EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. (AP) _ A big playoff performance could mean more than a big payday for Doug Gilmour. It also could atone for a miserable postseason a year ago.
Gilmour took steps in that direction and eased concerns that the New Jersey Devils were headed for another early playoff exit by scoring two goals and setting up another in a 3-1 victory over the Ottawa Senators on Friday night.
Gilmour, who didn't score a goal in a stunning second-round playoff loss to the Rangers last year, got the game-winner late in the second period and his third of the series into an empty net goal with 41 seconds to play evened the best-of-7, first-round series 1-1.
``Last year was very disappointing,'' Gilmour said. ``You have to answer questions and you have to accept the responsibility that we lost and that you were somewhat at fault. This year, I had some time off and had time to think about it and I wanted to make sure I came out and did the best I can for this hockey club.''
Whatever happens, Gilmour will become an unrestricted free agent after this season and a big playoff could earn him a big contract.
``I know he wants to go out there and do what he has done in past playoffs,'' Devils defenseman Ken Daneyko said of Gilmour. ``He has been a top performer in the playoffs and this hockey club sure needs it.''
Dave Andreychuk, Gilmour's long-time Toronto teammate, also scored and Martin Brodeur had 27 saves as New Jersey snapped a five-game playoff losing streak dating to last season.
``He wants to win, that's the bottom line,'' Andreychuk said of Gilmour, who missed 18 games late in the season with a knee injury. ``He wants to be here to win and you can just see it.''
Chris Murray had an early goal for the Senators, who are trying to become only the third eighth seed to knock off the top seed. The next two games will be played at Ottawa on Sunday and Tuesday night.
``We kept it close and we had a chance to win it in the third,'' Senators goaltender Damian Rhodes said. ``We peppered Brodeur pretty good and he came up with some good saves. That's what we wanted. We got the split. It would have been nice to get the two games.''
While there never has been a rivalry between these teams, one is quickly developing. Devils defenseman Scott Niedermayer and Senators forward Daniel Alfredsson went after each other in Game 1 and the five players on the ice when the game ended spent two minutes in a minor melee at the final horn when Ottawa defenseman Wade Redden by run by Krzysztof Oliwa.
The Senators were angered by implications that the Devils could manhandle them.
``We're not going to collapse,'' Murray said. ``They can think that all they want. They can go out at the end of the game and do that bull. This is hockey. We're a tough team. ... We're going to show them in the next game who is the best team.''
Gilmour's game-winner with 1:02 left in the second period came on a play in which some Senators complained to referee Paul Stewart about a hand pass.
Gilmour lifted a lazy backhand pass from the left boards in center ice to the right side of the Senators blue line. Jason Arnott waved his hand at the puck and Jay Pandolfo got it along the boards in the Senators zone.
Pandolfo then found Niedermayer coming down the slot and he slid the puck to an open Gilmour, whose backhand shot banked off the post, hit Rhodes' skate and bounced into the net.
Series supervisor of officials Denis Morel said it wasn't a hand pass because Arnott did not intentionally direct the puck toward Pandolfo.
The Senators came close to tying game at least three times in the final period but each time Brodeur came up big, stopping close rebound attempts by Shaun Van Allen with 10:45 to go and Shawn McEachern with 7:00 to play.
Rhodes, who stopped 28 of 29 shots Wednesday night, had to be just as good in the first period to keep this game close. He finished with 29 saves.
Alexei Yashin helped stake Ottawa to a 1-0 lead by drawing two defenseman to him and then hitting Murray with a cross-ice pass for a clear run at Brodeur. The right wing let Brodeur go down and beat him with a shot under the crossbar at 3:38.
Bobby Carpenter wasn't on the ice when Andreychuk tied the game at 9:19 with a rare four-on-three power play. However, Carpenter drew two penalties 15 seconds apart to turn a short-handed situation into an extra man.
