Maple Leafs Hand Senators Another Loss for 3-0 Lead

Cory Cross scored 2:16 into overtime as the Toronto Maple Leafs beat the Ottawa Senators 3-2 Monday night at Toronto to take a commanding 3-0 lead in the first-round, best-of-seven playoff series.

Toronto can eliminate Ottawa with a win at home Wednesday night.

“It was a huge win for us,” Cross said. “We had the game in control, but with a team like that you can never sit back, and they showed us why by getting two quick goals.”

Down 2-0 in the game, and without a goal in the series, the Senators scored twice in the final 3:09 to force overtime.

“They definitely had the momentum going into overtime,” Cross said. “If we lose, we’re still up 2-1, but they’ve got new life, and we definitely didn’t want to give a dangerous team life. They didn’t get all those points in the regular season for nothing.”

The No. 2-seeded Senators had not scored on Curtis Joseph in more than 223 playoff minutes, dating to last year’s playoffs, when Marian Hossa spoiled Joseph’s third straight shutout with 3:09 left in regulation.

With Ottawa goalie Patrick Lalime on the bench for an extra skater, Daniel Alfredsson wired a shot past Joseph with 35.6 seconds left to make it 2-2.

Cross scored the game-winner by shooting a long rebound past Lalime.

Mats Sundin and Nik Antropov scored power-play goals for the Maple Leafs, and Joseph had 26 saves.

The Senators, the No. 2 seed in the East, lost to the Maple Leafs in the first round of the playoffs last year.

Philadelphia 3, Buffalo 2--Andy Delmore scored the tiebreaking goal in the third period at Buffalo as the Flyers earned a much-needed playoff victory.

The Flyers, who twice trailed by one goal, closed to 2-1 in the series after dropping the first two games at home. All three games have been decided by one goal.

Kent Manderville and Simon Gagne also scored for the Flyers and Roman Cechmanek stopped 26 shots in his first playoff victory.

Chris Gratton and Steve Heinze scored for the Sabres, who committed two turnovers that led directly to goals--including Delmore’s game-winner with 8:54 remaining.

Pittsburgh 3, Washington 0--Kevin Stevens scored his second key goal of a low-scoring series at Pittsburgh as the Penguins grabbed a 2-1 series lead with the win.

In three games, the Penguins have allowed just two goals.

Alexei Kovalev and Jan Hrdina also scored in a 2:39 span of the third period.

Colorado 4, Vancouver 3--Peter Forsberg scored 2:50 into overtime to give the Avalanche a road victory and a 3-0 lead in the Western Conference series.

Joe Sakic, Chris Drury and Adam Foote also scored for the Avalanche, and Milan Hejduk added a pair of assists as Colorado once again found a way to win a close game.

Trent Klatt, Todd Bertuzzi and Daniel Sedin scored for the Canucks, who were playing their first playoff game in Vancouver since April 27, 1996.

St. Louis 6, San Jose 3--Dallas Drake scored twice and Scott Young had three assists at San Jose as the Blues beat the Sharks to take a 2-1 series lead.

Pierre Turgeon had a power-play goal and two assists for the Blues, who rebounded from their scoreless performance in Game 2 with two periods of relentlessly aggressive hockey the Sharks couldn’t match.

Scott Mellanby, Jochen Hecht and Cory Stillman also scored as St. Louis torched rookie goalie Evgeni Nabokov.