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The Oilers have found a place to hide as they wait for the Stanley Cup finals to start.
The NHL's Western Conference champs are escaping to New York.
Edmonton has become too small for the Oilers, who have been idle since winning the West last Saturday with a Game 5 win over Anaheim. The finals don't start until Monday, and the Oilers will be playing either at Buffalo or Carolina.
Needing a break from the fishbowl that the Alberta capital has become, the Oilers are going to New York on Thursday morning. They will hold two days of practice at a suburban rink in Greenburgh - where the Rangers train during the season.
"There are a lot of distractions here with the players and their families," Edmonton coach Craig MacTavish said Wednesday after a vigorous hour-long skate, the Oilers' first hard workout since they punched their ticket for the finals.
"We don't want to get stale in any one place."
The Oilers will finally find out on Thursday night who their opponent will be in the best-of-seven championship series. The Hurricanes will host Buffalo in Game 7, with the winner moving on.
"It's a great idea for us to get away," said Oilers goaltender Dwayne Roloson, who leads the league with 12 playoff wins. "It's nice for us to be here and enjoy the surroundings with the fans but realistically we have a job to do."
The Oilers, who haven't been in the finals since 1990 when they won their seventh championship in seven years, have picked up lots of friends this week. Requests for interviews, autographs, appearances and tickets have been pouring in as people have rallied behind the team.
The rink is the only place they can go to get away. And one that's far, far away is truly ideal.
"Get away from the mania that is here," said defenseman Chris Pronger, tied for the team lead with 17 playoff points. "It will help us concentrate on the task at hand."
MacTavish said getting caught up in the hype and not capturing the Cup would be the ultimate disappointment for the eighth-seeded club.
Edmonton is the lowest-seeded team to reach the finals under the current playoff format. The Oilers stunned Detroit, the NHL's top team in the regular season, in the first round before eliminating San Jose and Anaheim.
"We are in this situation because these players are outplaying the players that they are playing against," MacTavish said. "We don't want to forget how difficult it is to have success."
The Oilers will have had eight days off - their longest break since the Olympics in February - before meeting the Hurricanes or Sabres on Monday.
"Now it's time to get back to work," Edmonton captain Jason Smith said. "We are going to use these next few days to make sure we are mentally ready."
By leaving early, the team will adapt to a two-hour time change and can also get used to the humid air and skate-stifling slush that passes as late-spring ice.
"We know the buildings are going to be warm," Smith said. "This will give us time to adjust."
Jason Smith, Ales Hemsky and Jarret Stoll scored third-period goals as the Edmonton Oilers rallied for a 6-3 victory over the San Jose Sharks on Friday night, tying the Western Conference semifinal series 2-2.
Smith took a pass from Sergei Samsonov from the corner, skated in alone on Sharks goalie Vesa Toskala and beat him with a backhand deke 2:57 into the third period to give the Sharks their first lead after trailing 3-1 midway through the second period.
Game 5 in the best-of-seven series is Sunday in San Jose, with Game 6 back in Edmonton on Wednesday night.
The Sharks scored on their first two shots and, despite being badly outshot, led 3-1 halfway through the game.
"Obviously we knew they were going to come out hard, and we tried to match their intensity and couldn't keep up with them off the get-go," Oilers forward Ryan Smyth told CBC. "But these fans are unbelievable, they gave us an extra boost."
Oilers coach Craig MacTavish says both teams made mistakes, "but we were good when we had to be."
He added the dynamics of the series have changed.
"It gets them flying to San Jose feeling the same way that we did flying to Edmonton and realizing how important that next game is. It will be the first time in that game in San Jose we've had any opportunity in the series to take hold of it."
Sharks coach Ron Wilson believes his team still has the advantage with two of the remaining three games at home, adding the Oilers' comeback typifies the new reality in the NHL.
"Last year you get a 3-1 lead and it's clutch and grab and put them in the sleeper hold and that's it. You can't do that anymore."
Toskala was stellar the first three games, stopping 94 of 99 shots.
That changed at 12:28 of the second, when Ethan Moreau's shot hit the end boards and took a funny bounce back to Michael Peca, who launched a desperation shot from the side of the net that managed to squeeze under Toskala's pads.
Less than 3 minutes later, the Oilers killed off a penalty on Sergei Samsonov by lofting the puck down the ice toward Toskala, and Samsonov raced out of the penalty box after the puck. Toskala scrambled out to meet him halfway, tried to sweep the puck away but instead it bounced off Samsonov and the speedy Russian simply backhanded the puck into the empty net to tie the score.
