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Senators score four in third period to down Lightning

Posted on: Friday, 21 April 2006, 23:34 CDT

TORONTO (Reuters) - Martin Havlat and Jason Spezza scored power play goals to rally the Ottawa Senators to a 4-1 win over the Tampa Bay Lightning on the opening night of the National Hockey League playoffs on Friday.

Goaltender Ray Emery made 35 saves in his playoff debut for Ottawa, helping the Senators take the best-of-seven Eastern Conference series opener by scoring four unanswered goals in the third period.

Tampa Bay, the 2004 Stanley Cup champions, led 1-0 after two periods of play behind the solid goaltending of John Grahame. But Havlat and Spezza connected early in the third to the relief of the sell-out crowd at Scotiabank Place.

"There's no question that we were nervous at the beginning of the game," Ottawa coach Bryan Murray told reporters.

"There was obvious pressure, a lot has been said about this hockey team. The third period, the way we played, going into the room they felt pretty good about themselves.

"I think we'll just be better from here on in."

The Senators, the top-seeded team in the East, won all four games against Tampa Bay in the regular season and are 8-0 against the Lightning in the past two seasons. But Ottawa has had numerous playoff failures in the past, including a stunning first- round loss to Toronto in 2004.

Havlat, who played just 18 games this season due to injury, fired a shot over Graham's pad at 5:06 of the third period to tie the scores and Spezza followed up with a goal at 6:13, drilling a high shot just over the Lightning goalie to give Ottawa the lead.

Mike Fischer added a shorthanded goal at 9:37 and Daniel Alfredsson completed the scoring with an empty net marker 1:02 from time.

TURNING POINT

Tampa Bay coach John Tortorella felt the early minutes of the third period were the turning point.

"We knew we had to bring some more offense (in the third) and we take a bad penalty," Tortorella told reporters.

"They score a big early goal, obviously they surged a little bit from there."

Vincent Lecavalier scored the lone goal for the Lightning, a power play marker with one minute left in the first period.

The Lightning out-shot the Senators 16-11 in the opening period and clung to their lead until the third thanks to several sparkling saves from Grahame, who got the call to start for Tampa Bay over veteran Sean Burke.

Ottawa out-shot Tampa Bay 38-36 overall, including 12-7 in the third period.

Dany Heatley and Peter Schaefer added a pair of assists each for the Senators, who host Game 2 in the series Sunday.

In Detroit, Kirk Maltby scored his second goal of the game 2:39 into the second overtime period to lift the Red Wings past the Edmonton Oilers 3-2 in their series opener.

Robert Lang scored the other goal for Detroit, who out-shot the Oilers 57-25. Game 2 is Sunday in Detroit.

Sergei Samsonov and Chris Pronger scored for the Oilers, while goaltender Dwayne Roloson made 54 saves for Edmonton.

In Nashville, Adam Hall scored the game-winning goal at 12:06 of the third period as the Predators opened their series with a 4-3 win over the San Jose Sharks.

Chris Mason made 31 saves in goal and Paul Kariya assisted on all four Nashville goals. Game 2 is on Sunday in Nashville.

Source: REUTERS

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