Canes featured on NHL Network again

After a week of the NHL Network showing the 2006 Stanley Cup Finals, they've got another bit of programming that features the Hurricanes. You've gotta set your DVRs, coz this isn't prime time.

As part of their ongoing "Classic Series" series, they're showing the 1999 Eastern Conference quarterfinals between the Bruins and the Hurricanes. It'll air Wednesday morning at 9:00 and again on Thursday at 3:00 am.

It was Carolina's second season in North Carolina, and they were still in their temporary "home" in Greensboro. Carolina was the Southeast division champs and the #3 seed in the east. Their mediocre 86 standings points would not have gotten them a wildcard berth, but thanks to a very weak division, they were in. Boston was the "road" team, but was favored to win. Carolina gave them more of a challenge than they expected.

Boston won the series 4-2, and the pivotal game was game five, in Greensboro. April 30, 1999. The series was tied 2-2, and after regulation, the game was tied 3-3. The crowd stood for the entire first overtime, which solved nothing. Again, the crowd stood for the entire second overtime. Anson Carter scored at 14:45 of the second overtime to win the game and, effectively, the series. Game six, up in Boston was a shutout, officially ending the Hurricanes playoff season on May 2.

While most teams would shrug it off as "just another playoff loss", this one was very hard to take for Canes fans. The team immediately returned home, and had a party at Gary Roberts' house in Raleigh. Defenseman Steve Chiasson had way too much to drink and made a very bad decision to attempt to drive himself home. Things didn't work out. Chiasson was in a single car accident in which he was killed instantly.

Bring up "1999 playoffs" to a longtime Hurricanes fan, and you'll probably get a very somber look.

I was at that epic game five. I walked up to the ticket booth and bought a lower level center ice ticket about an hour before puck drop. Officially, the attendance was just a hair over 11,000. Carolina's attendance woes during the "Greensboro years" are well documented, and this was one of the best ones. For the record, the Greensboro Coliseum is equipped to hold 20,000 for hockey, but seldomly had more than 5,000 for a Canes game. That's another story for another day.

Back to the epic game five. Steve Chiasson scored the game's first goal. Nobody had any way of knowing it, but it would be his last.

I've turned my pigsty of an apartment upside down looking for the ticket stub to that game. I'm a bit of a packrat, and I did dig up some other tickets to other hockey games before my season ticket days. Also, I found some NFL football tickets and some movie tickets and some airplane boarding passes and some ten year old gas station receipts and various and sundry garbage. I remembered why I kept most of them, but there were some real head-scratchers in there. Anyway, I had no luck finding the stub to that game. For that matter, I couldn't find any remnants of "the Greensboro years".

One very cool sidenote about the Chiasson saga is that he and Cory Stillman were teammates in Calgary from 1994 to 1997. They also both grew up in Peterborough, Ontario. The town of Peterborough erected a small statue of Chiasson in one of its parks. As a beautiful gesture, Stillman used his day with the Stanley Cup in 2006 to visit that statue of his friend and teammate.

It'll be interesting to watch that "Classic series", but very hard at the same time. It was very exciting, as new hockey fans in North Carolina were introduced to playoff hockey, but it culminated in tragedy. That series, and more specifically, the Chiasson tragedy, was one of the most defining moments for this franchise. Every team goes through the loss of a playoff series, and must learn to do so gracefully. That's the easy part. Dealing with the death of a player is the impossible part.

Penguins can't close the deal

On Thursday, the Penguins failed to complete the sweep of Philly. After an explosive three-goal first period, the Flyers were able to hold on, win the game 4-2 and live for at least one more day.

I predicted a seven game series, but after the Penguins took a 3-0 lead, I thought there would be a sweep. The Flyers, who had played without verve for the first three games, came flying (sorry) out of the gates. Although Jordan Staal and the Penguins had a late surge, they couldn't quite make up the difference.

The Series will shift back to Pittsburgh on Sunday afternoon.

