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By Keith Gave SportsLine.com Senior Writer |
In shocking fashion, the Edmonton Oilers rewrote a chapter of their
glorious history, doing something not even their dynastic ancestors
accomplished, to climb back into their opening-round Stanley Cup playoff
series with defending champion Dallas.
Written off as disinterested, incapable or scared, the Oilers peppered
Stars goaltender Ed Belfour with 22 shots in a first-period blitz en route
to a 5-2 victory Sunday.
"Good old-fashioned Oilers hockey," coach Kevin Lowe said. And he should
know. He was a defenseman on all five Stanley Cup teams in a reign that
ended in 1990.
But not even those revved up offensive teams led by Wayne Gretzky, Mark
Messier, Jari Kurri and Paul Coffey managed 22 shots in a period. Their
best was 21. This team of Doug Weight, Bill Guerin, Ryan Smith and Tom Poti
had
only 31 shots combined in the previous two games in Dallas -- 14 in the
opener followed by 17, and managed just one goal.
The victory moved the Oilers up a few notches to No. 10 in
SportsLine.com's power rankings in the first week of the playoffs. St.
Louis, the Presidents' Trophy winner that finished the regular season at
No. 1 on the poll, slipped to No. 8 after a poor effort at home allowed San
Jose to go home with a split after two games of that series.
Detroit, No. 2 for weeks behind the Blues, takes over the top spot with
two remarkably dissimilar victories over the Los Angeles Kings.
Philadelphia, which had a 3-0 stranglehold on hard-luck Buffalo, is No. 2,
followed by Colorado, which appeared to have little difficulty with
defeating Phoenix.
The biggest surprise of the playoffs: Pittsburgh. The No. 7 seed
Penguins won the first two games against No. 2 seed Washington, 7-0 at the
Caps' MCI Center and 2-1 in overtime at home. That improved the Pens seven
spots to
No. 4, while dropping Washington 11 places to No. 14.
Before a raucous crowd in Edmonton, Weight resuscitated his team with
one of the more memorable playoff performances by a captain. Limited to
just one shot on goal in Dallas, he recorded his first career playoff hat
trick in
the game's 27th minute.
The victory ended a nine-game playoff losing streak to the Stars, who
hadn't lost to the Oilers in 17 NHL and postseason games over nearly two
years -- or 708 days, to be exact. That was a 2-0 Oilers win in Dallas
orchestrated by then-goalie Curtis Joseph on May 9, 1998.
Obviously, the Oilers were more comfortable on their home ice. Then
again, who hasn't been in these playoffs? The home teams are 15-3 so far.
Updated April 17
Rank
Team
Pv
The Scoop
1
Red Wings
2
Powerful and versatile, but they have their hands full heading to L.A.
2
Flyers
5
Rookie goaltender Boucher outdueling Dominator to take 3-0 series lead.
3
Avalanche
4
Bourque, Foote hold Phoenix's Roenick and Tkachuk to 0 points, 5 shots in 2 games.
4
Penguins
11
Newcomer G Tugnutt after 2 games: 2-0, 0.48 GAA and a .986 save percentage.
5
Devils
10
Captain Stevens leads with winning goal, great defense against Florida's Bure.
6
Maple Leafs
8
Defense corps defies skeptics with solid postseason effort.
7
Stars
6
Seldom looked better in Game 1-2 victories; rarely looked worse in Game 3 loss.
8
Blues
1
Turgeon (1 assist, minus-2 after 2 games) must raise his game as he did last year vs. Phoenix.
9
Sharks
16
Home playoff record all-time: 7-10 with 4 goals in past 3 games and Blues visiting.
10
Oilers
12
Emasculated by hometown papers, Weight shows he can play with boyhood rival Modano.
11
Kings
7
Must limit costly turnovers and find ways to handle Detroit's dangerous role players.
12
Sabres
9
Phantom goals haunt, but real source of problem remains lack of offense.
13
Panthers
14
Anyone seen Pavel Bure? Time to post his mug on a milk carton.
14
Capitals
3
Hoping Simon's return from 1-game suspension can rejuvenate goal-scoring decline.
15
Senators
21
When the going gets tough, this very soft team just gets whiney.
16
Coyotes
16
That 'White Out' at America West Arena? Surrender flags.
17
Canucks
12
Strong, proud finish suggest this team could have made some noise in playoffs.
18
Hurricanes
9
Only unbeaten OT team misses playoffs despite two games over .500.
19
Canadiens
15
Miss playoffs for second straight year, first time since 1922.
20
Blackhawks
20
Three-year playoff drought longest since 1954-58.
21
Flames
24
Team built in Brian Sutter's image shouldn't fire coach now.
22
Predators
22
No sophomore slump: Team improves seven points from expansion year.
23
Mighty Ducks
19
Wouldn't Eric Lindros look great between Kariya and Selanne?
24
Bruins
23
Thornton's 60 points earns $1.4 million bonus to end Bruins' dreadful season.
25
Islanders
25
10 homes wins ties club record for fewest in history.
26
Lightning
26
Progress measured in small steps: Retooled Bolts show 5-point improvement.
27
Thrashers
27
14 wins, 39 points doesn't measure up to recent expansion standards.
28
Rangers
28
Worst team money can buy ends season on 1-8-1 skid.