Postgame Analysis- NJ at Ott Game 3 EC Semis

Final score: NJ 0 Ott 2

Ottawa leads best-of-seven series 2-1.

There really isn’t a whole lot that can be said about this game. Part of the reason was the goalies. In particular Martin Brodeur, who was utterly brilliant in the opening period in stopping all 11 shots he saw. Without him, his team wouldn’t have stood a chance in a contest which went scoreless the first 40 minutes.

The three-time Stanley Cup winner did his part as Ottawa came out with fire attacking a flat New Jersey squad at will. The Sens generated plenty of great scoring chances at even strength. The problem was Brodeur wouldn’t allow them to get on the board early, making a few great stops including a stone job on 50-goal sniper Dany Heatley in front.

If the Devils netminder was razor sharp in that period, then his younger counterpart was jittery. Ray Emery did stop all seven his way but let out several bad rebounds which could’ve been costly. The Devils didn’t take advantage because they couldn’t. They were on their heels most of that period. That was too bad for them because the second-year goalie finally settled down in a stronger second, making a few huge stops to bail out his teammates.

The Senators got sloppy with the puck in the latter stages of it and only Emery allowed them to get to the locker room unscathed by turning aside all nine shots including a point blank opportunity for dangerous Devils sniper Zach Parise.

Through two, each goalie had made their case and that’s why it was scoreless.

The way this one was being played, you knew it was going to take a funny bounce or play for someone to score. Almost as if foreshadowing that in Brodeur’s end, the Ottawa ice twice came into play in odd fashion deflecting wide harmless dump-ins almost into a vacated net. The fact it happened so close apart made me believe maybe it was just a replay and not real. Couldn’t be? Oddly enough, after they got the lead, a similar thing almost resulted in a New Jersey tally later on.

The one goal which proved to be plenty in this chess match was scored by Ottawa defenseman Tom Preissing. Mike Comrie, who had struggled earlier in the series was flying all night. Skating with authority, the much maligned forward finally made his impact known by deliberately shooting a puck wide of Brodeur off the right wall. Working as a perfect pass, Preissing looked off the goalie and then fired a high shot by him to give the Sens the lead with 15:14 remaining.

But there was more to this play than how it looked. As Preissing was firing the seeing eye shot, underrated gritty center Mike Fisher was skating by Brodeur just outside the crease. They were so close that the incidental contact Fisher’s skate made with the two-time Vezina winner’s was inevitable. Naturally, Brodeur protested to the refs as soon as the goal was scored.

So, was it goalie interference or not? Much like myself, Versus analyst Brian Engblom concluded that it wasn’t because when the contact happened, Brodeur’s skate was outside the crease. If you watch the replay very closely, you’ll notice that the Devil goalie was on top of it leaving his feet outside when Fisher skated by. The other thing that was evident was that the Sens forward wasn’t even looking at him. The contact was skate on skate and clearly seemed accidental.

Controversial? If you’re Brodeur and the Devils, sure. It threw his timing off. So you could definitely see why they were visibly upset. At the same time, I can’t help remembering what Ottawa coach Bryan Murray was aggravated over after Game Two. Replays showed that on Sergei Brylin’s goal which made it 2-0 beating the buzzer to end the first period, the clock didn’t start on time. So there was controversy entering tonight’s game.

Now it’s the other way. And you can bet the Devils will be in the league’s ear about what happened in Canada.

The way we see it, the breaks evened out. Now, it’s up to the Devils to find a way to play better in Game Four because whether they want to admit it or not, they were stifled for the rest of the third and did very little despite a couple of power plays with less than 10 minutes left.

The Devils would pull Brodeur with about 90 seconds left for an extra attacker but couldn’t get anything. Jason Spezza sealed the Ottawa victory by taking a Daniel Alfredsson pass and shooting into an open net with 56 seconds to go.

A few quick thoughts:

1.The Devils didn’t attack enough in this one. They’ll need to be better in Game 4.
2.The Senators pounded the Devils at every turn outhitting them 26-17. In particular, Anton Volchenkov and Chris Phillips delivered a couple of bone crushers to the Egg line. Chris Neil also had a huge hit as well.

3.Colin White was the Devils’ best defenseman. He was a physical presence in delivering a game high six crunching hits including a clean shoulder which bloodied a Sen.

4.The Devils power play failed big time in this one going 0-for-5. While Ottawa’s was no better (0-for-4), they forced Brodeur to make big saves. New Jersey overpassed and was too predictable.

5.The Sens did a great job getting into shooting lanes finishing with 18 blocked shots. Eight came from Volchenkov, who was a shot blocking machine in this one.

6.Ottawa won more draws going 30-24. Antoine Vermette was 11-for-17.

7.The Egg line was good in this one, generating several chances. But they just couldn’t break through.

8.The dangerous trio of Heatley, Spezza and Alfredsson all played over 21:00 combining for 14 shots.

Our three stars:

3rd star- Ray Emery (25 saves, 2nd career playoff shutout)