Senators force Game 7
EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. (AP) – The Ottawa Senators were short on cash in the regular season. Now they’re rich with momentum in the Eastern Conference finals. Defenseman Chris Phillips scored 15:51 into overtime to lift the Senators to a 2-1 victory Wednesday night and force a deciding Game 7 on Friday back in Ottawa. It was the second straight game the Senators fought off elimination.
Vaclav Varada was trying to whack at the loose puck in front of Devils goalie Martin Brodeur, but all he was making contact with was the New Jersey goalie. Trailing the play, Phillips found the loose puck behind Varada and fired it into the net.
Patrick Lalime kept the Senators alive in the extra session by fighting off several New Jersey flurries. The biggest threat came from Brian Gionta, who was stopped on a 2-on-1 with Patrik Elias.
New Jersey, trying to reach the Stanley Cup finals for the third time in four years, has never lost a series in which it led 3-1. The Senators have never advanced this far in the playoffs in their 11-year history.
The West champion Anaheim Mighty Ducks haven’t played since last Friday, but will face the winner on the road in Game 1 of the finals on Tuesday night.
The Senators, 4-0 in overtime in the playoffs, filed for bankruptcy and were late with players’ paychecks during the season. Now they have squared the series they trailed 3-1.
The Devils were beaten on the road in Game 5 and then sustained their first home loss in this postseason following an 8-0 start.
Despite choppy ice that had to be attended to several times during the game, both goalies were sharp. A daytime college graduation held at the arena left holes in the ice in the neutral zone.
In making 30 saves, Lalime looked more like the goalie who held opponents to two goals or fewer in 11 straight playoff games than the one who yielded 10 goals to the Devils in three consecutive losses after Game 1.
Brodeur made 31 saves for New Jersey and has allowed just nine goals in nine home playoff games.
New Jersey, on its first two-game losing streak of the playoffs, tied it early in the third period after mounting pressure that led to a cross-checking penalty on Wade Redden at 1:50.
On the power play, Scott Niedermayer sent the puck behind the net where Jeff Friesen set up. He tried to slide the puck in front, but it bounced off the leg of Senators defenseman Karel Rachunek, who was kneeling in front of him.
The puck caromed into the pads of Lalime and out to Joe Nieuwendyk, who slid it back between the goalie’s pads at 2:41 for his 60th career playoff goal. The Devils are just 3-of-21 on the power play in the series.
Nieuwendyk almost scored earlier, but Lalime stood his ground and stopped a breakaway attempt in the second period. Nieuwendyk also fired wide on an earlier shot, after he got a rebound while alone in the slot. He left the ice with assistance after the game due to an injury sustained in overtime.
Ottawa took a 1-0 lead with a power-play goal. The Senators failed on their first 20 power-play attempts of the series before rookie Jason Spezza scored in Game 5 to seal Ottawa’s 3-1 victory on Monday.
The Senators were 1-for-23 when Radek Bonk put the Senators in front.
Brodeur tried to clear the puck, but it was kept in the New Jersey zone. Marian Hossa worked the puck over to Bonk in the left circle and he let a shot fly that sneaked between Brodeur’s pads.
Both teams had early chances that were turned away either by the goalies or the posts.
Devils defenseman Colin White sent a fluttering shot from the left point that got through and hit the crossbar behind Lalime less than four minutes in.
Varada was either bearing down on Brodeur or getting knocked to the ice. Scott Stevens drilled him onto his back with an open-ice hit, but that didn’t deter the rugged forward who was denied twice in front.
Jamie Langenbrunner hit the post in the third period as he was seeking his first goal of the series for New Jersey after getting seven in the first two rounds. Hossa also found the crossbar after deflecting a shot in front late in the third.
Notes: D Ken Daneyko and RW Turner Stevenson returned to the New Jersey lineup, replacing D Richard Smehlik and LW Jim McKenzie. Daneyko was a healthy scratch since Game 1, while Stevenson was nursing a groin injury the past three games. … Hossa, Ottawa’s leading playoff scorer, hasn’t scored in nine games. His longest drought in the regular season was seven. … Ottawa had 13 shots in the first period, but only 14 more the rest of regulation.