Edmonton finally figured out a way to beat Cam Ward, and now the Oilers are right back in the Stanley Cup finals with a 2-1 win over Carolina on Saturday.
Ryan Smyth wouldn't be denied as he powered in front of the net to knock in a rebound with 2:15 left in the third period, giving the Oilers the victory and cutting the Hurricanes' lead in the series to 2-1.
"The puck went off Cam Ward and I guess it hit my shaft," Smyth said. "I don't really remember. I remember it hitting my chest and crossed the line. It was a gritty goal, but we'll count it."
Jussi Markkanen, the replacement goalie for injured Dwayne Roloson, stopped 24 shots and had the crowd roaring his name with several big saves -- a striking contrast to the regular season, when he was regularly booed as the Oilers struggled to find a reliable stopper in the nets.
The Oilers scored 2 1/2 minutes into the game and zealously guarded the lead until Rod Brind'Amour tied it up with 10:51 remaining in the third.
It was left to Smyth to prevent Edmonton from falling into a virtually insurmountable hole in the best-of-seven series. The team's leading goal scorer during the regular season, he was held without a point in the first two games of the series.
He finally broke through after Ward blocked a shot by Ales Hemsky but couldn't control the rebound. Smyth fought through the defense, got some part of his stick or body on the puck and managed to barely get it over the line.
Ward took a whack at Smyth's legs as the Edmonton player stood over him in triumph. The Oilers had to temper their celebration while officials took a look at the replay, but they allowed the goal to stand.
A deafening horn went off and silver streamers dropped from the rafters.
"There's not a prettier goal in our view," Oilers coach Craig MacTavish said.
Cheered on by a raucous crowd that waited 16 years for the Stanley Cup finals to return to northern Alberta, the Oilers came out aggressively and got just what they needed -- the first goal.
Jaroslav Spacek unleashed a slap shot from just inside the blue line and Shawn Horcoff, getting free of Carolina defenseman Bret Hedican in the slot, managed to deflect the puck past Ward.
The Oilers thought they had another goal late in the second period. With the Oilers short-handed, Ethan Moreau knocked the puck away from Doug Weight behind the Carolina goal, came right out front and took several whacks at the puck with Ward sprawled on the ice.
An overhead replay showed the puck between Ward's legs, clearly uncovered. But referee Mick McGeough lost sight of it and blew his whistle just before Moreau tugged the puck out and flipped it over the goalie, prompting silver streamers to fall from the rafters -- prematurely, as it turned out.
The Oilers protected the lead until Brind'Amour scored. Cory Stillman cut off the puck behind the net and whipped a pass to Brind'Amour in front of the net.
His first shot caught Edmonton defenseman Jason Smith in the chest, the puck going right back to Brind'Amour, who fired another quick shot over Markkanen's right shoulder to silence the fans.
Otherwise, the replacement goalie stopped everything that came his way.
"I saw the puck well," Markkanen said. "A lot of credit goes to the forwards coming back to help."
Ward, the first rookie in 20 years to record a shutout in the finals, returned to his hometown hoping to give the Hurricanes a 3-0 lead. Cheered on by his parents from their regular seats in section 102, he made 28 saves and couldn't be blamed for either of the goals.
But the Oilers played a much tighter game in front of Markkanen, providing hope of pulling off another playofff surprise. They upset three higher-rannked teams to become the first No. 8 seed to reach the finals under the current playoff format.
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but
Taiwanese gymnast Lee Chih-kai failed to secure an Olympic berth in the pommel horse following a second-place finish at the last qualifier in Doha on Friday, a performance that Lee and his coach called “unconvincing.” The Tokyo Olympics silver medalist finished runner-up in the final after scoring 6.6 for degree of difficulty and 8.800 for execution for a combined score of 15.400. That was just 0.100 short of Jordan’s Ahmad Abu Al Soud, who had qualified for the event in Paris before the Apparatus World Cup series in Qatar’s capital. After missing the final rounds in the first two of four qualifier