Alexei Yashin didn’t realize it was over until he saw his Ottawa Senators teammates vaulting the Corel Centre boards.
Yashin’s hard wrist shot on a power-play 2 minutes 47 seconds into overtime gave the host Senators a 2-1 victory Sunday over the New Jersey Devils and a 2-1 lead in their best-of-seven quarterfinal series. Game 4 is Tuesday night in Kanata, Ontario.
With Devils defenseman Lyle Odelein off for hauling down forward Magnus Arvedson on a break, Yashin took a perfect cross-ice pass from Janne Laukkanen and banked a shot between the pads of goalie Martin Brodeur.
“I didn’t understand right away what happened,” Yashin insisted, despite the ear-splitting roar from the capacity crowd of 18,500. “But when I saw the guys jumping over the boards I was very happy.”
Yashin, the broad-shouldered Russian center with the soft hands, wasn’t the only reluctant believer.
“I tried to squeeze my pads as hard as I could, but it wasn’t enough,” Brodeur said.
As for Devils coach Jacques Lemaire, his take on the game won’t be known until Monday.
“He’s a little upset and thought it might be better if I came out,” assistant coach Robbie Ftorek told the postgame media throng.
Capitals 3, Bruins 2: Joe Juneau scored 6:31 into the second overtime and Olaf Kolzig stopped 52 shots to give visiting Washington a 2-1 lead in the playoff series.
The Capitals had lost seven consecutive overtime playoff games dating back to a 1991 first-round victory over the New York Rangers. Neither Boston nor Washington has won a playoff series since 1994.
“It’s highway robbery that we won this hockey game,” Capitals coach Ron Wilson said. “We’re catching breaks, and we’re a franchise that never seems to get any. At some point in time, fate has to be on your side. And tonight it was.”
The teams played 20:54 of overtime in Game 2 Friday night, when Boston rallied from a 2-0 third-period deficit to win in double OT. The series resumes Tuesday night in Boston before returning to Washington for Game 5 Friday.
The Capitals were outshot 54-27, but they relied on Kolzig to handle more than a dozen quality Boston scoring chances. Byron Dafoe stopped 24 shots for the Bruins.
