Senators On The Rebound

May 12, 1998 / 12:29 AM EDT / CBS/AP

At this time of year Daniel Alfredsson is usually thinking about going home. This time is different.

"Sweden is beautiful in the summer, but I don't want to go home yet," he said Monday night after leading the Ottawa Senators to a 4-3 playoff victory over the Washington Capitals.

Trailing 2-0 in the Eastern Conference semifinal series, the Senators faced the prospect of going home very soon if they didn't win Game 3. Thanks to Alfredsson, their season will last at least a few more nights. He notched his second hat trick of the Stanley Cup playoffs as the Senators rebounded before their raucous fans in the Corel Centre.

Frustrated in the first two games by the stunning goaltending of Washington's Olaf Kolzig, the Senators scored three power-play goals and held on for a crucial victory in a series that had seemed to be rapidly slipping away.

"They scored three power-play goals, and that was the difference," Washington coach Ron Wilson said. "We've got to do a better job of killing penalties. Every once in a while you're not going to be perfect. It's just one hockey game and we'll put that aside. We've got to respond physically better."

Game 4 is Wednesday night at the Corel Centre, where the Senators have not lost in four playoff games.

Alfredsson, who slammed his stick against the glass in frustration near the referee and was given a misconduct after Washington scored six goals on its last six shots of Saturday night's 6-1 victory, scored all three of his goals in the first period. And they came against a goalie who had stopped 292 of the 308 shots he had faced in eight previous playoff games.

The Senators knew they would have to control play early and did with some tough checks in the opening minutes as the raucous home crowd roared its approval.

That roar turned to sublime delight when Washington's Esa Tikkanen, who had shadowed the Senators' high-scoring Alexei Yashin in the first two games with great success, knocked a shot by Alfredsson into the Washington net on an Ottawa power play just 5:24 into the game. Kolzig had no chance on the goal he was lying helpless on his back in the crease after a terrific pad save.

"We just had to go back to playing the kind of hockey we played all year," Ottawa coach Jacques Martin said. "We know they're a skilled team. We just felt we needed to be better."

Alfredsson, whose first hat trick gave the Senators a 4-3 victory over New Jersey in the first round, made it 2-0 at 8:17 when he redirected Randy Cunneyworth's centering pass from behind the net past Kolzig.

Sergei Gonchar got Washington going with a similar goal, scoring on a power play midway through the period off a feed from Andrei Nikolishin. It was his fifth goal of the playoffs, tops among defensemen.

Alfredsson made it 3-1 with a nifty deflection at 16:58. Chris Phillips' shot from just inside the blue line deflected off a defenseman right to Alfredsson, who was cruising in from the right boards, and he caught Kolzig by surprise with a quick flip of his stick.

Despite the surge, the Senators had to withstand some shaky goaltending throughout the game by Damian Rhodes, who allowed three goals on the first nine shots he faced and made it interesting until the final siren.

"I did everything I could, but it was just one of those nights when I was fighting it," said Rhodes, who had just 14 saves. "Sometimes these games happen. It was a hard game to play. I didn't get a lot of shots. We got the win, even if it was ugly."

His final save wasn't. He made a dazzling pad stop on Richard Zednik with nine seconds left and Kolzig off for an extra attacker to preserve the victory.

"It doesn't matter if you win 6-1 or 4-3. It's a win," said Alfredsson, who leads the playoffs with seven goals. "That's the most important thing."