Sabres Tighten Grip on Senators

Maybe it’s time to stop referring to them as the “no-name” Buffalo Sabres.

J.P. Dumont’s floater from the right circle 5:05 into overtime gave Buffalo a 3-2 victory over the Ottawa Senators on Wednesday night and a 3-0 lead in the best-of-seven Eastern Conference semifinal series.

So much for a Sabres team that was counted out since the start of the season for being too young and lacking marquee talent. Buffalo, making its first postseason appearance since 2001, is one win from eliminating the top-seeded Senators.

“Since day one, no one thought we were going to make the playoffs,” Dumont said. “We knew we had a lot of talent and character to do better than that. And we’ve showed it and proved it to everybody. ... We don’t care what people think of us.”

Added Daniel Briere: “I hope people keep not paying attention to us, that’s fine by us.”

Chris Drury and Maxim Afinogenov also scored and rookie Ryan Miller stopped 26 shots for the Sabres who have won five straight, are 4-0 at home and defeated the Senators for the ninth straight time in the playoffs, dating to a 1997 first-round series.

Dumont secured the victory in a game in which the Sabres twice squandered one-goal leads, including giving up Jason Spezza’s goal that forced overtime with 90 seconds left in regulation.

Taylor Pyatt started the play carrying the puck up the left wing and feeding a pass across the middle. The puck bounced high off the stick of Ottawa’s Mike Fisher, but Dumont had time to leap and bring it down. Dumont then swiped at a bouncing puck, his shot floating in over goaltender Ray Emery’s right shoulder.

“I saw the defenseman just stay there in front and he didn’t come after me, so I knew had time to put the puck down,” Dumont said. “Just shoot it and the puck went in.”

“I didn’t see it,” Emery said. “Next thing I knew it was up there.”

Ottawa is close to extending its dreadful history of playoff collapses. Despite registering 100-plus points for the fifth time in seven seasons, the Senators have only once advanced to the conference finals -- in 2003.

This is a team that has never overcome a two-game deficit never mind 3-0, and has little time to regroup with Game 4 at Buffalo tonight. “You can’t give up,” said Spezza, who scored twice. “We need to steal a game and bring it back to our rink.”

Added captain Daniel Alfredsson: “It’s frustrating. But as long as there’s hope, we’re not going to quit.”

Carolina 3, New Jersey 2 -- Rod Brind’Amour got his stick on Eric Staal’s long shot during a power play and sent the puck hopping between Martin Brodeur’s pads late in the second period at East Rutherford, N.J., to give the Hurricanes a 3-0 lead in the series.

Matt Cullen added another man-advantage goal, and Justin Williams also scored for the Hurricanes, who have won seven straight since dropping the opening two games in the first round to Montreal.

Since Cam Ward replaced Martin Gerber early in Game 2 against the Canadiens, Carolina has given up only 12 goals. The 22-year-old rookie made 28 saves to become the second NHL goalie to win his first seven postseason starts, joining Tiny Thompson, who did it for Boston in 1929-30.

Sergei Brylin and Patrik Elias scored for the Devils, who went from a 15-game winning streak to a three-game skid that has their season all but over.

Edmonton 3, San Jose 2 -- The host Oilers cut the Sharks’ series lead to 2-1 when Shawn Horcoff scored at 2:24 of the third overtime in a Western Conference playoff game.