Senators Upset Devils Again

Alexei Yashin didn’t realize it was over until he saw his Ottawa Senator teammates vaulting the Corel Centre boards at Kanata, Canada.

Yashin’s hard wrist shot on a power play 2:47 into overtime gave the Senators a 2-1 victory Sunday over the New Jersey Devils and a 2-1 lead in their best-of-seven Eastern Conference quarterfinal series. Game 4 is Tuesday.

With Devil defenseman Lyle Odelein off for hauling down forward Magnus Arvedson on a break, Yashin took a perfect cross-ice pass from Janne Laukkanen and banked a shot between the pads of goalie Martin Brodeur.

“I didn’t understand right away what happened,” Yashin insisted, despite the ear-splitting roar from the capacity crowd of 18,500. “But when I saw the guys jumping over the boards I was very happy.”

Yashin wasn’t the only reluctant believer.

“I tried to squeeze my pads as hard as I could, but it wasn’t enough,” Brodeur said.

Phoenix 3, Detroit 2--The Coyotes, their break-even regular season notwithstanding, are in contention to break out of the first round for the first time since 1987.

Rick Tocchet and Jeremy Roenick scored power-play goals early in the third period, and Roenick redirected the winner past shocked Detroit goaltender Chris Osgood with 7:13 to play at Phoenix as the Coyotes took a 2-1 lead in their Western Conference playoff series.

San Jose 4, Dallas 1--After criticizing the Sharks for being too rough and undisciplined in the playoffs, the Stars deteriorated and lost to them at San Jose.

Penalized 21 times for 72 minutes in their 5-2 loss Friday in Dallas, the Sharks kept this one relatively clean, narrowing their Western Conference playoff series to a 2-1 Stars’ advantage.

This time, it was the Stars who looked rough and undisciplined, with three penalties that led to San Jose goals and a brawl that resulted in Dallas goaltender Ed Belfour’s ejection.

Washington 3, Boston 2--Joe Juneau scored after 6:31 of the second overtime and Olaf Kolzig stopped 52 shots as the Capitals defeated the Bruins at Boston to take a 2-1 lead in the series.

Former Bruin Adam Oates picked up the puck behind the Boston net and fed it in front to Juneau, another former Bruin, who put the puck past goalie Byron Dafoe into the top corner of the net for the game-winner.

The Capitals had lost seven consecutive overtime playoff games, dating back to 1991.

Colorado 5, Edmonton 4--Joe Sakic’s blast from the left face-off circle in overtime lifted the Avalanche at Edmonton, Alberta.

The win gave the Avalanche a 2-1 lead in the best-of-seven Western Conference quarterfinal.

Sakic’s goal wiped out an Edmonton comeback in which the Oilers tied the score with two goals in the third period.

Claude Lemieux’s second goal of the game, at 2:14 of the third period, gave the Avalanche what appeared to be an insurmountable 4-2 lead. But the Oilers battled back with two goals in a 1:21 span to tie the score midway through the period.