Senators Send Devils Packing

May 3, 1998 / 12:03 AM EDT / CBS/AP

So much for the New Jersey Devils' high hopes this season.

The Ottawa Senators eliminated the first-place Devils from the playoffs with a 3-1 victory Saturday night, suddenly turning the Eastern Conference into a wide-open race.

"What a relief," said Senators forward Bruce Gardiner as he slumped in his locker-room stall after eighth-place Ottawa finished off the first-round series in six games.

The Philadelphia Flyers, seeded No. 3, were knocked out by the sixth-place Buffalo Sabres on Friday night. The No. 2-seeded Pittsburgh Penguins trail the No. 7 Montreal Canadiens 3-2 heading into Sunday night's game at the Molson Centre.

The No. 4 Washington Capitals lead the Boston Bruins 3-2 going into Sunday's game in Boston.

The Senators will meet either Pittsburgh or the winner of the Washington-Boston series in the conference semifinals.

Relief, disbelief and pride were the emotions of the moment for the NHL doormats of recent years.

"It's really unbelievable," goaltender Damian Rhodes said over and over.

The Senators, who finished 24 points behind New Jersey, dominated the final game with their speed and aggressive forechecking.

"We were all over them from the first minute to the last," said forward Daniel Alfredsson. "I don't think that's a fluke."

Alexei Yashin, Janne Laukkanen and Igor Kravchuk scored for Ottawa. Rhodes recorded perhaps his quietest win of the series with a 21-save performance.

Defenseman Kevin Dean scored the only goal for the Devils, who were outshot 31-22, outhit and outworked under a withering wall of noise from the capacity crowd of 18,500 at the Corel Centre.

"We had high expectations," said Devils goaltender Martin Brodeur. "It's unacceptable."

It was the second straight post-season that New Jersey has been sunk by a lack of offense following a dominant regular season, and raised speculation about the future of coach Jacques Lemaire

"I believed to the last minute we would win," Lemaire said.

New Jersey finished the season with 48 wins, 23 losses and 11 ties for 107 points, setting franchise records for both wins and points. The Devils' 12-point spread over second-place Philadelphia was the most among the four division winners.

The team also won the William M. Jennings Trophy for allowing the fewest goals in the NHL for a second successive season.

But the Senators won Game 1 in overtime and had the Devils on their heels throughout the series.

"They didn't give us any credit from the start," said defenseman Lance Pitlick, one of Ottawa's many overachievers. "Now that it's over I can say we pretty much deserved to win this series."

Even in defeat, however, the Devils were uncharitable.

"We have history of making goalies look good," said defenseman Scott Neidermayer when asked about Rhodes's dominating play.

Laukkanen, with his second goal of the series, sent Ottawa into the third period leading 2-1. The Senators have lost just one of their last 63 games when leading after two periods.

The defenseman slipped in from the point and whipped a wrist shot from the top of the faceoff circle over Brodeur's glove hand at 10:30 of the second period.

Brodeur, who had lost his stick in a brush with Ottawa's Shawn McEachern as the shot was being taken, charged out of his net to confront referee Kerry Fraser. But the goal stood.

Dean gave the Devils a lift at 5:24 of the second when his looping shot from the point bounced past Rhodes. At that point, Ottawa was outshooting the Devils 17-6.

The Senators carried the play in the first period, outhitting the larger Devils, controlling the boards and forechecking relentlessly.

Intense pressure deep in the Devils' zone paid off when Yashin drifted out from the corner to Brodeur's right and snapped a power-play shot between his pads at 8:28. It was Yashin's third goal of the series and the fourth for Ottawa with the man advantage.

Devils center Bobby Holik, in the midst of a 21-game goal drought, missed Saturday's game due to a case of food poisoning.

The Senators' victory marked the third time in five years since the NHL went to a conference format in the playoffs that a No. 8 seed had knocked off a No. 1. In 1994, San Jose beat Detroit and in 1995, the New York Rangers eliminated Quebec in the first round.

It was Ottawa's fourth crack at winning a playoff series having missed two chances to put away the Sabres last spring after taking a 3-2 series lead before ultimately losing Game 7 in overtime. The Devils have only won one playoff series since winning the Stanley Cup in 1995.

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