KANATA, Ontario (AP) -- The Ottawa Senators cracked the NHL's Eastern Conference playoff race wide open Saturday night, upsetting the first-place New Jersey Devils 3-1 to win the best-of-7 quarter-final series in six games.The Senators, who finished 24 points behind New Jersey in eighth place, never trailed in the series or in the final game, which they dominated with their speed and aggressive forechecking.
Alexei Yashin, Janne Laukkanen and Igor Kravchuk scored for Ottawa, while goaltender Damian Rhodes took home perhaps his quietest win of the series with a 21-save performance.
The Philadelphia Flyers, the third seed in the East, were eliminated by the sixth-place Buffalo Sabres on Friday night, while the No. 2 Pittsburgh Penguins trail the Montreal Canadiens 3-2 heading into Sunday night's game at the Molson Centre.
The No. 4-seeded Washington Capitals lead the No. 5 Boston Bruins 3-2 going into Sunday's game in Boston. If the Penguins advance, they will play the Senators. If the Penguins lose, then Ottawa would get the Washington-Boston winner.
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.
Defenseman Kevin Dean scored the only goal for the Devils, who were outshot 31-21, outhit and outworked under a withering wall of noise from the capacity 18,500 at the Corel Centre.
It was the second successive post-season that New Jersey has been sunk by a lack of offense following a dominant regular season.
New Jersey finished 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 largest 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 season in a row.
But the upstart Senators won Game 1 in overtime and had the Devils on their heels throughout the series.
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.
Laukkanen, with his second goal of the series, sent Ottawa into the third period leading 2-1 -- a situation the Senators relish, having just one loss in their last 63 games when leading after two periods.
The defenseman slipped in from the point to take a pass from Bruce Gardiner behind the Devils' net and whipped a wrist shot from the top of the faceoff circle over goaltender Martin Brodeur's glove hand at 10:30.
Brodeur, who had lost his stick in a collision with Ottawa's Shawn McEachern as the shot was taken, charged out of his net to confront referee Kerry Fraser. But the goal stood.Dean, with his first goal of the playoffs and the second of his NHL career, gave the Devils a lift at 5:24 of the second period when his looping shot from the point bounced past Rhodes. At that point, Ottawa was outshooting the Devils 17-6.
Krzysztof Oliwa had a chance to put the Devils ahead three minutes later, but Rhodes stopped the forward when he broke in alone behind the Ottawa defense.
The Senators, jacked up by towel-waving fans, carried the play in the first period, outhitting the larger Devils, controlling the boards and forechecking relentlessly.
The adrenalin boost almost cost Ottawa when Chris Murray was called for a blatant two-handed chop on Oliwa at 5:42. Rhodes had to be sharp on a quick shot by Petr Sykora, then dodged a bullet when Doug Gilmour misplayed the puck alone in the Ottawa slot.
The Devils then took an undisciplined penalty of their own when Brian Rolston was sent off for unsportsmanlike conduct.
Intense pressure deep in the Devils zone paid off when Yashin drifted out from the corner to Brodeur's right and snapped a low shot between his pads at 8:28, Yashin's third goal of the series and the fourth for Ottawa with the man advantage.
Second-line center Bobby Holik, riding a 21-game goal drought, missed Saturday's game due to a case of food poisoning.
Ottawa was without defenseman Wade Redden and also sat scoreless center Vaclav Prospal. Redden strained a groin in Game 5.
#2 PITTSBURGH PEGUNIS vs #7 MONTREAL CANADIENS
MONTREAL (AP) -- Mark Recchi and Jonas Hoglund scored in the second period and the underdog Montreal Canadiens beat the Pittsburgh Penguins 3-0 Sunday night to advance to the second round of Stanley Cup playoffs.The Canadiens, who won the best-of-7 series four games to two, followed the example of the Ottawa Senators and Buffalo Sabres by upsetting a higher-ranked opponent in the first round of Eastern Conference playoffs.
