Ottawa 5, New Jersey 4
The Ottawa Senators played their version of Desert Storm last night. Instead of “Shock and Awe,” they employed “Shock and Oh No Not Again!” 
Their playoff reputation is such that it raises coach Bryan Murray’s blood pressure every time he’s reminded of it. His eyes and head start darting around like Saddam looking for the next big boom. And they almost added to their legend last night, nearly choking on a 4-0 lead before squeezing out a 5-4 win for a 1-0 lead in this Eastern Conference semifinal series. It improves their odds of winning the series slightly. They’re 4-3 when they win the first game of a series. The Senators got last night’s win by sandwiching a miserable second period between excellent first and third periods.
Jason Spezza, Joe Corvo (power play), Dean McAmmond (short-handed) and Dany Heatley scored for the Senators in the first period. The goals by Corvo, McAmmond and Heatley were all unassisted, which is something the Devils will be talking about today.
Travis Zajac, Brian Gionta and Andy Greene scored for the Devils, who got only an ordinary game from Martin Brodeur in goal.
Wade Redden scored his first goal of the playoffs 43 seconds into the third period, on the power play, to give them a 5-3 lead. They would need that goal, with Zach Parise making it 5-4 with just 30 seconds to go.
The Devils were without captain Patrik Elias. He has been battling a cold for the past few days. He was at the arena yesterday morning, but wasn’t well enough to play. 
“He is much better,” said Devils general manager-coach Lou Lamoriello. “The way he feels, he’ll skate (today) and be ready for (tomorrow).”
The Senators made Brodeur look like, say, his backup, Scott Clemmensen, in the first period. This wasn’t the guy who has won three Stanley Cups. Each of the four goals went to the same place: top right corner over his left shoulder. It was like someone had drawn the Senators a road map.
The Devils then put their hands around the Senators’ necks in the second period.
You could almost hear the choking in the stands. And Murray’s blood pressure boil.
San Jose 2, Detroit 0
The crowd at Joe Louis Arena can be one of the noisiest in the NHL. Hockeytown loves their Wings and let everyone who comes to town know it. That’s how it started last night for the Detroit Red Wings and their boisterous fans. But, Evgeni Nabokov sure knows how to suck the air out of an arena. So do the rest of the San Jose Sharks.
After scoring two quick goals in the first period Thursday, Nabokov shut out the Wings and shut up their fans. The atmosphere for Game1 of the Sharks’ second-round series wavered somewhere between lethargic and tepid.
Nabokov noticed. “For sure,” he said. “And we wanted to keep it that way. … I guarantee you, if they had scored a goal they would have kept coming and would have gotten momentum.”
Matt Carle and Mike Grier scored 24 seconds apart midway through the first period. Dominik Hasek had to make just 17 saves because the Sharks played very conservatively after taking the lead. Grier, who whacked the Sharks’ second goal into the net, knows how rare a riled-down mood is in a city that earned the Hockeytown label by winning all those Stanley Cups. “It’s not an easy place to play,” Grier said.
There were sections of empty seats in the building Thursday, which was a shock to see. Although the Sharks were quite busy keeping the Red Wings off the scoreboard, some of the players couldn’t help but noticing the empty seats. This made it easier for the Sharks to rile down the crowd. They were pretty good, but hardly great, in beating a Detroit team that obviously had not recovered its full energy from a six-game first-round series victory over Calgary.
Give full marks to Nabokov, though, for being the chief silencer. He made 34 saves to go with his teammates’ 18 blocks. But in the game’s early scoreless minutes when things were up for grabs, Nabokov was golden. Six minutes into the first period, Detroit center Pavel Datsyuk was directly in front of Nabokov with a point-blank chance to beat him. But Nabokov stoned Datsyuk.
“Pavel was standing alone with the goalie for I don’t know how many seconds,” a frustrated Detroit Coach Mike Babcock said. “I don’t know what better look you can get than that.”
Well, looking at sellout boisterous crowd might give the Wings the lift they need.
