East's Top Teams Battle To Tie

After blowing three leads, the Ottawa Senators managed to make a comeback of their own.

Rob Zamuner scored an unassisted goal with 11:46 remaining in the third period, lifting the Senators to a 4-4 tie with the New Jersey Devils on Thursday night.

Zamuner intercepted Scott Stevens' cross-ice pass in the New Jersey zone and fired a shot past goalie Martin Brodeur to keep Ottawa within one point of the Eastern Conference-leading Devils.

Daniel Alfredsson, Alexei Yashin and Shawn McEachern scored for the Senators, who had three separate one-goal leads before Petr Sykora gave the Devils their first lead of the game.

"Both teams obviously really wanted to win this game," Ottawa captain Alfredsson said. "It wasn't like either team waited for the other to do something. Both teams took charge and I think that's why there were so many turnovers."

Sykora broke a 3-3 tie 1:34 into the third period as he intercepted Magnus Arvedsson's pass in the Devils' zone and sped down the ice to beat goalie Patrick Lalime.

Sykora scored for the fifth straight game, extending his point-scoring streak to a career-best nine games.

Alexander Mogilny scored twice for the second straight game and Scott Gomez got his ninth of the season for the Devils, who shut out Montreal 4-0 two nights earlier to begin a four-game road trip.

New Jersey lost defensemen Scott Niedermayer and Brian Rafalski to injury in the first period. Niedermayer aggravated a knee injury and Rafalski bruised a shoulder.

"The cartilage that's been bothering me just kind of locked up late in the first period and it didn't settle down," said Niedermayer, an all-star. "It's happened a couple of times before and it settled down, but today it didn't."

Alfredsson scored the first of the three unassisted goals 2:04 into an uncharacteristically wide-open game for the two defensive-minded teams. Alfredsson stepped up to intercept Colin White's pass from beside the New Jersey net and beat Brodeur for his 12th goal.

Mogilny, who has 24 goals in his last 25 games, evened it with his 30th of the season just 25 seconds later.

Yashin scored his 23rd to put Ottawa ahead again, but Mogilny connected again in the second.

McEachern gave the Senators their third straight lead with his 19th before Gomez drew New Jersey even once again with a power-play goal. Linemates Mogilny and Turner Stevenson each struck the post behind Lalime, then Gomez put the rebound into an open net.

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