Meanwhile, in the AHL, the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton "Baby Penguins" lost their game to the Portland Pirates (Ducks). That Eastern Conference final series is knotted at one game apiece. There isn't any standard for series set-ups in the AHL. Some series go 1-2-2-2; some go 2-3-2; most go 2-2-1-1-1. This one happens to go 2-3-2, meaning the next three games are in Portland.

Detroit also failed to complete their sweep of Dallas on Wednesday, and that series will shift back to Detroit on Saturday.

In IIHF action, the two semi-final games are today. Russia will take on Finland, and Sweden will play Canada. Good luck to the Canes players in IIHF play. Tuomo Ruutu for Finland; Nic Wallin for Sweden; Cam Ward and Eric Staal for Canada.

The Mule sits out

Johan Franzen, leading goal scorer in these Stanley Cup playoffs, was forced to sit out of Saturday's 2-1 win in game 2 between the Red Wings and the Stars. He will also miss game three Monday in Dallas. Apparently, is suffering from "concussion-like symptoms" which have been persisting since the Colorado series. He will remain in Detroit where he will undergo baseline testing among other medical examinations.

The Wings have had a fairly balanced attack and some marvelous goaltending, but this is a huge loss. If the baseline tests are not favorable, Franzen will be forced to miss at least a week or more.

Unfortunately, there is a tendency for the team doctors and the players themselves to look the other way concerning concussions. I've written about this before with specific points about how concussions need not be taken so lightly because of the long term and devastating consequences they might bring about. The Toronto Star ran a two part piece about concussions that everyone should read. Even if you've already read it, you should revisit.
Part one
Part two

Even though this is a crucial time for a team to be without one of its best players, they really need to take his health quite seriously. Just ask Kevin Kaminski.

In addition to leading the playoffs in goals (12), Franzen is the author of the prizewinning novel The Corrections. Okay. He's not, but I never get tired of that joke.

Conference finals set

The second round of playoff games are over, and we're down to just four teams remaining.

In the first round, I correctly picked half of the series winners, while Maggie the Monkey was good on five and wrong on three. In the second round, I again got half of them right, and Maggie got just one. For the third year in a row, after 12 playoff series, I'm tied with a monkey in my prognosticating skills.

This round, I correctly predicted that the Pens would beat the Rangers, but I guessed that the Habs would beat the Flyers. Out west, I missed badly when I said that the Sharks would beat the Stars, but I was good in picking the Red Wings to advance. Maggie only correctly picked the Wings.

Here are my picks for the conference finals, followed by some brief analysis:






The Eastern Conference final promises to be excellent. The two teams, separated by 300 miles of Interstate 76, don't like each other one bit. The Flyers won five of the eight regular season games between the teams. They have met in the playoffs thrice before, and the Flyers have won all three series. Most recently, in 2000, the Flyers beat the Pens 4-2 in the Eastern Conference semifinal.

For the Penguins, they've been getting it done with a balanced offensive attack and a very stingy defense. M-A Fleury has allowed just 16 goals in nine games, and the penalty killers have killed 34 of 38 manpower disadvantages.

The Flyers have been getting it done with some spectacular goaltending by Marty Biron. Save a couple of stumbling blocks, he's been very solid. He's certainly been challenged way more than Fleury has. Biron has faced 395 shots at an average of 32.9 per game. The next guy on that list, Evgeni Nabokov, faced 333 shots at an average of 25.6 per game. Fleury, for comparison's sake, has faced a total of 256 shots at an average of 28.4 per game.
They've also been getting it done by "Mr. Playoffs" Danny Briere, who stumbled in the regular season but has 14 (8/6) points in 12 playoff games. Also, RJ Umberger, who had 50 points in the regular season, has 11 (9/2) in the playoffs.

The Penguins have three guys with 10 or more playoff points. Evgeni Malkin has 14 (6/8). Sidney Crosby has 14 (2/12) and Maid Marian Hossa has 10 (5/5).

