MONTREAL - Adam Graves scored twice in a three-goal second period as the New York Rangers evened their NHL Eastern Conference series with a 4-3 victory over the Montreal Canadiens last night.

The best-of-7 first-round series heads back to New York tied at 2-2 for Game 5 on Friday night.

Graves, who has five goals in the series, got one on the power play and one at even strength while Shane Churla also scored as the Rangers built a 4-1 lead in the second period.

The Canadiens rallied in the third with goals from Saku Koivu and Pierre Turgeon - the Montreal captain's first of the playoffs - but fell short after some tense moments around the New York net.

Mark Messier got his first of the playoffs while David Wilkie scored for Montreal in the first period.

The game was a reverse of the opening three games as, this time, Montreal outshot New York 31-19, but it was the Rangers who showed the opportunistic touch on attack. The Rangers were on a power play when Messier flipped a shot toward the net that Luc Robitaille missed with a deflection attempt but it still found its way between Jocelyn Thibault's pads 12:56 into the game.

Wilkie tied it with the teams each a man short at 17:11 with a powerful wrist shot from the right circle under the crossbar.

Churla put New York back in front with a lucky one six minutes into the second period. Alexei Kovalev's pass went off Turgeon's stick, hit Churla on the foot and rolled into a open corner.

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Red Wings 6, Jets 1

WINNIPEG, Manitoba - Sergei Fedorov had four assists as the Detroit Red Wings beat the Winnipeg Jets 6-1 last night and moved one game away from the second round of the playoffs.

The Red Wings scored three power-play goals in the second period as they took a 3-1 lead in the best-of-7 Western Conference series.

Unless the Jets win Game 5 Friday in Detroit, Tuesday night's was the last NHL game to be played in the old Winnipeg Arena. The franchise is moving to Phoenix next season.

Vladimir Konstaninov, Igor Larionov, Vyacheslav Kozlov, Dino Ciccarelli, Greg Johnson and Steve Yzerman scored for Detroit.

Mike Vernon redeemed himself in the Detroit net after Sunday's 4-1 loss to the Jets, giving up only a goal to Craig Janney.

Jets goaltender Nikolai Khabibulin was fooled only once in the first period, when Konstantinov slipped into the slot and snatched the puck while the Jets were busy covering Fedorov on a four-on-four.

Then Janney poked in a loose rebound at 4:09 of the second, just after Winnipeg's second power play of the game had ended, to tie things up.

The sold-out arena of 15,557, decked out in playoff white, went crazy. Just as they did Sunday, when their antics helped spur the Jets to their only win of the series, they shouted themselves hoarse.

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Blues 5, Leafs 1

ST. LOUIS -

Shayne Corson and Brett Hull scored shorthanded goals as the St. Louis Blues beat the Toronto Maple Leafs 5-1 last night, moving a game away from the second round of the playoffs.

After scoring 11 shorthanded goals in the regular season the Blues have a team-record four in the series, breaking the mark of three set in 1968 against Philadelphia. They also tied the single-game record set April 11, 1968 against the Flyers.

Corson and Brian Noonan each had two goals and Wayne Gretzky had three assists as the Blues won consecutive games for the first time since March 3-5. St. Louis limped home 1-7-4 in the regular season and was 1-4-1 against the Maple Leafs in the regular season, but leads the series 3-1 and can close it out Thursday night at Toronto.

After consecutive overtime games, Game 4 wasn't close. The Blues scored first for the first time in the series when Corson deflected Chris Pronger's slap shot past Felix Potvin while the Maple Leafs had the man advantage at 8:42 of the first period.

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Flyers 4, Lightning 1

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. -

John LeClair gave Philadelphia an emotional lift with two power-play goals last night as the Flyers beat the Tampa Bay Lightning 4-1 and evened their first-round NHL playoff series at two games apiece.

A league single-game record crowd of 28,183 watched LeClair, sidelined since the second period of Game 2 because of a sprained left ankle, score from nearly identical spots on the ice in the first and third periods.

Joel Otto and Dale Hawerchuk also had goals for the Flyers, who regained home-ice advtantage in the best-of-7 series that returns to Philadelphia for Game 5 tomorrow night.

The Lightning played without star goaltender Daren Puppa, who missed his second straight game in the series because of back spasms. Goalie Ron Hextall stopped 20 shots for Philadelphia.

Puppa has been bothered by back problems since mid-February. He missed several regular-season game and aggravated the injury when LeClair collided with him during the Lightning's overtime victory in Game 2 last Thursday night in Philadelphia.

LeClair sprained his ankle on the play and sat out Game 3. He worked out at home on Monday, flew to Florida and tested the ankle again in Tuesday's pre-game skate.

Jeff Reese, Tampa Bay's backup goalie, settled down after a shaky first period to win Game 4. However, the Lightning couldn't generate enough offense to give him a chance to recover after falling behind 2-0 this time.

The Lightning were outshot 33-22 and limited to Petr Klima's unassisted power-play goal at 9:24 of the second period.