Gilmour and Brendan Morrison, inserted into the lineup because of an injury to Scott Daniels, traded passes before Gilmour found Andreychuk in the slot for a one-timer.
It was Andreychuk's 33rd career playoff goal but his first since 1995.
#2 PITTSBURGH PEGUINS vs #7 MONTREAL CANADIENS
PITTSBURGH (AP) -- The Montreal Canadiens spent all week working on a gimmick defense to contain Jaromir Jagr. Maybe they should have worried more about the other two guys on his line. Stu Barnes scored twice -- once when Montreal's Vladimir Malakhov knocked the puck into his own net -- and had an assist as the Pittsburgh Penguins evened their first-ever playoff series against the Canadiens by winning 4-1 Saturday night.
"Sometimes he gets overlooked playing with Jagr and (Ron Francis) but Barnes is a big part of their team and he showed it," Montreal's Shayne Corson said.
Barnes, often finding himself with open ice as Montreal's three-defenseman line occupied itself with Jagr, the NHL scoring champion, also set up Pittsburgh's first goal as the Penguins followed a familiar playoff pattern.
They are 8-1 in Game 2 when they lose Game 1, as they have in seven of their last nine playoff series.
"We knew we had to come out of here with at least one win after losing Game 1," said forward Rob Brown, whose big hits on Pittsburgh's checking line helped swing the momentum in the second period. "We couldn't go up there behind 2-0. We felt when the series started it would go seven games, and we still do."
Game 3 will be Monday night in the still not sold-out Molson Centre, where the Penguins were 2-0-1 this season -- half as many victories as they managed in more than a quarter-century of visits to the now-shuttered Forum.
Montreal again relied heavily on its modified left-wing lock defense -- which features a defenseman rather than a forward at left wing -- that neutralized Jagr in Game 1. But this time, Jagr's linemates, Francis and Barnes, took advantage to figure in all four Pittsburgh goals.
"It's not like we made any big adjustments, at least consciously," Barnes said. "We just got a few more bounces this game."
Both teams scored on two-man advantages in the first period before the Penguins took a 2-1 lead in the second on a shot they didn't take.
With defenseman Igor Ulanov occupied up ice with Jagr, Barnes skated unimpeded across the left circle and was tripped by Malakhov as he went sprawling across the goal line.
But Barnes managed to put his stick on the puck and Malakhov, attempting to swipe it away, inadvertently shot it into his own net for the go-ahead goal at 10:42 of the second.
"You get lucky sometimes, it had some bounces, didn't it?" Barnes said. "This time of the year, you take them any way you get them. I didn't even know he had touched it until (Francis) told me."
Malakhov refused comment, but goaltender Andy Moog said, "I just came off the post a hair and that's all the puck needs, an inch, and it slid in there. He (Malakhov) was making the right play, it was wobbling and it came out funny. I just have to squeeze the post a little tighter."
After that, the Penguins took advantage of referee Kerry Fraser's reluctance to call penalties after giving each team a two-man advantage in the first period.
Fraser called only four more penalties, and Pittsburgh benefited from the relaxed officiating to repeatedly disrupt Montreal's up-ice rushes. Montreal managed only three shots on Tom Barrasso in the second period and were outshot 24-13 over the first two periods -- a reversal of Game 1, when the Canadiens outshot Pittsburgh 14-5 early while taking a momentum-swinging 1-0 lead.
This time, Pittsburgh scored the first goal, which Penguins coach Kevin Constantine calls even more critical than home-ice advantage in what figures to be a low-scoring series.
Ed Olczyk, scoreless in 24 games since Feb. 6, scored 25 seconds into what would have been a 47-second two-man advantage at 11:13 of the first. He worked free into the mid-slot area among Montreal's three-man defensive triangle to direct Barnes' pass from the left-wing boards past Moog, who is 1-9 in his last 10 playoff starts against Pittsburgh.
