Koivu’s Goal Pushes Montreal Past Boston

Only a few months ago, Saku Koivu was weak from chemotherapy and in the midst of a fight with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma.

On Tuesday night, a recovered and robust Koivu made a deft move to score the go-ahead goal in the third period to rally the Canadiens past the Boston Bruins, 5-3, at Montreal.

“It’s a great feeling to come back like that and win in the first playoff game in Montreal in four years,” said Koivu, 27, the Canadiens’ captain whose health struggle was a source of concern and inspiration for his team all season.

“I don’t know what I thought when the puck went in because it all happened so fast.”

The Canadiens lead the best-of-seven Eastern Conference series, 2-1. Game 4 is Thursday at Montreal.

Montreal trailed, 3-1, after two periods but rallied on goals by Donald Audette, Doug Gilmour, Koivu and an empty-netter with one second left by Joe Juneau.

The Bruins took the lead on goals by P.J. Axelsson, Bill Guerin and Nick Boynton.

New York Islanders 6, Toronto 1--Mark Parrish scored two of New York’s four power-play goals and the Islanders won their first home playoff game in nine years.

The Maple Leafs lead the first-round series, 2-1. Game 4 is today at Uniondale, N.Y.

The Islanders, who scored six consecutive goals, were four for nine with the man advantage. Toronto was 0 for 8 and is 0 for 18 in the series.

New Jersey 3, Carolina 1--Martin Brodeur fell 2:33 short of posting consecutive shutouts, but the Devils still tied the best-of-seven first-round series, 2-2, at East Rutherford, N.J.

The teams will play Game 5 tonight at Raleigh, N.C.

The Devils took advantage of another poor game by Arturs Irbe, who gave up two soft goals on eight shots in the first period. He was replaced by Kevin Weekes at the start of the second.

St. Louis 1, Chicago 0--Brent Johnson shut out Chicago for a third consecutive game and Pavol Demitra scored at Chicago to give the Blues a 3-1 lead in the best-of-seven series.

Johnson tied a league record for most consecutive playoff shutouts, a mark held by three others, most recently Frank McCool of Toronto in 1945.

Johnson, the first goalie to earn shutouts in his first three career playoff victories, made 27 saves.

Detroit 4, Vancouver 2--Steve Yzerman scored the go-ahead goal 56 seconds into the third period at Vancouver, Canada, and the Red Wings tied the best-of-seven series, 2-2.

After losing the first two games at home, the Red Wings return to Detroit for Game 5 on Thursday.