Ottawa 4, Buffalo 3, 2OT
To score a goal in the Stanley Cup playoffs is exciting. To score one in double overtime is exhilarating. But, to score one in double overtime that has more hop in it than a draft of good old English stout, well a little luck must be involved.
Joe Corvo scored 4:58 into the second overtime to give the Ottawa Senators a 4-3 victory in Game Two of the Eastern Conference finals over the Buffalo Sabres. The Senators have a commanding, 2-0 lead in the best-of-seven series that sends them into the Stanley Cup finals. Senators center Jason Spezza won a faceoff against co-captain Chris Drury in the Sabres zone, drawing it back to Corvo for a 40-foot one-timer that skipped to his stick and hopped into the net. “(Jason Spezza) drew it right back to me and it was definitely bouncing,” said Corvo. “I made an effort to cup my stick so it wouldn’t fly on me and just tried to get it on net. “It was obviously the biggest goal of my life. It was just total elation when it went in. When it went in, it was a great moment, something I’ll always remember.”
Something the Sabres wish to forget. 
The Sabres not only squandered a lead, but also one of their best first-period performances of this postseason by scoring twice, having another goal disallowed, and outshooting the Senators 15-8. Thomas Vanek and Jochen Hecht scored inside the opening 6:13 to give the Sabres a lead they’d never wasted. Twenty-five times this season they had scored the first two goals of a game. They had won them all, but not this time. Back came the Senators, who outplayed the Sabres over the final two periods of regulation and appeared to take control when Redden capped a three-goal rally by scoring on a one-timer during a two-man advantage with 16 seconds left in the second. Daniel Alfredsson and Mike Fisher also scored for Ottawa to take a 3-2 lead deep into the third period.
The Sabres pulled goalie Ryan Miller for the extra attacker late in the period. Tim Connolly shot from the left circle, the puck glancing off Senators defenseman Chris Phillips and landing on Daniel Briere’s stick at the right post, who pushed it into the net with just 5.8 seconds remaining. “There’s five seconds left and you’re pumped you’re going to go up two games,” Ottawa goalie Ray Emery said. “Then one goes off a shin pad backdoor to the guy. That’s rattling you upstairs, so you’ve just go to put it out of your mind.”
Emery stopped 34 shots although he didn’t see one in the second period until there was 8:29 left. Ryan Miller made 28 saves, including 10 in overtime. He made a pair of gargantuan saves to thwart Antoine Vermette 9:12 into the first overtime to keep the game going. Then came the Corvo hop shot. “A dirty puck off the slap shot, a drop-shot that catches the edge,” Miller said. “It’s a terrible way to end a game.”
You want to drink a muddy looking, hoppy brew after a game, not try and stop one to save your team during the game.