"The lead is so crucial in this series because both teams play the exact same style," Brown said. "When you get a lead you can fall back and play your system."
Pittsburgh is unbeaten this season when taking a lead into the third period.
Vincent Damphousse later scored 14 seconds into Montreal's two-man advantage, threading a bad-angle shot from the edge of the right circle between Barrasso's stick and the near post at 18:29. Olczyk and Barnes were off for penalties whistled 47 seconds apart.
Barnes scored again at 1:12 of the third, cutting in from the lower right circle as Ulanov whacked at his ankles to put a backhander by Moog, a goal that forced the Canadiens into a much faster offensive pace than coach Alain Vigneault preferred.
Francis scored into an empty net with 57 seconds left.
"It's going to be this way, we're going to have peaks and valleys," Moog said. "We have to find a way to generate some energy and be ready for the next one."
Montreal played again without first-line center and No. 3 scorer Saku Koivu (broken wrist), who was ordered not to shoot over the weekend and likely won't play Monday.
The teams have been rivals for 31 years, sometimes even in the same division, yet had never met previously in the playoffs. Pittsburgh hadn't played a Canadian team in the playoffs since losing to Toronto in 1977.
#3 PHILADELPHIA FLYERS vs #6 BUFFALO SABERS
PHILADELPHIA (AP) _ Double-shifted for most of the game, Eric Lindros made the most of the extra ice time.
Lindros scored a goal and set up the winning goal late in the third period as the Philadelphia Flyers beat the Buffalo Sabres 3-2 Friday night to even their best-of-7 playoff series at one win apiece. Game 2 is in Buffalo on Monday night.
"I like to run," said Lindros, who officially logged almost 29 minutes of ice time. "As this goes on, I'm feeling stronger and stronger every game."
John LeClair got the game-winner as Philadelphia, which didn't score on its first 16 power plays during the series, finally scored on its eighth one of the game while the Flyers had a 4-on-3 advantage.
With Alexei Zhitnik in the penalty box for cross-checking Lindros into the Buffalo bench, an uncovered LeClair jammed in a cross-crease pass from Lindros with 3:32 to play in the game.
"I was waiting to shoot, and there wasn't much there," Lindros said. "John's at the other side of the crease. I just got it over to John and he banged it home."
Sabres coach Lindy Ruff was upset about the penalty to Zhitnik, which came as Lindros and a group of Sabres came together near the door to the Buffalo bench.
"I'm disappointed," Ruff said. "Zhitnik's trying to change, get in the door, and he gives Eric a little push in the pants. We were trying to get a guy off the ice."
Chris Gratton scored the other goal for Philadelphia, which got 25 saves from Sean Burke. Dominik Hasek made 35 saves for Buffalo.
The Sabres trailed 2-0 going into the third period, but tied it up with goals by Michal Grosek and Dixon Ward.
"We got down a couple but we never quit," Ruff said. "We missed the net on a lot of great opportunities in the first two periods. We had three great chances to score when it was 2-2."
Buffalo got its first goal at 2:33 of the third, while the Flyers were killing off their second penalty in the game for having too many men on the ice.
Matthew Barnaby skated from the corner boards to the middle and got off a short shot on Burke, who made the save but left the rebound in front. Grosek jammed the loose puck into the net.
The Sabres tied the game at 2 when Ward stole the puck from Joel Otto at the Buffalo blue line. Ward raced down the right wing and his slapshot from the top of the faceoff circle beat Burke low to the stick side.
Buffalo's second goal came at 9:22, two seconds after the Sabres had killed off a penalty to Brian Holzinger.
The Flyers got goals early in the first and second periods to take a 2-0 lead.
Lindros set up, and finished, the Flyers' first goal, which came at 5:24 of the first period.
With one arm fending off a check, Lindros carried the puck out of the corner and shuffled a pass into the slot.