By contrast, the Flyers (who have played three more games), have four guys with 10 or more. Briere leads the Flyers with 14. Umberger has the aforementioned 11. Vaclav Prospal (whom I refuse to call "Vinny") has 12 (3/9) and Mike Richards has 11 (4/7).

After cruising through the first two rounds, this will be a challenge for the Penguins. The Flyers are a more physical, more motivated group than the Pens have seen thus far. I fully expect this one to go the distance, with lots of road games won and lots of overtime. And some spectacular goaltending. Oh, and probably some fighting.

Out west, I haven't been folowing as closely, but I don't think the Stars can put up much of a fight against the Red Wings juggernaut. The Stars have been playing some low-scoring games, and that won't cut it against the Red Wings. The Wings have been averaging 3.8 goals for per game, while the Stars have only been managing 2.9. In the six game series against the Sharks, they scored just 15 times for an average of 2.5.

The Red Wings have been on fire, thanks largely to the outstanding play of Johan "The Mule" Franzen, who leads all players with 11 goals. To that, he has added 3 assists, for a total of 14 points. Henrik Zetterberg (7/6) and Pavel Datsyuk (5/8) have 13 points apiece.

Detroit won the season series 3-1. Including the Minnesota North Stars days, the Wings and Stars have met three times in the playoffs, and the Wings have won all three series. Most recently, the Wings won 4-2 in the 1998 Western Conference final.

The Stars, like the Flyers, have four players with 10 or more points. In 12 games played, Mike Ribeiro has 14 (3/11). Brendan Morrow (7/4) and Brad Richards (2/9) each have 11, and Mike Modano has 10 (4/6)

While Marty Turco has been good, I think it will come down to the even better goaltending of Chris Osgood and a superior Wings team dictating the flow.
I think the Red Wings will have a pretty easy time of this, with the Stars winning their lone win at home.

So far as I can tell, Maggie hasn't made her picks yet, but we have a few days off before the series start. The West will begin on Thursday and the East will start on Friday.

Busy hockey day

Tonight there are three NHL playoff games. That's an unusual number for the second round, but we should be glad to have it. The Detroit-Colorado series took an extra day off, which left yesterday with just the one game.

John Forslund, who has been with the Whaler/Canes organ-eye-zation since the early nineties, and who has been the teevee play-by-play guy since 1995, will be making the call for Versus for games three and four of that Detroit-Colorado series. He's been logging a lot of miles for Versus, and he's been doing a great job. It's weird, I must say, to hear him say "And Colorado is off and running!" or "Budaj says no!" rather than to have "Carolina" and "Cam Ward" plugged into those formulae.

Earlier in the night, of course, the Penguins and Rangers head into MSG for game three of their series. I don't expect the Penguins to sweep the series, but I don't expect the Rangers to win both home games either.

The biggest thing for me, though, will be game seven between the River Rats and the Phantoms in the Wachovia Center tonight.

In other AHL news, former Hurricane and female fan favorite Bates Battaglia scored a dramatic goal with less than a minute to play to give the Toronto Marlies (Maple Leafs) a series victory over the San Antonio Rampage (Coyotes). I'm not a fan of Battaglia on a personal level, but it's good to see him doing well.

Go Pens!
Go Rats!

Rats force game seven, Leighton continues to smolder.

On Saturday afternoon, the River Rats and Phantoms again needed overtime to settle their playoff game. On Thursday, they set a new AHL record for longest game at 142:58. Today, they needed "just" 70:38. Fortunately, the Rats were on the right end of this one, forcing a game seven on Monday night.

Kirk MacDonald's game winning goal at 10:38 of the overtime period ended a ridiculously long shutout streak by Phantoms netminder Scott Munroe. Kiel McLeod gave the Rats a 2-1 lead way way back at 17:14 of the second period of game five. Counting the rest of that game (105:46) and this game (70:38), Munroe went 176:24 without allowing a goal. That's almost three games.

