NY Islanders 3, Buffalo 2
Rick DiPietro returned to his New York Islanders on Saturday night and none too soon. The Buffalo Sabres peppered him with 34 shots to help shake off the rust from a long layoff. “I could’ve used a little WD-40 on the joints here and there,” the Islanders’ top goalie said with a wink. DiPietro was limber enough, bouncing back from a pair of concussions 12 days apart, and the Islanders showed renewed confidence with their star’s return in evening the Eastern Conference first-round series at 1. “When Ricky’s back there making key saves at the right times … that gives us a boost of confidence and extra life,” forward Ryan Smyth said. “Your No. 1 player has to be your goaltender and he was that tonight.”
DiPietro started off hot and stayed that way. He made his first save in the first minute by getting his shoulder up to stop Toni Lydman’s snap shot from the right circle. DiPietro’s best save came later in the first period when, lying on the ice, he reached back to foil Thomas Vanek’s backhander from in close.
“That was a confidence-builder, absolutely,” DiPietro said. “I was lucky to get my glove on it.”
The Sabres did not look like the same team that won the first game of the series or the team that won the President’s Trophy for most points. “Hey, they want to win, too,” Sabres goalie Ryan Miller said of the Islanders. “We didn’t give enough to win,” Buffalo forward Jason Pominville said. “We’ve been a good team on the road. And we have to go there and do the things we’ve been doing well all season.”
Toni Lydman and Dmitri Kalinin scored for the Sabres, both goals coming on scrambles in front. Otherwise, the Sabres started flat, falling behind 2-0 when Bruno Gervais scored 11 minutes in. And they didn’t have enough to rally, even though Kalinin tied it early in the third. Marc-Andre Bergeron secured the win, scoring the go-ahead goal 8:37 into the third period.
Without DiPietro, this could’ve been a Sabres 4-0 series, but with their starting goaltender playing like this, it may well be a long road to the second round.
Item of note: Islanders captain Alexei Yashin was benched for most of the final two periods, and finished with a team-low 7:07 of ice time.
Pittsburgh 4, Ottawa 3
After being thoroughly outplayed in game one, the Pittsburgh Penguins decided to change things. For one period of game two at least. “They got a goal on their first shot and our power play wasn’t very good — understatement — but I thought that we really didn’t give up any chances for two periods,” Senators coach Bryan Murray said. “We couldn’t score enough to do any damage and at least get the game in a position where you could just play a checking game. And then they played a great third period.” Marc-Andre Fleury, who left after allowing all six goals Wednesday, made 34 saves as the Ottawa Senators outshot Pittsburgh 37-21 overall, including 20-5 in the second period.
“It was huge,” Crosby said of Fleury’s performance. “We had to weather that storm, especially early on, and we wanted to make sure we didn’t give up a huge lead like we did in the last game. He was a big part of that, and then as we battled into the third and we had that lead, he was just shutting them down and doing a great job of getting those big saves.” Gary Roberts and Jordan Staal scored tying goals earlier in the period and Crosby scored his second goal in two playoff games 11:44 into the third period to lift the Pittsburgh to a 4-3 win over the Ottawa on Saturday.
Daniel Alfredsson and Jason Spezza each had a goal an assist in the second to give Ottawa a 2-1 lead. Chris Kelly put the Senators up 3-2 when he scored for the second straight game 6:18 into the third.
The Penguins went 2-for-3 on the power play. Ottawa went 1-for-9.
It was a much tougher game for both teams as the Penguins decided to match Ottawa’s intensity and throw the weight around. After Colby Armstrong chased a puck directly into Senators’ goalie Ray Emery, Armstrong and Senators Mike Comrie slapped each other 4 seconds into the third. They took off their gloves and helmets and went at it after lining up for the opening faceoff. Senators Christoph Schubert lay on the ice and had to be helped off 9:18 in after an open-ice collision with Chris Thalbult. He strained his neck and didn’t return.
This series has turned serious and could be another seven game masterpiece.