The puck went back to defenseman Dan McGillis who skated around a check and put a wrist shot on Hasek. He made the save, but the puck rebounded to Lindros, who lunged to the ice to swat a backhander into the open side.
Hasek was to blame on Philadelphia's second goal, at 4:07 of the second period.
The Sabres goalie had the puck in his crease. Instead of passing it to nearby Grosek, who was open, he tried to clear it up the boards.
Gratton kept the puck in the zone at the right point, skated into the right faceoff circle and beat Hasek with a 15-footer to the stick side.
#4 WASHINGTON CAPITALS vs #5 BOSTON BRUINS
WASHINGTON (AP) _ Darren Van Impe scored his second goal of the game 54 seconds into the second overtime Friday night, to give the Boston Bruins a 4-3 victory over Washington Capitals, tying the opening-round playoff series at one game apiece.
Van Impe, unchecked in front of the net, put the puck between goaltender Olaf Kolzig's legs after taking a pass from a diving Jason Allison.
The victory left the teams, both trying to win their first playoff series in four years, even as they head to Boston for Game 3 on Sunday. The Capitals' defeat came two years to the day after they lost a four-overtime playoff game at home to Pittsburgh. Washington has lost seven straight playoff overtime games.
The victory also ended a 12-game home unbeaten streak for Washington. Boston had been the last team to beat the Caps at home, 3-0 on March 3.
The Bruins outshot the Capitals, who played almost the entire game without 52-goal scorer Peter Bondra, 12-6 in the extra periods.
The best scoring chance in the first overtime went to Washington's Todd Krygier, who hit the right post in the first minute.
Sergei Gonchar's slapshot from the blue line with 36 seconds remaining, his second goal in two games and 12th point in 16 career postseason games, sent the game to overtime after the Capitals pulled the goaltender for an extra skater. Gonchar's first attempt was blocked by Tim Taylor, but his second found the net to the left of goalie Byron Dafoe.
The Bruins had rallied from a two-goal deficit to go ahead on Van Impe's goal with 2:57 remaining. On a 4-on-3 power play, Van Impe flipped home the shot after the puck drifted from a crowd of five players in front of the net.
Down 2-0 after the second period, the Bruins finally solved Kolzig early in the third and tied the score with two goals in six minutes.
Allison, the Bruins' leading scorer, scored 54 seconds into the third with only his second shot of the series. Allison, who had 83 regular-season points, poked in the rebound after Kolzig could only get a piece of rookie Sergei Samsonov's close-range shot.
Per-Johan Axelsson, on a feed from Ray Bourque, scored the tying goal on a 2-on-1 break with 13:50 remaining. Defender Calle Johansson, the only man back, guessed pass, giving Axelsson a clear shot at Kolzig.
The Bruins' rally was aided by the absence of Bondra, who skated five shifts in the first period and did not return. Without Bondra, who was still feeling the effect of a sprained ankle from Game 1, Washington's rushes were few and far between and Kolzig was under steady pressure. Bondra scored nearly one-fourth of the Capitals' goals this season.
In the second period, it appeared Kolzig would carry the Capitals to victory. The sellout crowd, a huge improvement over a disappointing Game 1 turnout, chanted ``Olie! Olie!'' after Kolzig thrust his glove to snatch Steve Heinze's close-range shot out of the air while sliding to the ice early in the second period.
The Capitals took only three shots in the first period, but the second one found the net.
Johansson, working the point on a power play, froze the defense when he brought back his stick as if to shoot. He instead threaded the puck to Esa Tikkanen, who deflected the pass into the top of the net from an acute angle at 4:45 for his 71st career playoff goal.
Johansson gave the Capitals a 2-0 lead with a slapshot set up when Adam Oates won a faceoff in the right circle at 3:24 of the second period.
Defenseman Brendan Witt, who missed the last six regular-season games and the playoff opener with a wrist injury, returned for the Capitals. Steve Konowalchuk, also with an ailing wrist, missed his second straight game.
