San Jose

ED BARKOWITZ   Washington vs. NY Rangers: Washington in 5 Boston vs. Montreal: Montreal in 6 Pittsburgh vs. Tampa Bay: Pittsburgh in 5 Vancouver vs. Chicago: Vancouver in 6 San Jose vs. Los Angeles: Los Angeles in 7 Detroit vs. Phoenix: Detroit in 7 Anaheim vs. Nashville: Nashville in 6 SAM DONNELLON   Washington vs. NY Rangers: Washington in 5 Boston vs. Montreal: Montreal in...

Next week's Soul game at San Jose has been moved up a day because of the NHL playoffs. The Soul will play the SaberCats on Friday, April 22 at the HP Pavilion. Kickoff remains at 10:30 p.m. Eastern time. It is the first meeting between the teams since Philadelphia beat San Jose in the 2008 ArenaBowl. The move was necessitated by the NHL scheduling Game 5 of the San Jose Sharks' first-round series against the Los Angeles Kings at the Pavilion on Saturday, April 23. The Soul (1-3)

THE LAST 3 SECONDS in overtime and the accompanying shootout mirrored the Flyers' entire third period. In just a blink of an eye, the Flyers went from being convinced they had the game sewn up tighter than a fighter's stitches to being jerked back to earth by the San Jose Sharks. Mike Richards skated across the blue line with approximately 5 seconds left, patiently waiting for Danny Briere to cross paths with Sharks goaltender Antero Niittymaki. Richards' shot, which trickled through two players and through Niittymaki's five-hole, touched the tip of the goal line exactly when time expired.

HARRISON, N.J. - Bobby Convey scored two goals and assisted on one from Chris Wondolowski as San Jose shocked New York, 3-1, on Thursday night, giving the Earthquakes a 3-2 goals-aggregate win in the Eastern semis and knocking the Red Bulls out of the Major League Soccer playoffs. Convey, who was The Inquirer's high school player of the year in 1997 as a freshman at Penn Charter and later a star with Reading in the English Premier League, connected in the sixth and 77th minutes. Wondolowski tallied in the 81st minute as San Jose rebounded from a 1-0 loss in California in the series' first leg. On the series winner, Convey floated in a long pass toward the goal corner and Wondolowski headed the ball past keeper Bouna Coundoul.

There is no question that for 85 minutes of soccer at PPL Park in Chester on Saturday, the Union dominated San Jose. One look at the final stat sheet proves such a claim. Yet somehow, the team allowed an inconsistent San Jose side to come in and steal a 2-1, Major League Soccer win on a game-winner by Arturo Alvarez in the 92nd minute. A quick counterattack by the Earthquakes (6-4-4) in stoppage time shook the little ground the Union had to stand on in a claim of remaining undefeated on home turf.

A new stadium ushered in a sense of rebirth to a Union team that had struggled the way most teams do in their inaugural season. They rallied to win their first match at PPL Park and followed that with a tie on the road against Chivas USA. Yet with one left-footed kick in the 90th minute, the visiting San Jose Earthquakes essentially closed the chapter on the honeymoon phase of the Union's new home, sending them off with a 2-1 loss Saturday night...

The Flyers' game at San Jose tonight will be a matchup of two of the NHL's best all-around teams. And based on the season's first seven weeks, it wouldn't be far-fetched to imagine the teams facing each other in the Stanley Cup Finals. A lot of things have to fall in place, of course, for that to become a reality. Still, tonight is a good measuring stick. The Flyers, winners of seven of their last eight, entered last night ranked third in the 30-team NHL in goals per game (3.50)

Teemu Selanne and Francois Beauchemin scored second-period goals and the Anaheim Ducks defeated the visiting San Jose Sharks last night, 4-1, and eliminated the Western Conference's top seed in six games. The eighth-seeded Ducks will take on Detroit in the conference semifinals. In another game: At Calgary, the Chicago Blackhawks eliminated the Flames from the NHL playoffs with a 4-1 victory in Game 6 of their first-round Western Conference series. The visiting Blackhawks scored three times in the first two periods and easily held on to advance to face Vancouver in the conference semifinals.

Four games into the season, the Flyers already are in crisis-prevention mode. They are 0-3-1 - equaling the worst four-game start in club history - and coach John Stevens is not a happy camper. The normally mild-mannered Stevens voiced his displeasure in locker-room conversations with several players after Thursday's listless 5-2 loss to previously winless Colorado. "We've gone from playing parts of three good games to playing as poorly as we can probably play," he said.

Former Flyer Brian Boucher made 21 saves and Lukas Kaspar scored his first NHL goal to lead the visiting San Jose Sharks to a 1-0 victory over the Los Angles Kings last night. Boucher was making his first start of the season; he won all three of his starts last season after being signed from the Phantoms as a free agent in February. The Kings had two potential second-period goals waved off. First, defenseman Tom Preissing sent a slap shot from the left point past Boucher, but the goal was disallowed because of a crease violation.