The Sharks never recovered and in the third period their defense collapsed. After Smith's go-ahead goal, Smyth raced down the left side and fired a pass through the slot for an easy tip-in by Hemsky at 8:19.
"Everybody makes mistakes. It's a new game on Sunday," said Toskala, who was replaced by Evgeni Nabokov after Hemsky's goal. "I have been playing good for three or four months. I will not let one mistake at the blue line destroy my confidence."
Jarret Stoll finished the scoring on a power-play, sending a slapshot past a screened Nabokov at 14:00.
Shawn Horcoff, who got the game-winner in the third overtime of Game 3 on Wednesday night, also scored for Edmonton.
Joe Thonrton, Nils Ekman and Jonathan Cheechoo had San Jose's goals.
The Sharks opened the scoring less than 4 minutes into the game. A blocked shot at the Sharks blue line led to an odd-man rush that ended when Ekman waltzed around a sprawling Jaroslav Spacek and passed over to Thornton at the side of the net for an easy one-timer past Dwayne Roloson at 3:47.
Ekman made it 2-0 at 6:40, taking a back-handed pass from Patrick Marleau and one-timing it past Roloson low to the stickside.
The Oilers got their first goal at 12:55, when Horcoff tipped Smith's slap shot between Toskala's legs.
The Sharks went up 3-1 in the second period after Oilers defenseman Chris Pronger committed a rare giveaway in his own zone. Thornton jumped on it, raced past Pronger, swooped around the net and shoveled the puck to Cheechoo, who put it between Roloson's legs at 9:02.
Just over 3 minutes later, Peca started the comeback.
Notes
The Sharks were missing rookie Milan Michalek for the second straight game. The Czech winger took an open-ice hit to the head from Raffi Torres in Game 2, causing the side of his face to puff up and his left eye to close down ... Smyth spent Thursday at the dentist after having three teeth knocked out of his head by Pronger's clearing pass in Game 3. The 11-year veteran also needed eight stitches for a cut on his lip.
The Colorado Avalanche advanced to the second round of the National Hockey League playoffs yesterday with a 3-2 overtime victory against the Dallas Stars.
It was the third overtime victory for the seventh-seeded Avalanche, who won the best-of-seven series four games to one. The San Jose Sharks also won their opening-round series 4-1, beating the Nashville Predators 2-1.
Buffalo and Carolina both took 3-2 leads in their series, moving within a victory of joining Colorado and San Jose in the second round. The Sabres shut out the Philadelphia Flyers 3-0 as Ryan Miller made 24 saves and the Hurricanes won their third straight, beating the Canadiens 2-1.
The Edmonton Oilers and Calgary Flames can advance with playoff victories tonight.
Edmonton, the eighth seed in the Western Conference, holds a 3-2 series lead against top-seeded Detroit and hosts Game 6. Calgary, the third seed in the West, visits the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim with a 3-2 series lead.
At the American Airlines Center in Dallas, Andrew Brunette sent a rebound of a Joe Sakic shot over goaltender Marty Turco 13:55 into overtime to lift the Avalanche to the win.
``That's probably one of the best feelings in hockey, to get a playoff overtime goal,'' Brunette said at his post-game news conference. ``We felt good going into overtime. We knew they'd feel a little pressure and tighten up a bit. We knew if we got one chance, it would be over.''
Avalanche Eliminate Stars Again
Bill Guerin of the Stars had scored 2:47 into the third period to force overtime after Colorado built a 2-1 lead on goals from Jim Dowd and Sakic.
Jose Theodore made 50 saves in the win, including 11 in the extra session. The Avalanche also eliminated the Stars in five games in the 2004 playoffs.
At HSBC Arena in Buffalo, Tim Connolly and J.P. Dumont each had power-play goals and an assist, and Daniel Briere had two assists as the fourth-seeded Sabres won on home ice for the third time in the postseason.
Maxim Afinogenov also scored for Buffalo, which can advance with a victory in Game 6 in Philadelphia tomorrow.
Miller has held the Flyers to four goals in three home games, while giving up nine goals in two games in Philadelphia.
At Gaylord Entertainment Center in Nashville, Steve Bernier and Patrick Marleau scored power-play goals as San Jose advanced to the second round for the sixth time in team history.
Marleau had seven goals and an assist in the series for the fifth-seeded Sharks.
At the RBC Center in Raleigh, North Carolina, Eric Staal and Matt Cullen scored power-play goals as the second-seeded Hurricanes won their third straight game by one goal.
The series shifts back to Montreal for Game 6 tomorrow. The Canadiens won the first two games on the road, and then lost games 3 and 4 at home.