NY Rangers 2, Atlanta 1
Not very many people in the hockey world like Sean Avery. Certainly not anyone wearing a uniform other than a New York Rangers uniform. Just imagine how the Atlanta Thrashers felt after everyone’s No. 1 nemesis scored with an air-hockey ricochet from center ice, then rubbed salt in the wound by setting up the winning goal late in the third period. Brendan Shanahan scored off Avery’s pass with 4:01 remaining Saturday, lifting the Rangers to a 2-1 victory over the Atlanta Thrashers and a commanding two-nothing lead in the best-of-seven playoff series. The Thrashers keep taking runs at Avery, including a nasty play by Ilya Kovalchuk that put down the Rangers left wing in the final seconds, but he relishes that sort of spotlight. “The more attention they give me, the less they’re giving to my teammates,” said Avery, one of the NHL’s most outspoken and penalized players.
Kovalchuk scored his first playoff goal off a nifty give-and-go with Tkachuk. The duo set up the play with persistent forechecking, taking control of the puck behind the New York goal. Kovalchuk flipped the puck to Tkachuk and spun into the lower circle for the expected return pass. It came right on cue, and Kovalchuk didn’t miss. He ripped a shot over Lundqvist’s right shoulder.
Atlanta made a switch in the nets after No. 1 goalie Kari Lehtonen gave up a shaky goal in his first playoff game. The Rangers scored the first two goals in that one and have yet to trail in the series. 
Johan Hedberg got the nod in Game 2, with the Thrashers hoping their backup could duplicate his performance with Pittsburgh in the 2001 playoffs. That year, “Moose” played only nine games during the regular season but started all 18 playoff contests, posting a couple of shutouts before the Penguins were eliminated in the Eastern Conference final. Except for a couple of unfortunate bounces, Hedberg played brilliantly. He made 37 saves, stopping a couple of breakaways and coming up with a brilliant toe save on Shanahan’s point-blank shot off a rebound. Atlanta has never led an NHL playoff series, and now has to take their show on the road to the largest stage in the world.
“We came in here to do a job, and we did it,” Shanahan said. “But until we win four games, the job’s not done.”
Tampa Bay 3, New Jersey 2
Martin St. Louis and Vincent Lecavalier are top goal scorers in the NHL. Johan Holmqvist is a decent goalie. But, having Johan Holmqvist outplay New Jersey Devils’ Martin Brodeur is an unexpected bonus. Holmqvist made 34 saves to lead the Lightning to a 3-2 victory Saturday night, evening the first-round, Eastern Conference series at 1-all. Holmqvist was the big question mark for the Tampa Bay Lightning after he gave up five goals on 24 shots in Game 1, including three relatively bad ones. “Homer made some unbelievable saves and kept us in the game,” Lecavalier said after the Lightning avoided going down 2-0, a deficit no team has recovered from against the Devils. “That gave us a lot of confidence. We knew he’d do it. He’s a very determined guy. We knew he was focused in the room. He came back strong mentally.”
Holmqvist was at his best in the second period, when New Jersey had an 18-5 advantage in shots. The only one that got past him was Jamie Langenbrunner’s attempt in close with the Devils’ enjoying a two-man advantage.
Filip Kuba put the Lightning ahead at 9:02 on a 3-on-2, short-handed break with Brad Richards and Eric Perrin. Richards cut across the ice after entering the Devils zone and then made a pass back against the cut and found Perrin in the left circle. Brodeur went down thinking he would shoot, but Perrin found Kuba alone on the right side for a shot into an empty net. Tampa Bay had had the better of play in the first period, but like the Devils they gave up a late goal. Zach Parise, who scored twice in Game 1, tied it with less than 2 minutes left in the period on the Devils’ third power play. Holmqvist made a pad save on Brian Rafalski’s point shot, but the rebound went to Parise for a shot into an empty net.
“The way we played in the second and the third I thought we played extremely well,” Brodeur said. “You have to give them credit. Their goalie played awesome.” Martin St. Louis tied the game with less than a minute left in the frame with a bad-angle goal from along the goal line. “I was just trying to put it on net and get some air underneath it,” St. Louis said. “I don’t know where it went but it found its way in.”
“I was there, it just went through me,” Brodeur said. “I would love to have it back, but it doesn’t work like that in hockey. He had nothing to lose and he hammered it as hard as he could and it went through me.”
Lecavalier got the winner — his third goal of the series — by getting behind the Devils’ defense and deflecting a shot from the point by Paul Ranger at 1:42 of the third period.
Jamie Langenbrunner also scored for the Devils, who are 10-0 when they take a 2-0 series lead.
