Whitney, Falloon Lift Sharks

Ray Whitney scored at 1 minute, 54 seconds of the second overtime Friday as the San Jose Sharks pulled off another first-round shocker with a 5-4 victory over the Calgary Flames that sent them into the second round of the playoffs.

Whitney, Sharks teammate Pat Falloon and Flames goaltender Trevor Kidd led the Spokane Chiefs to the 1990-91 Memorial Cup championship. Whitney beat Kidd on the winning play Saturday, and Falloon led San Jose with two goals.

The Sharks will open the second round against the Detroit Red Wings, the team they upset in the first round last year. It marked yet another playoff failure for the Flames, who haven’t won a series since winning the Stanley Cup in 1989.

Wade Flaherty played a remarkable game in goal for the Sharks, making 56 saves as his team was outshot by Calgary 60-30. Flaherty made 17 saves alone in the first overtime period when the Flames held a 17-8 shot advantage.

Sharks 5, Flames 4 (20T)

Calgary, Alberta SJ1 1 2 0 1 - 5 Cal0 1 3 0 0 - 4

First Period-1, San Jose, Falloon 2 (Janney, Baker), 6:50.

Second Period-2, San Jose, Larionov 1 (Whitney), 9:30. 3, Calgary, Kruse 4 (Fleury, Nieuwendyk), 19:20.

Third Period-4, San Jose, Falloon 3 (Baker, Janney), :19. 5, Calgary Kennedy 3 (Otto, Kruse), 4:14. 6, San Jose, Janney 3 (Falloon), 11:32. 7, Calgary, Nieuwendyk 4 (Nylander, Housley), 13:22 (pp). 8, Calgary, Titov 5 (Zalapski, Reichel), 14:04.

First Overtime-None.

Second Overtime-9, San Jose, Whitney 2 (Makarov, Larionov), 1:54.

Shots on goal-San Jose 3-8-10-8-1-30. Calgary 12-11-19-17-1-60.Power-play opp.-San Jose 0 of 2; Calgary 1 of 1.Goalies-San Jose, Flaherty 2-0 (60 shots-56 saves). Calgary, Kidd 3-4 (30-25).A-20,230 (20,230).

Blackhawks 5, Maple Leafs 2

Chicago

For the first time in 57 years, Chicago made it past Toronto in the playoffs.

Joe Murphy and Patrick Poulin broke open a close game with goals 26 seconds apart in the third period as Chicago reached the second round.

The Blackhawks, 0-5 in playoff series against Toronto since last winning in 1938, will open the Western Conference semifinals Sunday against Vancouver.

Chicago had advanced past the first round once in the previous four years. It was eliminated last season by the Maple Leafs, who went on to appear in their second successive conference final.

Murphy added a late empty-net goal and Denis Savard and Eric Weinrich also scored for the Blackhawks, who became the ninth team in NHL history to win a best-of-seven series after dropping the first two games at home.

The Blackhawks won four of the series’ last five games because they finally figured out Toronto goalie Felix Potvin, who shut them out three times in last year’s playoffs and in Game 2 of this series.

Toronto 1 0 1 - 2 Chicago 1 1 3 - 5

First period-1, Chicago, Savard 2, 13:41. 2, Toronto, Andreychuk 3 (Sundin, Gilmour), 17:03 (pp).

Second period-3, Chicago, Weinrich 1 (Sutter), 17:51.

Third period-4, Chicago, Murphy 4, 11:53. 5, Chicago, Poulin 2 (Savard, Weinrich), 12:19. 6, Toronto, Mironov 2 (Ridley), 16:47. 7, Chicago, Murphy 5 (Savard), 19:50 (en).

Shots on goal-Toronto 12-8-4-24. Chicago 9-16-8-33.Power-play opp.-Toronto 1 of 3; Chicago 0 of 2.Goalies-Toronto, Potvin 3-4 (32 shots-28 saves). Chicago, Belfour 4-3 (24-22).A-21,793 (20,500).

Canucks 5, Blues 3

St. Louis

Vancouver got even with Mike Keenan for beating them in the Stanley Cup finals last year, thanks to Kirk McLean.

McLean stopped 41 shots - including 25 in the second period - as Vancouver defeated St. Louis to advance to the second round of the playoffs.

The Canucks won for the third time at the new Kiel Center, where the Blues finished the season on a 13-3-1 run, and made Blues coach Keenan a Game 7 loser for the first time in five games. Keenan’s New York Rangers beat the Canucks 3-2 in Game 7 of the Cup finals last June.

Cliff Ronning had a goal and an assist for the Canucks, who were outshot 44-22 but made the most of their chances against Curtis Joseph. The Canucks scored on two of their first three shots and four of their first 12 to knock out the Blues, who tied for the third-best record in the regular season.

Three of the goals came from the Canucks’ special teams, including a record-setting sixth short-handed goal in the series by Pavel Bure. Rookie Adrian Aucoin, who replaced suspended enforcer Gino Odjick, and Geoff Courtnall added power-play goals.

Vancouver 3 1 1 - 5 St. Louis 1 1 1 - 3

First period-1, Vancouver, Aucoin 1 (Ronning), 8:35 (pp). 2, Vancouver, Bure 6, 12:33 (sh). 3, St. Louis, McRae 2 (Chasse), 13:36. 4, Vancouver, G.Courtnall 4 (Brown, Linden), 18:27 (pp).

Second period-5, Vancouver, Ronning 3 (R.Courtnall), 2:05. 6, St. Louis, Chasse 1 (Laperriere), 7:55.

Third period-7, St. Louis, Hull 6 (Elik), 15:25. 8, Vancouver, Bure 7 (Linden), 19:38 (en).

Shots on goal-Vancouver 9-7-6-22. St. Louis 14-25-5-44.Power-play opp.-Vancouver 2 of 3; St. Louis 0 of 6.Goalies-Vancouver, McLean 4-3 (44 shots-41 saves). St. Louis, Joseph 3-3 (21-17).A-20,273 (19,260).