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Langenbrunner evens conference semifinals for Devils

Apr 29, 2007 - 5:47 AM EAST RUTHERFORD, New Jersey (Ticker) -- Thanks to Jamie Langenbrunner and Martin Brodeur, the New Jersey Devils finally beat the Ottawa Senators in a playoff overtime.

Langenbrunner scored on a breakaway at 1:55 of the second overtime and Brodeur made 43 saves as the Devils knotted their Eastern Conference semifinal series at one game apiece with a 3-2 victory over the Senators.

This is the third playoff series between the clubs. They had gone to overtime four previous times, with the Senators winning each game.

Never a good playoff overtime club, the Devils have won both of their extra-session contests this postseason, including a triumph over the Tampa Bay Lightning in Game Four of the conference quarterfinals.

"It doesn't matter how long it takes," Brodeur said. "We could have been there all night."

This victory came courtesy of Langenbrunner, a member of New Jersey's 2003 Stanley Cup championship team and the Dallas Stars' 1999 title club.

After receiving the puck in the neutral zone from Travis Zajac, the veteran skated in alone on Ray Emery and deked to his backhand before sliding the puck between the goaltender's outstretched left leg and the right goalpost for his 31st career playoff goal.

"I enjoy playing in the playoffs," Langenbrunner said. "I missed about eight goals during the game, so to find one in overtime is kind of nice."

"I think they tried to dump it in," Zajac said. "It sort of got on my stick and I just tried to chip it out, and Jamie was already breaking. (He) got the puck and got free."

Langenbrunner was able to get off the shot despite being hounded by defenseman Joe Corvo.

"The puck was coming up the wall and Chris Neil tried to keep it in the (offensive) zone," Senators coach Bryan Murray said. "It popped out and Joe was standing in position to help Chris at the blue line, and he got caught a little flat-footed.

"It's so often the case on a play where you try to just be safe, (that) it turns out to be one where it hit a pad and got free. And Jamie happens to be a pretty good finisher."

It was Langenbrunner's fourth career playoff overtime goal and second with New Jersey.

"I don't do a whole lot of moves on my breakaways," Langenbrunner said. "I don't want to confuse myself. That was one where I saw I had a little room. That's probably my B move. I'd rather shoot it."

With the loss, Ottawa dropped to 0-8 in Game Twos after having won the series opener. The series shifts to Scotiabank Place for Game Three on Monday.

The victory ensured Saturday's game would not be the Devils' last at Continental Airlines Arena, which was sold out for the first time this season. The team will begin the 2007-08 campaign at the new Prudential Center in Newark.

Brodeur improved his postseason overtime record to 10-19, keeping the Devils' one-goal lead intact with 29 mostly spectacular saves until just 27 seconds remained in the third period.

With Emery pulled for extra attacker, Dany Heatley beat Brodeur from the top of the crease off a feed from the right corner by Jason Spezza. The skater who replaced Emery, Antoine Vermette had the secondary assist.

Brian Gionta and Sergei Brylin scored power-play goals in the first period as New Jersey built a 2-0 lead it could not hold.

The Devils uncharacteristically got themselves into a 4-0 hole in the first period of Game One, which Ottawa eventually held on to win, 5-4. Playing from behind, they came close but were unable to even the game.

With captain Patrik Elias back in the lineup after missing the opener with the effects of a cold, the Devils jumped on the Senators' first mistake in this one.

Defenseman Anton Volchenkov took a slashing penalty 67 seconds into the contest, and Gionta needed just 36 seconds to notch his seventh playoff goal, firing a wrist shot off a rush between Emery's body and right arm from the right faceoff dot.

Emery looked shaky in the early going. Shortly after the opening goal, he got a pad on Zajac's wrister from the middle of the slot but was badly out of position during the same sequence, when another shot by the Devils' rookie rang off the left post.

With the Senators trailing, 1-0, with 3:52 left in the first, Peter Schaefer was whistled for a double-minor after high-sticking Langenbrunner. Mike Fisher then was called for slashing with 1:22 remaining, giving the Devils a two-minute 5-on-3 advantage.

The Senators appeared to have gotten to the end of the period without further damage, but Brylin managed to rip a wrist shot from the left circle into the top right corner of the net with two-tenths of a second remaining for a 2-0 bulge. The play, which withstood a video review, started when Brylin won a faceoff with 2.7 seconds left.

"When I looked down and saw the puck, I shot it," said Brylin, a member of all three of New Jersey's Cup-winning teams. :I knew there was no time."

"The clock didn't start when the puck was dropped, and that was a huge goal in the game," Murray said.

Ottawa captain Daniel Alfredsson, who was held without a point in the Game One victory despite arguably being the team's best player, halved the deficit with a power-play goal at 4:23 of the second period. Alfredsson took a feed from Heatley in the left corner and skated toward the slot before sending a wrister between the legs of defenseman Brad Lukowich, under Brodeur's blocker and into the net for his fourth playoff goal.

Alfredsson nearly tied the game just over two minutes later, but Brodeur got his shoulder on a hard shot from point-blank range at the bottom of the slot.

With the Senators on the last minute of a power play to open the third period, Heatley's sharp-angle backhand flip went right through the crease, just after the puck had hit the post. With 16:09 remaining, Brodeur gloved wide-open defenseman Wade Redden's slap shot from the left circle.

In a 17-second span with under eight minutes remaining in the third, he denied Neil, first with a poke-check and then with a full-extension glove save. Less than a minute later, the two-time Vezina Trophy winner sprawled with his glove to smother Alfredsson's golden opportunity from the top of the crease.

With 3:31 remaining in regulation, Brodeur closed the pads as defenseman Tom Preissing charged down the slot for a point-blank offering.

The Senators were outshot, 16-5, in the opening period, but their constant pressure gave them a 14-4 advantage in the second and 12-4 edge in the third. Emery finished with 30 saves.

"After playing the second (period), third and overtimes the way we did, we had them in position to take two in their building," Murray said. "But that's hockey."