The Hartford Whalers scored on three of their first nineteen shots and were by far the more dominant team through the first twenty minutes of play.

As such, Muskies coach John Tortorella did the only logical thing he could. He yelled and screamed for his players to commit to the game and start taking the body far more then they were. The Muskies responded with fifteen shots in the second period and four goals. From that point on the game belonged to the Muskies who went on to outshoot the Whalers 44-35 including a fourteen to one margin in overtime.

Those fourteen shots in overtime eventually led to a goal by forward Erik Cole who got his third of these playoffs and one of the biggest of his career.

"Torts did not care for the way we came out in the first period and he really let us have it," said Cole after the game. "We were being lazy and seemed to be more focused on the next series then we were on what we were doing in the moment."

The Muskies will now await the victor of the Detroit Phantoms and North Carolina Eagles series which is tied at three games a piece after the Eagles won tonight's game by a score of 3-2

After defeating the Mississauga Devils in four straight games, the Saskatoon Wildcats will now sit back and rest up some bruises while they await there next opponent. The Wilcats will either be facing the Vancouver Canucks or Quebec Remparts in the Canadian Conference Finals with the Canucks leading that series three games to one.

"This bit of downtime gives our guys a chance to heal up some of those nagging injuries and get ready for the Conference finals," said coach Dave Lewis. "I gave them today off and asked them to spend the day with their families before coming back here to the rink tomorrow."

The Wildcats have been led by Dany Heatley, Derek Roy and Jason Pominville who have all played incredibly well throughout the playoffs. Heatley and Pominville sit tied in goals scored with seven, while Roy has contibuted with nine assists and twelve points in ten games.

The Vancouver Canuks are ready to host game five tomorrow with the hopes of closing out the series in front of their fans at the Pacific Coliseum.

Jason Spezza and Sammy Pahlsson came through in big fashion tonight scoring a goal and an assist each in a 4-2 victory over the Hartford Whalers. Once more victory and the Muskies can eliminate the Whalers from the playoffs, and make their first appearance in the Conference Finals since the team was formed five years ago.

In front of a sold out crowd at the Fish Bowl arean in Hartford, the Whalers had hoped that that loud crowd would give them an extra edge in this game and help lead them to victory, after losing the last two contests. Unfortunately, it was not to be. The Muskies played a strong defeensive game in limiting the Whalers to only seventeen shots, while scoring some timely goals to take a 3-1 lead in the series.

"The boys played really, really well in front of me tonight," said goaltender Nikolai Khabibulin. "We'll need to keep our focus if we want to win this series from the Whalers. They have a great club over there and can explode with goals at any time if you give them an opening."

On a side note, Muskies defenseman Toni Lydman was kicked out of the game during the first period after he instigated a fight between himself and Dallas Drake. Although no supplementary discipline in expected, the league is reviewing the play.

The North Carolina Eagles scored five goals tonight in a 5-1 pounding of the Detroit Phantoms. In doing so, the Eagles have tied up the series at one game a piece with game three set to go on Friday night in North Carolina.

The line of Arnott, Ovechkin and Hossa combined for ten points with Arnott having four points himself.

"We really had things going tonight," said Arnott after the game. "We fed off of each other and really had some good things happening. I only hope we can keep it up when we head back home."

As for the Phantoms, they started to look really tired as the game wore on, recording only six shots in the second period and eight shots in the third.

Detroit will need to find some new energy in North Carolina if they want to take control of this series and head on to the third round.

Brad Richards scored two goals and Tomas Vokoun stopped twenty shots as the Hartford Whalers defeated the Minnesota Muskies 3-0, taking game one of the series.

Vokoun has had a very calming influence over his Whalers as of late, allowing a total of two goals his his last two playoff games. This is a goaltender that is at the peak of his game right now and is giving Hartford fans reason to believe that this could be a magical season for the franchise.

"I'm seeing the puck really well right now," said Vokoun. "The guys are doing a good job of clearing the front of the net and keeping the Muskie forwards to the outside."

If the Muskies want to win this series, they will need to start working harder in those traffic areas instead of looking for the slick pass and pretty goal.

In other news, the Detroit Phantoms took game one of their series agains the North Carolina Eagles 3-2 with the game winning goal being scored by Martin Havlat.

A two goal lead and a hot goaltender has given the Saskatoon Wildcats a spot in the second round of the NHA playoffs.

Down 1-0 after thirty minutes followed by a quick goal at the start of the second period was all the Wildcats needed as they came away with a 2-1 victory. Jason Pominville had the game winning goal which he scored only one minute into the second period off of a nifty little pass from Derek Roy. The only goal the Barracudas could muster was from Saku Koivu which was also scored in the second period.

"We just couldn't get anything past their goalie tonight," said Koivu after the game. "He played really well for them and deserves all the credit for thier win."

In fact, Martin Biron stopped twenty-five of the twenty-six shots he faced giving him a .918 save percentage for the series and a 2.27 goals-against-average.

Biron and the Wildcats will now face the Canucks in the second round. The Canucks are a well rested team and will be extremely difficult for the Cats to defeat.