The Minnesota Wild inked 19-year-old winger Benoit Pouliot, the club's top draft pick last year, to a multi-year contract.
Pouliot, the fourth overall pick in the 2005 NHL draft, scored 35 goals and added 30 assists and was a plus-23 in 51 regular-season games for the Ontario Hockey League's Sudbury Wolves this season.
The Alfred, Ont., native was voted the 2005 OHL rookie of the year and won a gold medal at the 2006 world junior hockey championship in Vancouver.
He recently signed an amateur tryout contract with the Houston Aeros of the American Hockey League and will finish the rest of this campaign there before making his NHL debut next season.
The St. Louis Blues won the NHL draft lottery Thursday, getting the first overall pick for the first time in team history.
Pittsburgh will pick second, followed by Chicago, Washington and Boston. The draft is June 24 in Vancouver.
The Blues, who finished the regular season with the fewest points (57), had the greatest chance - 25 percent - of winning the lottery.
Under the NHL lottery system, the five teams with the fewest points had a chance to win the first overall selection. No team could move up more than four spots and no team could move down more than one.
In their 39-year history, the Blues' highest pick was forward Perry Turnbull, selected second overall in 1979.
Columbus will pick sixth, followed by the New York Islanders, Phoenix, Minnesota, Florida, Los Angeles, Atlanta, Toronto and Vancouver.
The remaining draft positions will be determined by the playoffs.
The drawing was held behind closed doors at the NHL's New York office, with 14 balls placed in a lottery machine.
Craig Patrick, the Hall of Fame general manager who built the Pittsburgh Penguins' two Stanley Cup winning teams but had to tear the club apart because of financial problems, is being let go after nearly 17 years on the job.
Patrick's contract expires July 1, and team President Ken Sawyer said Thursday the Penguins will look for a new general manager.
Patrick, inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2001, was long seen as one of the sport's best talent evaluators. He drafted Jaromir Jagr and Sidney Crosby, traded for Ron Francis and Ulf Samuelsson, and hired Bob Johnson and Scotty Bowman as coaches.
Patrick's trade for Francis and Samuelsson is widely regarded as being the final piece needed to transform what had long been one of NHL's worst teams into a Stanley Cup winner.
Led by Hall of Famer Mario Lemieux, who later bought the club and retained Patrick as general manager, the Penguins won Stanley Cups in 1991 and '92.
Even after Lemieux retired for the first time in 1997, the Penguins remained Stanley Cup contenders for the rest of the decade.
But after former ownership led by Howard Baldwin drove the team into its second bankruptcy in franchise history, Patrick was forced to dismantle, as stars such as Jagr, Alex Kovalev, Martin Straka and Robert Lang went elsewhere.
The Penguins last were contenders in 2000-01, the same season Lemieux unexpectedly ended his 44-month retirement and returned as a player.
Led by Lemieux and Jagr, the Penguins reached the Eastern Conference finals, but haven't been back to the playoffs since.
Even after drafting Crosby, who set a team rookie record with 102 points this season, and bringing in proven veterans, such as Sergei Gonchar, John LeClair, Mark Recchi and Ziggy Palffy, the Penguins skidded to a fourth consecutive last-place finish in their division this season. Their 60 losses were the most in franchise history.
In recent years, Patrick was forced to fire four coaches he brought in - Kevin Constantine, Ivan Hlinka, Rick Kehoe and Eddie Olczyk. Hlinka, Kehoe and Olczyk had no prior NHL head-coaching experience, yet were hired without Patrick considering other candidates.
Olczyk, formerly a team broadcaster, was fired in December and replaced by Michel Therrien, who has two years left on his contract. That means the new Penguins general manager probably won't be allowed to bring in his own coach immediately.
Despite making a long series of excellent trades and signings since the 1990s, Patrick also made some bad ones, including what is regarded as the worst trade in NHL history - dealing longtime scoring star Markus Naslund for journeyman Alex Stojanov. It was a trade so bad, it was once the subject of a Canadian TV special.
Before being hired by the Penguins, Patrick was the general manager of the New York Rangers. In 1980, he was the assistant coach of the Olympic gold medal-winning U.S. hockey team for coach Herb Brooks. Patrick later brought Brooks to the Penguins as a front office executive and interim coach.
A concern shared by National Hockey League defencemen when some of the league's new rules were unveiled prior to the season was that if they didn't suddenly grow eyes in the backs of their heads, they were going to be in big trouble.
The crackdown on obstruction was going to be killer for defencemen, since forechecking forwards could no longer be held up and therefore would be free to slam defencemen into the end boards when they retreated to get the puck.