Michael Leighton, who stopped 98 of 101 shots on Thursday, stopped all 40 shots he faced on Saturday. He's faced a total of 284 shots during this playoff series. He has given up just eight goals and has two shutout wins. His GAA is 1.06 and his save percentage is an unbelievable .972.

It really is a shame that these games aren't televised and that nobody gives a crap about them. There's been some sensational goaltending on both sides.

After the winning goal was scored, Phantoms captain Boyd Kane was given a major penalty for cross-checking and a mandatory game misconduct penalty in accordance with rule 59.5. I assume that he will be unavailable for Monday's game seven.

Go Rats!

Leighton makes 98 saves; River Rats lose epic game five

On Thursday night, the River Rats fell 3-2 in a marathon 5-overtime game to the Phantoms. The Phantoms now have a 3-2 series lead with two chances to wrap up the series on their home ice.

Rats goaltender Michael Leighton made 98 saves. This is not a misprint. I don't know how in the world a guy makes 98 saves and loses the game.

I'm not sure what the record books have for the AHL, but the winning goal came 2:58 into the fifth overtime period. This game lasted an eye-popping 142:58. The Phantoms had a total of 101 shots, while the Rats "only" had 67.

Check the scorecard here.

Sadly, this may be lights out for the Rats. No matter what, though, Michael Leighton has had a hell of a series. He deserves every bit of credit. He deserves any and all accolades he gets. He deserves a contract in Raleigh next season.

Semifinal matchups and predictions

On Tuesday, the conference quarterfinals were concluded, setting the stage for the semifinals to begin on Thursday.

In the eastern conference, I correctly picked three series winners, including picking the seven games needed for Philly to dispose of Washington.

Out west, I was not so good. I only got one series winner correct. Overall, I was four up and four down on the predictions. For comparison's sake, Maggie the Monkey was five up and three down.

Without any bells or whistles, here are my picks for the second round:


Maggie has picked the Habs, the Rags, the Wings and the Sharks. At best, I can move into a tie with her.

Flyers end Caps' dreams

On Tuesday night, the Flyers defeated the Capitals 3-2 in overtime of game seven of their playoff series. The Caps had staved off elimination twice, but weren't able to win on home ice.

As a die-hard fan of the Hurricanes, it may be unfashionable to root against a fellow SE team, but I loathe the Capitals. It brought me great joy to see Joffrey Lupul pot the game winner 6:06 into the bonus frame. Actually, I was literally jumping for joy. Earlier in the night, I had been doing the same when former Hurricane Sami Kapanen gave the Flyers a 2-1 lead, but Alexander Ovechkin came through with a clutch goal. Naturally, he followed that goal with a ridiculously exaggerated celebration. Thankfully, I won't have to see that again until October.

So the eastern conference semi-finals are set. Montréal(1) will host Philadelphia (6) while Pittsburgh (2) will host Rangers (5).

Meanwhile, the rout is on in San Jose. They're in the midst of destroying Calgary.

Interestingly, the matchups in the West will be the same as in the East. Detroit (1) will be hosting Colorado (6), while San Jose (2) will host Dallas (5).

Rats fall in game 4

On Tuesday night, the River Rats fell 2-1 to the visiting Phantoms in game two of their first round Calder Cup playoff series. The series is now knotted at two. The pivotal game five will be Thursday in Albany followed by two games in Philly.

Just two minutes into the game, right wing Jakub Petruzalek scored his second goal of the series. Brandon Sutter picked up his first playoffs assist. 20 seconds later, the Phantoms tied it. 5:20 into the second, Phantoms left wing Kyle Greentree scored the game winner. He also assisted the first goal, and was named the game's first star.

Rats netminder Michael Leighton made 24 saves, but Phantoms goalie Scott Munroe stopped 30 of the 31 shots he saw.

Montréal fans gone wild

On Monday night, the Montréal Canadiens defeated the Boston Bruins 5-0 to win the eastern conference quarterfinal series four games to three.

