Ottawa 3, New Jersey 2
Three chances. Three shots to win a Game 4 in the second round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs. And the way their shots have been going in, these Ottawa Senators should have no problem advancing against the New Jersey Devils.
Dany Heatley set up Daniel Alfredsson’s goal, then Heatley, the Senators’ two-time 50-goal scorer, took a shot from the right boards that struck Martin Brodeur’s right skate and went between the goalie’s pads late in the second period to give Ottawa a 2-1 edge. Heatley laughed when he was asked if his goal went exactly as planned. “Honestly, that one I was trying to hit (Jason) Spezza off the backpost and got a good bounce,” Heatley said. “But it’s definitely been part of our game plan to get pucks to the net whenever we can.” Brodeur clearly hadn’t expected the sharp-angled shot and said he didn’t see it. “I saw him going up the boards with it and I looked in front and the puck was through me already,” Brodeur said. In total, Brodeur faced 36 shots, while looking quite out of character, while Ray Emery faced 31.
Brian Gionta had tied it 1-1 on a power play in the second period with his eighth goal of the playoffs. Senators’ coach Bryan Murray said he thought the key moment came after the Devils tied the game. While they could have collapsed, the Senators didn’t. “After they scored, we didn’t do anything other than play hard,” Murray said. “That’s what I like about this team. It has drive, character, and it’s showing it night after night now.”
Alfredsson scored the first goal when he took Spezza’s pass and shot the puck along the right boards. The Senators captain cut straight across to the goalmouth to take Heatley’s centering pass from behind the net before beating Brodeur with a shot to the top right corner. Gionta tied it when he put Patrik Elias’ rebound past Emery for his seventh goal in seven games. Heatley summoned a roaring cheer from the Scotiabank Place record crowd of 20,248 with 5:16 left in the second period when his shot went into the net. Fisher made it a two-goal lead when he drove into the Devils’ zone and beat Brodeur with a 40-foot wrist shot.
Gionta, in the second period, also scored for the Devils. Elias put a couple of shots toward the net in the final minute with Brodeur pulled for an extra attacker, with one stopped by Emery and a second blocked by defenseman Anton Volchenkov.
The odds are now dramatically on Ottawa’s side.
Not only are the Senators 5-0 in playoff series in which they taken 3-1 leads, an NHL historical trend is on their side. Of the 219 times a team has fallen behind 3-1 in a best-of-seven series, only 20 have managed to come back to win.
However, there’s still one to win. Chances are they will win one of the three left.
Detroit 3, San Jose 2, OT
San Jose Sharks were at home in the Shark Tank, trying to put a stranglehold on the Detroit Red Wings, and were ahead by two goals. But, being in their home arena wasn’t good enough so they decided to go home and not finish the game. Jonathan Cheechoo and Marcel Goc scored to give the Sharks a two-goal cushion at 8:07 of the second period. The Red Wings controlled the play after falling behind 2-0, but it took them until the final seconds of regulation to tie it. 
Detroit’s Tomas Holmstrom, playing his first game of the series, swatted home a power-play goal with five seconds left in the second period to make it 2-1. Without Holmstrom, the Red Wings had gone 1 for 10 on the power play in this series. Then Robert Lang stunned the Sharks, who dropped to 2-7 all-time in home overtimes in the playoffs.
With Dominik Hasek off the ice for an extra skater in the final minute of regulation, the Sharks appeared poised to take a 3-1 series lead. But Detroit gained control of the puck in the neutral zone and Valtteri Filppula fed Lang, who beat Evgeni Nabokov with a wrist shot from just inside the top of the circle.
Defenseman Mathieu Schneider bagged an unassisted power-play goal on the power play 16:04 into the first overtime to lift the Red Wings to a 3-2 victory in Game 4.
Schneider gloved Scott Hannan’s clearing attempt up the middle, lowered his head and unloaded a shot. “I got a lot on it; I didn’t get it high enough,” Hannan said.
Sharks left wing Patrick Rissmiller slid to block Schneider’s shot, but the puck ramped off him and swerved to the left to fool goalie Evgeni Nabokov at 16:04. “I saw he was getting rushed and once I got it I found a passing lane and shot it over Nabby’s shoulder,” Schneider said. “It had eyes.” 
But Sharks Coach Ron Wilson was miffed at his club for allowing Robert Lang to score an extra-attacker goal with 33.1 seconds left in regulation to make it 2-2. “We blew the game in the last minute,” Sharks coach Ron Wilson said. “Some people have to take a good look in the mirror why they were in the position they were in on the ice — cheating on the offensive side of things when the other team has pulled their goalie. If you get on the right side of the puck, nothing bad happens and you don’t have to worry about overtime.”
“How do we end up giving the puck up like that?” Wilson said. “How can a couple people be on the outside of their players? I don’t know.”
Because they were on they outside, heading home.