But those who patrol the blue line say, for the most part, that has not been the case.
"We were worried we were going to get run all over the place, but I don't think it's as bad as we thought," Jay McKee of the Buffalo Sabres said. "On the flip side, when we get the puck down low, we have a step on the forward because he can't hook us either.
"Positioning is more important than anything now. If we can get a step on a guy, we're clear to get out of the zone."
The Philadelphia Flyers' Eric Desjardins, who broke into the NHL with the Montreal Canadiens in 1988-89, has noticed a difference when defending against the forecheck.
"It has been all right for us, but we see a change, no doubt about it," Desjardins said. "We need help from our forwards more or from our partner to help us break out because teams are coming at you with speed and they are right on you. You need to have a quick out."
Though both McKee and Desjardins lamented that some of the physical play has gone by the wayside, especially checking opposing forwards in front of the net, both said they like the greater emphasis on offence.
"I enjoy now more than ever turning on the TV at night and watching the other games," said McKee, who leads the league with 220 blocked shots. "It's a much more exciting game. I certainly wish the calls wouldn't be so strict with the physical play, but we have made the adjustment."
DESIGNS ON NO. 9
Though the playoffs won't include the Florida Panthers for the fifth consecutive season, the Maple Leafs should not expect the Panthers to hand them two points tomorrow night at the Air Canada Centre.
After last night's 6-3 win over the Tampa Bay Lightning, the Panthers were four points out of ninth in the Eastern Conference and were shooting for that position.
"We've been building a fan base, so we definitely want to win games and be in that ninth place," captain Olli Jokinen told the Palm Beach Post. "That's still a possibility. The fans and us as players will have a better feeling going to the long summer."
More than a few Panthers will want to put the screws to the Leafs. Coach Jacques Martin lost his job in Ottawa because the Senators, under his watch, were unable to beat the Leafs in the post-season. And there are savvy veterans Joe Nieuwendyk and Gary Roberts and defenceman Ric Jackman, who all put in good time with Toronto. Nieuwendyk, meanwhile, will miss the playoffs for only the third time in 18 NHL seasons.
AROUND THE RINKS
What are the chances the Leafs will try to sign Tampa's Brad Richards to an offer sheet this summer? ... There was no indication he was trying to do so, but Calgary Flames coach Darryl Sutter got in a little dig at Vancouver Canucks coach Marc Crawford following Saturday's Canucks win in overtime against Calgary. "On paper, they are probably the most talented team in this conference," Sutter said. The Canucks might miss the playoffs ... Jaromir Jagr of the New York Rangers is on the verge of doing something he has never done before: Lead the NHL in goals in one season. He had 53 going into last night, two more than Atlanta's Ilya Kovalchuk ... Finishing badly is old hat for the Los Angeles Kings, who have lost 10 of 14. Two years ago, they lost their last 11 games. Kings general manager Dave Taylor is on thin ice ... One sign offence has flourished this season -- there are five players who could wind up with 50 goals. There were none in 2003-04, and one in each of the two years before that ... Many NHL players take issue with the rule that says a player shooting the puck over the glass gets a minor penalty. One new rule that sits well with the Sabres' Mike Grier is the inability of a team to change when it ices the puck. "It rewards a team for pressuring another team and keeping them in their own end, and you get a fresh start," Grier said.
THE WEEK AHEAD
A home-and-home set between the San Jose Sharks and Canucks on Wednesday in Vancouver and Thursday in San Jose could determine the eighth and final playoff spot in the Western Conference.If the Canucks don't make it, Crawford could be out of a job ... The Lightning and Atlanta Thrashers renew hostilities tomorrow, five days after Tampa's Chris Dingman wiped out Thrashers goalie Kari Lehtonen ... Though the regular season does not end until April 18, the Canucks, Boston Bruins and Minnesota Wild finish on Saturday.
Islanders' goaltender Rick DiPietro has been named the NHL's Defensive Player of the Week for the period ending Sunday, March 12. He led the Islanders to three victories with a 0.95 goals-against average and .966 save percentage.
DiPietro began the week by making 30 saves in a 2-1 shootout victory over the New Jersey Devils March 7. He turned aside 22 shots in a 2-1 shootout win over the Toronto Maple Leafs March 10 and finished the week by making 32 saves in a 3-1 victory over the Boston Bruins on March 11.
DiPietro is 24-17-4 with a 3.17 goals-against average and .896 save percentage in 49 games this season.
David Legwand scored just six seconds into overtime Thursday night as Nashville edged Vancouver 3-2.
