Snow, Lindros Put Lemieux Down, 0-1

Garth Snow made 27 saves in his first playoff start and Eric Lindros had a goal and three assists as the Philadelphia Flyers defeated the Pittsburgh Penguins, 5-1, on Thursday night at Philadelphia.

The victory gave the Flyers a 1-0 lead in the best-of-seven Eastern Conference quarterfinal series. Pat Falloon had two goals and Rod Brind’Amour had a goal and an assist for Philadelphia.

Snow, playing in place of slumping Ron Hextall, had a number of good saves but none better than the one he made on Mario Lemieux two minutes into the third period. Snow turned aside a point-blank shot from Lemieux, who was alone about 10 feet in front of the net. The Penguin superstar was held scoreless in the game.

Florida 3, New York Rangers 0--Panther goaltender John Vanbiesbrouck earned his fourth playoff shutout in the opener of the playoff series at Miami.

Florida scored three goals in a nine-minute span in the second period to begin defense of its Eastern Conference title.

New Jersey 5, Montreal 2--Goaltender Martin Brodeur scored an empty-net goal to cap a three-goal third period and the Devils defeated the Canadiens at East Rutherford, N.J., in the opening game of their first-round playoff series.

Brodeur’s length-of-the-ice flip shot capped a bizarre game in which the Devils took an early 2-0 lead, gave it away with two second-period short-handed goals and then came back to put away the feisty Canadiens.

Buffalo 3, Ottawa 1--Brian Holzinger scored one goal and set up another to lead the Sabres over the Senators in Game 1 of their playoff series at Buffalo, N.Y.

The Sabres had gone 173 minutes 27 seconds without a goal against Ron Tugnutt before they scored three in the final 25:30 of the game in winning their first playoff game in two years.

Derek Plante’s goal on a breakaway early in the third period broke a 1-1 tie.

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Goalie Goals

Martin Brodeur of the New Jersey Devils became the fourth NHL goalie to score a goal, the second in a playoff game:

* Billy Smith, N.Y. Islanders, vs. Colorado, Nov. 28, 1979.

* Ron Hextall, Philadelphia, vs. Boston Bruins, Dec. 8, 1987.

* x-Ron Hextall, Philadelphia, vs. Washington, April 11, 1989.

* Chris Osgood, Detroit, vs. Hartford, March 6, 1996.

* x-Martin Brodeur, New Jersey, vs. Montreal, April 17, 1997.

x-playoff game