Ottawa’s Knockout Punch Finishes Off New Jersey, 3-1

So much for the New Jersey Devils’ Stanley Cup dreams.

The Ottawa Senators eliminated the No. 1-seeded Devils from the playoffs with a 3-1 victory Saturday night at Kanata, Ontario, suddenly turning the Eastern Conference into a wide-open race.

“What a relief,” said Senator forward Bruce Gardiner as he slumped in his locker-room stall after No. 8 seeded Ottawa finished off the first-round series in six games.

The Philadelphia Flyers, seeded No. 3, were knocked out by the No. 6 Buffalo Sabres on Friday night. The Pittsburgh Penguins, seeded No. 2, trails No. 7 Montreal Canadiens, 3-2, heading into today’s game at the Molson Centre.

The No. 4 Washington Capitals lead the Boston Bruins, 3-2, going into today’s game in Boston.

The Senators will meet either Pittsburgh or the winner of the Washington-Boston series in the conference semifinals.

Relief, disbelief and pride were the emotions of the moment for the NHL doormats of recent years.

“It’s really unbelievable,” goaltender Damian Rhodes said.

The Senators, who finished 24 points behind New Jersey, dominated the final game with their speed and aggressive forechecking.

“We were all over them from the first minute to the last,” forward Daniel Alfredsson said. “I don’t think that’s a fluke.”

Alexei Yashin, Janne Laukkanen and Igor Kravchuk scored for Ottawa. Rhodes recorded perhaps his quietest victory of the series with a 21-save performance.

Defenseman Kevin Dean scored the only goal for the Devils, who were outshot, 31-22, outhit and outworked under a withering wall of noise from the capacity crowd of 18,500 at the Corel Centre.

“We had high expectations,” Devils goaltender Martin Brodeur said. “It’s unacceptable.”

It was the second consecutive postseason that New Jersey has been sunk by a lack of offense after a dominant regular season, and raised speculation about the future of Coach Jacques Lemaire.

“I believed to the last minute we would win,” Lemaire said.

New Jersey finished the season 48-23-11 for 107 points, setting franchise records for both victories and points. The Devils’ 12-point margin over second-place Philadelphia was the most among the four division winners.

The team also won the William M. Jennings Trophy for giving up the fewest goals in the NHL for a second successive season.

But the Senators won Game 1 in overtime and had the Devils on their heels throughout the series.

Laukkanen, with his second goal of the series, sent Ottawa into the third period leading, 2-1. The Senators have lost only one of their last 63 games when leading after two periods.

The defenseman slipped in from the point and whipped a wrist shot from the top of the faceoff circle over Brodeur’s glove hand at 10:30 of the second period.

Brodeur, who had lost his stick in a brush with Ottawa’s Shawn McEachern as the shot was being taken, charged out of his net to confront referee Kerry Fraser. But the goal stood.

Dean gave the Devils a lift at 5:24 of the second when his looping shot from the point bounced past Rhodes. At that point, Ottawa was outshooting the Devils, 17-6.

The Senators’ victory marked the third time in five years since the NHL went to a conference format in the playoffs that a No. 8-seeded team had knocked off a No. 1. In 1994, San Jose beat Detroit and in 1995, the New York Rangers eliminated Quebec in the first round.

The Devils have only won one playoff series since winning the Stanley Cup in 1995.

Dallas 3, San Jose 2--Mike Keane scored the winning goal as the Stars finally conquered the underdog Sharks in overtime at San Jose.

The Sharks, seeded No. 8 in the West, had threatened to take the closely fought series back to Dallas for Game 7 by jumping ahead, 2-0. But Dallas battled back with two goals in the second period and the game-winner at 3:43 into overtime.

Keane took a pass from Darryl Sydor and beat fallen Sharks goaltender Mike Vernon, who faced 28 shots.

The Stars had lost their last five overtime games in the playoffs, including Game 4 of the series against the Sharks on Tuesday in San Jose, and had not won such a game since 1994.

The game was marked by the sellout crowd’s almost incessant taunting of Ed Belfour, who was traded to San Jose from the Blackhawks last season but played only 13 games with the Sharks before leaving for Dallas as a free agent.

A sign in the San Jose Arena read: “We love our Sharks more than we hate Eddie--and that’s a lot.”

Edmonton 2, Colorado 0--Curtis Joseph stopped 31 shots at Edmonton as the Oilers tied the series and sent it to a seventh game Monday night at Denver.

Drake Berehowsky scored a first-period goal for the Oilers and Boris Mironov added a power-play goal in the third period.

NHL Notes

Buffalo Sabres Coach Lindy Ruff, whose team has advanced to the second round of the playoffs, has convinced new owner John Rigas that he should be back behind the team’s bench for at least another season. . . . “There’s no question he’s coming back with the way things are going,” Rigas said. “We would never think of making a change. It’s not even possible at this point. Are you kidding? I’d be hung out to dry.”

Rigas helped fuel speculation before taking full control of the team last month by saying it was possible former coach Ted Nolan could be re-hired if the Sabres struggled under Ruff. As a minority owner, Rigas was a major supporter of Nolan and was unhappy when ownership partners offered him a one-year deal last year.