The Penguins were seeded No. 2 in the East while the Canadiens were No. 7. The top-seeded New Jersey Devils were ousted by Ottawa and the No. 3 Philadelphia Flyers were knocked out by Buffalo earlier, marking the end for the 1-2-3 teams in the Eastern Conference this year.
Montreal will meet Buffalo in the conference semifinals begining later this week. Washington will play Ottawa.
The Canadiens are 4-2 in playoff series against the Sabres, with a sweep in their last meeting in 1993, when they went on to win the Stanley Cup. It was also the last year in which the Canadiens won a playoff series.
Saku Koivu, who missed the first four games with a broken hand, scored his first goal of the series on a power play at 6:52 of the third period.
Veteran Andy Moog made 21 saves for his fourth career playoff shutout in his second strong game since he was lifted in Game 4 after allowing five goals on nine shots.
Montreal fired 23 shots at Tom Barrasso before a noisy, capacity crowd of 21,273 at the Molson Centre.
The first-ever playoff meeting between Pittsburgh, the Northeast Division champions, and Montreal ended with the Canadiens throwing a defensive blanket over the Penguins and their star forward, Jaromir Jagr.
At the other end, the strong work around the net by Montreal forwards that hounded the Penguins throughout the series paid off with both second-period goals.
The Canadiens' top line of Recchi, Koivu and Shayne Corson hemmed the Penguins in their zone for nearly a minute before Recchi slapped the rebound of a Koivu shot into an open side to open the scoring 9:27 into the second.
More work down low saw Turner Stevenson get the puck to Hoglund, a late-season acquisition from the Calgary Flames, to jam in the side of the net at 14:36.
It was the first time Pittsburgh has been shut out in the postseason since April 21, 1994.
#3 PHILADELPHIA FLYERS vs #6 BUFFALO SABERS
Buffalo Wins 4-2
#4 WASHINGTON CAPITALS vs #5 BOSTON BRUINS
BOSTON (AP) -- Brian Bellows scored after 15:24 of overtime and Olaf Kolzig stopped 47 shots Sunday as Washington beat Boston 3-2 to advance to the Eastern Conference semifinals and avoid being labled "chokers" yet again.
One minute after Peter Bondra put a slap shot off the post, Bellows shot one between Byron Dafoe's legs as the Capitals won the best-of-7 series 4-2 and advanced to the second round for the first time since 1994.
But it wasn't just the Bruins that Washington had to overcome, it was its history.
Three times the Capitals have taken a 3-1 lead in the playoffs only to lose games 5, 6 and 7. When Washington went up 3-1 with a victory in Boston on Tuesday, Boston coach Pat Burns reminded both teams -- as if they didn't know -- about the Capitals' tendency to collapse.
That kicked off a psychological battle between the coaches, who played a game of -- in the words of Washington's Ron Wilson -- "Whose karma is worse?" Boston has never come back to win a playoff series after falling behind 3-1 in 17 tries.
Sergei Samsonov and Anson Carter scored in regulation, and Dafoe made 30 saves for the Bruins. Richard Zednik and Adam Oates scored in regulation for the Capitals.
Washington killed off a Boston 5-on-3 early in the first period and immediately went on the attack. Sergei Gonchar fed the puck from the point to Zednik, and he put it through Dafoe's legs to make it 1-0 at the 6:54 mark.
Samsonov tied it 1-1 when he took the puck in over the blue line and shot, then got his own rebound, took it behind the back of the net and skated out front, faked out defenseman Phil Housley and Kolzig and put it in.
Just 38 seconds later, Bruins defenseman Kyle McLaren gave the puck away behind the net and it made its way out front to Oates, who restored Washington's one-goal lead.
The Bruins tied it midway through the third period when, with a power play expiring, Carter picked up a loose puck in the slot and beat Kolzig high on the glove side. It was his first career playoff goal.
Zednik had missed the first four games of the series with an abdominal injury. Bondra, Washington's 52-goal scorer, returned after missing all but the first game with an injuured ankle.
