The Associated Press

TORONTO - Jeremy Roenick had his winning shot planned way before he and the Philadelphia Flyers were forced into overtime.

Roenick's second goal of the game, a rising drive that popped the water bottle off the top of the Toronto net 7:39 into overtime, gave the Flyers a 3-2 win Tuesday over the Maple Leafs and sent Philadelphia into the Eastern Conference finals.

Roenick, whose first goal was his 50th in the playoffs, capped a wild overtime period in which both teams had chances to score. Roenick lifted a 15-footer that beat Ed Belfour on the short side.

"I was sitting in the locker room after each period, and I was saying, 'If I have a two-on-one, I'm shooting, I'm shooting high glove side,' " Roenick said.

The goal came 14 seconds after Belfour foiled Mark Recchi on another two-on-one. It came a minute after Toronto's Darcy Tucker slammed Sami Kapanen into the boards. Play continued even though Kapanen had difficulty getting up and staggered to the Flyers bench.

Radovan Somik also scored and Robert Esche stopped 34 shots, allowing the Flyers to eliminate the Maple Leafs in six games and setting up a matchup with the top-seeded Tampa Bay Lightning beginning Saturday.

Philadelphia is in the conference finals for the 14th time, tying Montreal for most appearances since expansion. The Flyers went 0-4 in the regular season against the Lightning, who swept Montreal and have been off since last Thursday.

The home team won the first four games of this series, but the Flyers broke through and snapped Toronto's five-game winning streak at home.

Philadelphia	2	0	0	1-3
Toronto	0	0	2	0-2

First Period-1, Philadelphia, Somik 1 (Handzus, Brashear), 9:55. 2, Philadelphia, Roenick 3 (Zhamnov, Kapanen), 15:30. Penalties-Primeau, Phi (interference), 1:43; Tucker, Tor (high-sticking), 19:41.

Second Period-None. Penalties-Timander, Phi (delay of game), 7:58; Zhamnov, Phi (roughing), 10:06; Domi, Tor (roughing), 10:06; Pitkanen, Phi (holding), 12:20; Johnsson, Phi (roughing), 16;27; Roberts, Tor (interference), 16:27.

Third Period-3, Toronto, Pilar 1 (Mogilny, Sundin), 9:04. 4, Toronto, Sundin 4 (Roberts, Mogilny), 15:08. Penalty-Sundin, Tor (roughing), 1:10.

Overtime-5, Philadelphia, Roenick 4 (Pitkanen), 7:39.

Shots on goal-Philadelphia 11-4-3-7-25. Toronto 9-13-11-3-36. Power-play Opportunities-Philadelphia 0 of 2; Toronto 0 of 3. Goalies-Philadelphia, Esche 8-3 (36 shots-34 saves). Toronto, Belfour 6-7 (25-22). A-19,625 (18,800).

Sharks 3, Avalanche 1

DENVER - Evgeni Nabokov stopped 28 shots, and San Jose scored three goals in the second period to eliminate Colorado and reach the Western Conference finals for the first time in its 13-year history. Vincent Damphousse, Marcel Goc and Jonathan Cheechoo had goals to help San Jose avoid becoming the third team to lose a best-of-seven series after winning the first three games.

The Sharks will face the Calgary Flames for the right to represent the West in the Stanley Cup finals.

The Avalanche won Games 4 and 5 in overtime to put pressure on the Sharks, but Colorado was sluggish early and couldn't beat Nabokov again after Milan Hejduk scored late in the second period.

San Jose	0	3	0-3
Colorado	0	1	0-1

First Period-None. Penalties-Cheechoo, SJ (boarding), 12:31; Rathje, SJ (ob.-interference), 15:26; Konowalchuk, Col (high-sticking), 15:33.

Second Period-1, San Jose, Damphousse 5 (Dimitrakos), 1:34. 2, San Jose, Goc 1 (Brown, McLaren), 8:59. 3, San Jose, Cheechoo 3 (Ricci), 12:03. 4, Colorado, Hejduk 5 (Kariya, Sakic), 17:34 (pp). Penalties-Nikolishin, Col (high-sticking), 1:56; Hannan, SJ (roughing), 4:56; Forsberg, Col (roughing), 4:56; Hannan, SJ (holding), 10:01; Ricci, SJ (tripping), 15:48; Nabokov, SJ, served by McCauley (delay of game), 17:00.

Third Period-None. Penalty-Damphousse, SJ (high-sticking), 18:49.

Shots on goal-San Jose 12-13-8-33. Colorado 2-17-10-29. Power-play Opportunities-San Jose 0 of 2; Colorado 1 of 6. Goalies-San Jose, Nabokov 8-3 (29 shots-28 saves). Colorado, Aebischer 6-5 (33-30). A-18,007.

Stanley Cup playoffs

CONFERENCE SEMIFINALS

(Best-of-7 series)

Tuesday's games

Philadelphia 3, Toronto 2, OT; Flyers win series 4-2.

San Jose 3, Colorado 1; Sharks win series 4-2.

CONFERENCE FINALS

Tampa Bay vs. Philadelphia

Game 1 is 3 p.m. Saturday.

San Jose vs. Calgary, TBA

WORLDS: Former Cincinnati Mighty Duck Matt Cullen of the Florida Panthers had two goals and an assist, leading the United States to an 8-3 win over Denmark in a qualifying-round game at the world championships in Prague. Bates Battaglia, Erik Westrum, Chris Drury, Jeff Jillson, Richard Park, another former Duck, and Ohio native Jeff Hamilton also scored.