A costly win for Sharks

The San Jose Sharks lost top scorer Jonathan Cheechoo, maybe for the postseason. Then they blew a two-goal lead and watched the Nashville Predators dominate the final 48 minutes.

Somehow, the Sharks managed to win their Western Conference playoff opener at Nashville. Patrick Rissmiller scored at 8:14 of the second overtime, and the Sharks defeated the Predators, 5-4.

“We bent a little bit, but we didn’t break,” San Jose Coach Ron Wilson said.

San Jose squandered a 4-2 lead after two, an advantage built with three goals in the middle frame after the Sharks lost Cheechoo, their top goal scorer, to an injured right knee nine minutes into the period.

Wilson said he wasn’t sure of the extent of the injury. Cheechoo will have an MRI.

“It could be serious,” Wilson said. “It was like a two-part attack. It was an elbow to the mouth that knocked a tooth out and the knee-on-knee contact, which you’ve got two of the worst things that we have in hockey ... If that’s not trying to hurt somebody, I don’t know what is.”

Ottawa 6, Pittsburgh 3 -- Andrej Meszaros and Chris Kelly scored 5:01 apart early in the first period and the host Senators ruined Sidney Crosby’s playoff debut in the first game of an Eastern Conference first-round series.

Tom Preissing made it 3-0 with a power-play goal 14:38 into the second period after the Senators had scored twice on Marc-Andre Fleury in the first period.

Crosby, 19, who led the NHL with 120 points, scored the game’s final goal at 19:11 for his first playoff point. He was booed sporadically by the sellout crowd of 19,611. Ray Emery stopped 23 shots for Ottawa, which had a 31-7-8 record from Dec. 23 to the end of the regular season.

Jordan Staal and Sergei Gonchar scored for Pittsburgh.

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The Phoenix Coyotes fired general manager Mike Barnett, along with Laurence Gilman, assistant general manager, and Cliff Fletcher, director of hockey operations.

Wayne Gretzky, who owns a share of the team and is its managing partner, will return for a third season as coach.