Nhl Playoff

It had been a year since Jim Montgomery played in an NHL playoff game, but it took the forward a little more than one day to get ready. With Flyers forwards John LeClair and John Druce sidelined with injuries, Montgomery, 26, was called up from Hershey of the American Hockey League on Friday morning and pressed into action during yesterday's 5-4 overtime loss to Tampa Bay in Game 3 of the Eastern Conference quarterfinals. Montgomery, Hershey's leading scorer this season, found out about the assignment Saturday morning and was able to drive to Philadelphia in time to catch the afternoon flight to Tampa.

During his 11-year NHL playing career, Bill Clement was a member of the Flyers' Stanley Cup championship teams of 1974 and '75 and appeared in two All-Star games. Since then, he has covered the sport on television for ESPN, NBC, TNT, Channel 17, PRISM, USA, the Madison Square Garden network and Canada's CTV. When Clement says he has seen a lot of hockey, he means he has seen a lot of hockey. But even as veteran an observer as Clement can't recall a better-played or more intense three-game stretch than games 6 and 7 of the Eastern Conference final, both won by the New York Rangers over the New Jersey Devils, and Game 1 of the Stanley Cup final, a 3-2 Vancouver Canucks overtime victory over the Rangers.

Ulf Dahlen picked the right time to score his first career hat trick. Dahlen's three goals complemented San Jose's stifling defense as the Sharks beat the visiting Toronto Maple Leafs, 5-2, last night to take a 2-1 lead in their Western Conference semifinal series. The teams meet again tomorrow in Game 4 of their best-of-seven series. Using an aggressive checking defense in the neutral zone, the Sharks kept Toronto's scoring opportunities to a minimum and made the most of their own. Dahlen capped the scoring with 2:22 remaining after taking a lead pass from Tom Pederson.

Hard as it may be for Flyers fans to recall, the National Hockey League still plays until the end of April, right on through the month of May, and even well into June. You remember. The NHL holds this fascinating, everything-goes, tense, dramatic, 16-team tournament called the Stanley Cup playoffs, which tend to be so unpredictable that they make everything that's happened since October seem irrelevant. Beginning today, the playoffs, so often a brutal battle of attrition, will unfold with a new format that should make it more likely that the top teams will advance.

There were National Hockey League players scattered all over North America a week ago. Most were golfing, fishing, sunning, getting reacquainted with their families, trying to enjoy the simple pleasures that usually come after the season ends. Why not? They were pretty sure it had ended. The players were striking against club owners for the first time ever, wondering where their next paychecks would come from, and darn near certain there would be no Stanley Cup playoffs.

Kevin Stevens had been mystified. The Pittsburgh Penguins' most prolific goal scorer in the playoffs hadn't scored a goal in two games, and even he, the eternal optimist, was starting to wonder what was going on. "I'll pick it up," Stevens promised hopefully after the Penguins' off-day practice on Thursday. Sure enough, Stevens was true to his word. A solid candidate for the Conn Smythe Trophy as the most valuable player of the playoffs, Stevens scored two goals last night to lead the Penguins to a 4-1 victory over the Minnesota North Stars in Game 2 of the Stanley Cup finals at the Civic Arena.

Mike Finocchiaro has a job that many hockey fans would commit a high- sticking penalty to get. Finocchiaro is the coordinating producer for SportsChannel America's NHL telecasts. The Archbishop Carroll High and Villanova graduate sees hockey pucks in his dreams, but he isn't complaining. During the Stanley Cup playoffs, Finocchiaro has kept killer hours. He was on duty in SportsChannel's control center, in Floral Park, N.Y., until the West Coast games ended. "We got all 16 overtimes on live," Finocchiaro said proudly before heading to Pittsburgh for the start of the Stanley Cup finals (Game 2 is tonight at 7:30)

Just how important is Wayne Gretzky? The Calgary Flames, who are playing Gretzky's Los Angeles Kings, are one game away from elimination in the first round of the NHL playoffs a year after winning the Stanley Cup. The Winnipeg Jets, ousted from the playoffs five times in previous years by Gretzky-led Edmonton, are suddenly within one game of eliminating the Oilers from the Stanley Cup chase. On Tuesday night, Gretzky's passing ignited the Los Angeles offense, which produced a hat trick of hat tricks for a 12-4 rout of the visiting Flames and a 3-1 lead in their Smythe Division semifinal series.

The Flyers' game against the Pittsburgh Penguins last night at the Civic Arena was delayed for more than an hour because of a power failure. At about 6:30 p.m., power was lost to certain areas of the arena, including the transformer that generates electricity for the ice-making machinery. Eventually, power was diverted to another generator, and after a delay of 76 minutes, the game began. According to Jim Gregory, the NHL's director of officiating, power was lost to the ice-making machinery for less than 10 minutes.

Randy Burridge broke a scoreless tie with a short-handed goal in the second period last night as the Boston Bruins wrapped up their first-round Stanley Cup playoff series with a 4-1 victory over the Buffalo Sabres. In winning the best-of-seven series in five games, the Bruins earned a berth in the Adams Division finals, where they will face Montreal. Burridge scored at 8 minutes, 39 seconds of the second period to trigger a salvo of three Boston goals in less than 4 1/2 minutes.