Boston put up way more of a fight than anyone expected, but they just didn't have enough in the tank. In most NHL cities, the fans are slightly jubilant when their heavily favored team wins a first round series against a big underdog.

In some cities, the fans spill out into the streets till the wee hours of the morning. Most of those celebrations are reserved for conference championships and of course the Stanley Cup championship.

In Montréal last night, there was utter chaos. And not in a good way:


This is absolutely disgusting. People setting cop cars on fire and smashing things is never acceptable, and winning the eastern conference quarterfinals is no excuse for the way those "fans" behaved. Les Habitants have won 23 Stanley Cups, and you would think that in 99 years they would have learned to take a first round series victory in stride. Apparently, you would think wrong.

Obviously, the hundreds of people responsible for the ugly scene last night are not representative of the Hab nation as a whole, but it's pretty ugly. If I were a citizen of Montreéal, I would be a little embarrassed and a little frightened right now.

If this is how people behaved after a win, I wonder how they would have behaved if Boston had won game seven.

Rats take game 3

On Sunday afternoon, the River Rats defeated the Phantoms 4-1 to take a 2-1 lead in the first round of Calder Cup playoffs. The series will continue with games four and five in Albany on Tuesday and Thursday respectively.

Rookie defenseman Bryan Rodney (who is not property of the Hurricanes) potted two goals. He now has five (3/2) points in three games, and is third in the league in playoff scoring. Brett Carson and Joe Jensen also scored for the Rats.

Michael Leighton made 38 saves and was the game's first star. He has faced 117 shots in these playoffs and has allowed just three goals. His save percentage is a sparkling .974. If UFA-to-be Johnny Crackers hasn't already packed his bags, he should probably start doing so. Rats season ticket holders should enjoy watching Leighton while they can. He won't be there this fall.

Meanwhile, the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton "Baby" Penguins (Penguins) are all over the Hershey Bears (Capitals) 3-0 in that series. They will be the next opponent for whoever wins the Rats-Phantoms series.

Phantoms knot series at one

After being shut out on Wednesday night, the Phantoms returned the favor against Albany on Friday, shutting out the River Rats 3-0. The series is tied 1-1, and game three will be Sunday afternoon in Philly.

Surprisingly, the bad blood from Wednesday didn't spill over to Friday. I still think there'll be more rough stuff before the series is over.

Rats take game one

On Wednesday in Albany, the River Rats destroyed the Phantoms 4-0 in the first game of their best-of-seven playoff series.

Jakub Petruzalek, Jerome Samson, Bryan Rodney and Marc Cavosie all scored for the Rats. Rodney added two assists. Mike Angelidis also had two assists. The full scoresheet is here.

At 19:31 of the third, a huge fight erupted which resulted in 52 minutes of penaties being doled out. Trevor Gillies and Tim Conboy were both given game misconduct penalties. Gillies for being the third man in and Conboy for leaving the bench to partake in the fracas. I'm not sure how this will affect their status for Friday night's game two in Philadelphia.

Michael Leighton stopped 39 shots to earn the shutout and the game's first star. In 80 regular season games, the Phantoms were never shut out.

Go Rats!!!

Playoffs set

Once again, my team has failed to qualify for the post-season. That won't stop me, though, from following the playoffs and from making predictions.

Here are my picks:




Maggie the Monkey picked the Sharks over the Flames. Other than that, our picks are the same.

I've only been doing this for two years. In 2006, I was 3-5 in the first round en route to a 9-6 overall performance. Maggie also ended up with a 9-6 record.

In 2007, I was 6-2 in the first round en route to another 9-6 overall record. Maggie had an overall record of 8-7.

Rats secure spot

With three games still to play, the River Rats have secured a spot in the Calder Cup playoffs of the AHL. They lost to the Admirals on Saturday, but the Sound Tigers also lost. That means Bridgeport was eliminated and Albany's spot is safe.

