogilny gave Toronto a 3-2 lead with his fifth goal of the series, but Mark Recchi tied it early in the third period.

Philadelphia’s Kim Johnsson almost won it for the Flyers in the first overtime, but his shot deflected off goalie Ed Belfour’s right shoulder and hit the post.

“We certainly had our chances to win the game, but they got it before us,” Philadelphia’s Eric Desjardins.

Ottawa 3, New York Islanders 2 -- Todd White’s second goal of the game 2:25 into the second overtime gave the Senators the victory at Uniondale, N.Y., and a 2-1 lead in the Eastern Conference quarterfinal series.

Chris Phillips also scored for Ottawa, which got 30 saves from Patrick Lalime.

Alexei Yashin and Randy Robitaille scored for New York, which had 29 saves from Garth Snow.

A turnover in the neutral zone led to the winning goal. Magnus Arvedson carried into the New York zone and sent in a shot from the top of the right circle. White, standing in front, got enough of the puck to put it between Snow’s pads on the Senators’ second shot of the second overtime.

Colorado 3, Minnesota 0 -- Minnesota’s fans waited 11 years for another playoff game. Then the Avalanche quickly deflated them and their team.

In the first playoff game the Twin Cities has played host to since 1992, Alex Tanguay’s early first-period goal got the Avalanche going and a stellar Patrick Roy did the rest at St. Paul.

That gave the Avalanche a 2-1 lead in its Western Conference quarterfinal series. Game 4, also in St. Paul, is Wednesday night.

Peter Forsberg had a goal and an assist and Joe Sakic had a goal for Colorado, which got 18 saves from Roy.

St. Louis 3, Vancouver 1 -- Doug Weight had two goals and an assist at St. Louis, and the Blues held the Canucks to 14 shots -- tying a team playoff record -- to take control of their Western Conference quarterfinal playoff series.

The Blues, who also got a goal and an assist from Pavol Demitra, lead the series 2-1 heading into Game 4 Wednesday.

St. Louis again silenced Vancouver’s No. 1 line of Todd Bertuzzi, Markus Naslund and Brendan Morrison.

Vancouver’s shot total was the team’s lowest since Feb. 20 at St. Louis, when the Canucks also had 14. It also tied a Blues franchise playoff record set April 4, 1968 against the Philadelphia Flyers.