Legwand won the faceoff to start overtime, pushed the puck into the Vancouver zone and unleashed a quick snap shot that beat Alexander Auld cleanly on his stick side for the game-winner.
Steve Sullivan scored twice in the third period, tying the score and sending the game into overtime, and Legwand added an assist for the Predators. Tomas Vokoun made 23 saves in the victory.
Henrik Sedin had a goal and an assist while twin brother Daniel added two assists for the Canucks, who have dropped two straight. Auld allowed three goals on 37 shots.
If the NHL wanted to cut down deadline dealing, it didn‘t work. With goaltenders and defensemen drawing the most attention, 25 trades involving 40 players were completed Thursday before the league cutoff. It didn‘t matter that clubs faced their first deadline in the salary cap era or that the end of trading was moved up two weeks to keep teams from giving up hope on the playoffs.
Some like the New York Islanders did, but with 23 of the 30 teams within seven points of a postseason spot at the start of the day, the dealing hit a frenzied pace before the afternoon whistle blew.
The Vancouver Canucks made the biggest splash on the busiest deadline day in NHL history, acquiring backup goalie Mika Noronen and defensemen Sean Brown, Keith Carney, Juha Alen and Eric Weinrich in four separate deals.
"The goal was to shore up our D and see if we could improve in net," Canucks general manager Dave Nonis said. "On the back end, we‘re going to get some bodies back but the timing is uncertain. We felt we needed some character and strength on the back end."
Carolina wasn‘t content to sit back even though the Hurricanes have the most points in the NHL. Less than a week after losing Erik Cole for at least the rest of the regular season, the Hurricanes convinced high-scoring forward Mark Recchi to waive his no-trade clause and leave the Pittsburgh Penguins .
"I didn‘t feel pressure to do it, it wasn‘t an absolute necessity," Carolina general manager Jim Rutherford said. "It‘s not like we were out looking at several players. While the loss of Erik hurts our team, if we weren‘t able to get Mark Recchi, we weren‘t going to get anyone else."
"There‘s a lot more moves than I thought and that people thought there was going to be," Detroit Red Wings general manager Ken Holland said. "I think a lot of teams in the West made themselves better over the last 48 hours."
One of those clubs was the Edmonton Oilers , who acquired left winger Sergei Samsonov from the Boston Bruins for centers Marty Reasoner and Yan Stastny, and a second-round draft pick this year. Another was Colorado, which picked up goalie Jose Theodore from Montreal on Wednesday for goalie David Aebischer.
Vancouver sent a second-round pick and defenseman Brett Skinner to Anaheim for Carney and Alen, and another second-round choice to Buffalo for Noronen, who will help spell workhorse goaltender Alex Auld.
Chicago, just above St. Louis at the bottom of the Western Conference, went the other way and unloaded several veterans in exchange for a host of draft choices.
Despite being only seven points out in the East, the Islanders pretty much said a fourth straight playoff appearance was out of reach. Just one night after dealing forward Mark Parrish and defenseman Brent Sopel to Los Angeles for two former first-round picks, New York dealt off more veterans.
The Islanders traded defenseman Brad Lukowich to the New Jersey Devils and forward Oleg Kvasha to the Phoenix Coyotes for a pair of third-round picks in this year‘s draft.
Kvasha was acquired with Parrish from Florida on June 24, 2000, in the deal that sent goalie Roberto Luongo and forward Olli Jokinen to the Panthers. That trade more than any other marked general manager Mike Milbury‘s disappointing tenure that failed to produce a playoff series victory in his 10-plus years in charge.
Luongo has emerged as one of the league‘s top goalies, and Jokinen is the Panthers‘ captain and leading scorer this season. He was also on the trading block Thursday but signed a four-year deal to remain in Florida and not become an unrestricted free agent this summer.
Lukowich is the second defenseman acquired by New Jersey in two days, joining Ken Klee, dealt by Toronto on Wednesday.
"Brad Lukowich provides additional depth and experience to our defense," Devils coach and GM Lou Lamoriello said.
Their area rivals, the New York Rangers , made a similar move by acquiring defenseman Sandis Ozolinsh from Anaheim for the third-round choice they picked up Wednesday in the deal that sent Ville Nieminen to San Jose.
The Devils also picked up center Jason Wiemer from Calgary for a fourth-round pick.
Also active in the Atlantic Division were the Philadelphia Flyers , who closed within one point of the first-place Rangers on Wednesday.
Philadelphia acquired defenseman Denis Gauthier for forward Josh Gratton and two second-round draft choices, and traded a third-round selection to San Jose for right wing Niko Dimitrakos.
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