Ryan Bayda, Keith Aucoin and Tim Conboy are on two-way contracts, but I believe the AHL has a cutoff point for reassigning players, and that time has passed.

At any rate, we're all wishing the best for the Rats.

The standings are pretty tight, and everybody has at least three games to play, but if the playoffs started today, the Rats would be playing the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton "Baby" Penguins.

Oh, and by the way, the AHL has already started doing something that we all hope the NHL never does. They have corporate sponsor logos on the sweaters now. For the time being, it's subtle logos on the right breast. It's barely noticeable. I just hope that it never becomes the mess that European hockey sweaters are. For the record, Albany's sponsor is the agricultural giant Cargill.

Ducks take commanding 3-1 lead

On Monday night, the Ducks defeated the Sens 3-2 to take a 3-1 Stanley Cup Finals lead. Game five will be Wednesday night afternoon in Anaheim. Like Carolina last year, the Ducks will have three chances to finish this thing, and potentially two of them will be at home.

I don't think it will go that far.

Ray Emery was not good tonight. He made one or two good saves, but he didn't look sharp. He didn't have to be in the first period, as the Ducks only mustered two shots on goal. The rest of the game, he looked shaky, even bad. Several times, he got help from the crossbar or the posts.

Anaheim played well despite having their best defenseman in the press box. Pronger will be back on Wednesday, and the home crowd will be fired up.

There is a good chance that Ottawa will be without the services of their captain on Wednesday. At the close of the second period, Daniel Alfredsson fired a shot directly at Scott Niedermayer, who was NOT between Alfie and the goal. It looked pretty deliberate, and the commentators seemed pretty disgusted by it.
The play went unpenalized, but it will be reviewed by the League, and I guess they'll issue a one game suspension.

This. Is. Over.

Even if the Sens can pull out a victory in Anaheim, AND force a game seven, I just don't think they're good enough. For the third straight season, the Cup will go to a team from a "non-traditional" market, a sunny and warm place.

Buffalo avoids sweep; Chris Pronger is made an example of (kind of).

On Wednesday night, the Senators had a chance to complete a sweep of hockey's best team, and they had that chance in front of their home crowd. Unlike the previous three games, Buffalo decided to show up, and they won the game 3-2.

At 8:06 of the second period, Chris Drury gave the Sabres a 3-0 lead. They had no way of knowing it at the time, but it turned out to be the game-winner.

I didn't see even one second of the game, and I didn't get to chat with any of my Buffalo friends, but I'm sure they're all happy. Just before game four, I saw one of my Buffalo peeps, and he had pretty much sent the white towel up the mast.

As fate would have it, the Sabres benefitted from a five-on-three situation, scoring their first power play goal of the series.

Will this give the Sabres life? Sure. They head back to Eerie Coutie with a chance to instill hope in their fans. Those fans, by the way, have scooped up every ticket to every game this season and of course during the playoffs. Something like 60 straight sellouts.

Do they have a chance to win the series? Probably not.

In the West, which I have had a very hard time caring about, Detroit dominated game three with a 5-0 shutout. Game four is tonight in Anaheim.
By now, we've all read about or seen the thing with Chris Pronger.
He and Rob Neidermeyer crushed Tomas Holmstrom into the boards, knocking him silly and opening a gash on his forehead. Neidermeyer was given the boot for boarding, and after reviewing the tape, Pronger was suspended one game for "a blow to the head".

