Burke Stifles Sharks

Sean Burke stopped his playoff struggles by stopping almost everything the San Jose Sharks threw at him.

Burke made 27 saves to earn only his third playoff victory since his 1988 rookie season, and Daniel Briere scored his second goal in two games as the Phoenix Coyotes evened their first-round series at a game apiece, beating the Sharks, 3-1, Saturday at San Jose.

Shane Doan had a goal and an assist, Denis Pederson had two assists and Daymond Langkow scored the first goal for Phoenix. The Coyote franchise hasn’t won a playoff series since the Winnipeg Jets made the conference semifinals in 1987.

With managing partner Wayne Gretzky cheering from a luxury box, Phoenix grabbed home-ice advantage entering Game 3 on Monday at Phoenix.

Burke, who was 2-10 in the playoffs before the game, came within a few minutes of his first postseason shutout in 14 years, giving up only a rebound goal by Marco Sturm with 5:41 left.

The Coyotes also got a boost from the return of captain and top defenseman Teppo Numminen, who sat out Game 1 because of a broken left foot.

After a scoreless first period, the Coyotes took their first lead of the series when Langkow got up from a crushing check by Owen Nolan and headed for the net, where he put a rebound of Doan’s shot past Evgeni Nabokov.

Briere got the Coyotes’ second goal during a power play early in the third.

He did it with a spectacular end-to-end rush, shaking a defender at the blue line and firing a clean wrist shot past Nabokov.

St. Louis 2, Chicago 0--Brent Johnson stopped 26 shots to help the Blues win at St. Louis to even their first-round playoff series at a game apiece.

The Blues, who felt they weren’t aggressive enough in crashing the net during a 2-1 loss in Game 1, scored both goals on rebounds.

Doug Weight jammed in a rebound 2:53 into the game for his first playoff goal as a Blue. Scott Mellanby scored the second goal midway through the third period, knocking in his second rebound shot off of Keith Tkachuk’s initial shot.

Toronto 2, New York Islanders 0--Curtis Joseph made 31 saves to help the Maple Leafs win at Toronto to take a 2-0 series lead. Joseph, who earned his 13th career playoff shutout, played in only his third game since breaking a bone in his left hand on Feb. 26.

Alyn McCauley scored at 3:10 of the third period--getting assists from Mats Sundin and Tie Domi, who scored the go-ahead goal in Thursday’s victory--and Tomas Kaberle added an empty-netter.

Ottawa 3, Philadelphia 0--Patrick Lalime had 33 saves and won his first playoff game to lead the Senators at Philadelphia, evening the first-round series at a game apiece.

Daniel Alfredsson, Mike Fisher and former Flyer Jody Hull scored for the Senators, who had 13 consecutive postseason road losses and seven in a row overall.