Sabres Avoid Sweep by Flyers

Ed Ronan scored 6:24 into overtime and the Buffalo Sabres avoided a four-game sweep in their playoff series against the Flyers with a 5-4 victory Friday night at Philadelphia.

Ronan got the rebound of a shot by Garry Galley and lifted it over falling Philadelphia goalie Garth Snow. Derek Plante had a goal and three assists for the Sabres.

The Flyers still lead the best-of-7 series, 3-1, with Game 5 to be played Sunday at Buffalo.

Buffalo played without MVP candidate Dominik Hasek, who was expected to make his first start since spraining his right knee and serving a three-game suspension for attacking a reporter.

Rookie Steve Shields started in goal and made numerous difficult saves to keep the Sabres close.

“I was prepared to play even though I didn’t think I would be playing,” said Shields, who finished with 39 saves. “In this position, you have to be ready to go when you’re called upon. It just happened that Dom got hurt in the warmup and I was ready to go. I don’t know how serious his injury is for Sunday, but I’ll be ready either way.”

Colorado 3, Edmonton 2--Claude Lemieux scored his league-high ninth playoff goal 8:35 into overtime as the Avalanche took a 3-1 series lead with a victory over the Oilers at Edmonton.

Colorado, the defending Stanley Cup champions, can close out the series--and Canada’s lone remaining playoff representative--in Game 5 on Sunday in Denver.

Lemieux, whose 17 postseason points are second to teammate Joe Sakic’s 18, stuffed a loose puck underneath Oiler goalie Curtis Joseph.

Joseph had just swept the puck aside to stop Valery Kamensky but the Oilers couldn’t corral the rebound. Lemieux took it from behind the net and jammed it past Joseph.

“There were a lot of scoring opportunities, a lot of chances for both clubs,” Lemieux said. “I hit two or three posts myself and it just didn’t seem like it was going to go in.”