As regular readers know, I support the institution of stiff penalties for blows to the head. I'm glad that the League decided to do something about it. I find it a bit odd, though, that they capriciously handed down this one game suspension. There is no provision in the rulebook, and no precedent in NHL play. Huzzah for taking a stand, but I have to say that it seems like they're changing the rules in the middle of the game.
Several times during the season, players threw very hard head-high checks, causing injury. Those players were often unpenalized, and when they were given supplementary discipline, it wasn't consistent.
Like I say, good for the League for deciding to do something about it. During the summer, I very much hope that they'll write some verbage in the rule book pertaining to blows to the head. At the very least, they should have some defined supplementary discipline. A yard stick, if you will. They should know that such behavior carries a two, three, five game mandatory suspension.
That brings me to my other gripe. If the League wants to be serious about punishing players for this type of hit, they need to be more firm in their punishment. A one game suspension during the playoffs is a big deal, but the League cannot allow that to be the precedent. It needs to be more severe.
As a guy who doesn't care about the Ducks, and a guy who actually has dislike for the Redwings, I can look at the tape with a slight bias against the Wings. However, that hit looks almost predatory in nature.

As you may remember, Canada's Shea Weber (Nashville) was suspended for three games during the IIHF World Championships for delivering a head-high check to Germany's Yannic Seidenberg. There is nothing set in stone (relating to supplementary discipline) there either, but they do have a stance against head-high hits.

Anyway, that Ducks-Wings series continues tonight in Anaheim. Detroit is up 2-1, and the Ducks will be without their best defenseman.

Senators take suffocating 3-0 lead

On Monday night, the Sabres forgot to show up to Scotiabank Place, and they find themselves in a very deep 3-0 series hole. The Senators won the game 1-0, but it wasn't that close. After the game, Brian Engblom from Versus quipped "Maybe winning this game 1-0 is the ultimate 'Screw you'"

The lone goal was on an odd carom, and it wasn't the result of a five-on-three. It didn't matter. The Sabres were lethargic at best.

On Wednesday, they will have to steal game four in order to have one more home game.

AQuietGirl from Hockey Will Tear us Apart hasn't posted yet. She's probably still wearing her formal attire. Her commentary of game two is a must-read.

Kevin from BFLOBLOG isn't impressed with his team.

Ottawa takes 2-0 lead, heads home

On Saturday night, the Senators stunned the Sabres by winning again in the HSBC Arena. Maybe "stunned" isn't the right word, but either way the Sens own a commanding 2-0 lead in this series. Buffalo is no longer assured anything. If the Sens play their cards right, they can wrap up the series with two wins at Scotiabank Place.

I say "stunned" isn't the right word because perhaps the Sabres weren't. They played pretty much the same way they've played all playoff season. It was good enough to beat the Islanders and it was good enough to get by the Rangers but so far it hasn't been enough to even win a home game against the Sens.

This one was a little different, though. The home team got off to a two goal lead in the first period, but it completely lost it after that. Ottawa scored three unanswered goals to take a 3-2 lead which held up until five seconds remained in regulation. The third of those Senators goals was the result of a questionable five-on-three. This would prove to be a major point of contention, along with a disallowed Sabres goal.

Throughout the game, and mostly in the third period, the Sabres looked to be skating through porridge. Too frequently, one guy would make a dazzling move to gain the zone, only to have no teammates and four Senators to deal with.

Just like that game against the Rangers, the Sabres got a miraculous closing-seconds goal to force overtime. Before it was Chris Drury. This time it was the other Captain. This time was also different in that Buffalo couldn't parlay that momentum into a win.

In the first overtime period, the Sabres had a great chance to win it. Joe Corvo was sent off for interference, but the power play was awful. During that sequence, the Senators had two quality shorthanded chances and the Sabres had zero chances of their own. This has been the recurring theme. In the second overtime period, Corvo turned out to be the hero by blasting a blueline shot past Ryan Miller, just off a faceoff in the Sabres zone.

In the post game presser, the questions for Lindy Ruff were pretty much about the power play and how they were going to make adjustments to get it going. Instead of addressing that, he pointed out the five-on-three, which led to a goal for the Senators.

For the record, although it's true that Ottawa has had two five-on-three situations in this series, Buffalo has had more overall power plays and has failed to convert. Ottawa is 4-10 in power play situations, while Buffalo is 0-12.

Jason Spezza had three assists and was named second star of the game. He now leads all scorers with 17 (6/11) post-season points.

Ducks and Wings are underway right now.