Senators regain edge

PITTSBURGH -- One day after allowing a victory to slip away on their home ice, the Ottawa Senators knew doing so again in Pittsburgh might cost them the series. It didn't happen.

Daniel Alfredsson scored twice during a dominating Ottawa second period and the Senators made this lead stand, taking Pittsburgh's stars and its crowd out of the game for a 4-2 victory yesterday in Game 3 of their first-round series.

Ottawa, rebounding from a 4-3 loss at home in which it twice squandered third-period leads, takes a 2-1 lead into Game 4.

The Senators lost forward Patrick Eaves, taken off the ice on a stretcher after being leveled by an unpenalized Colby Armstrong hit with Ottawa up, 3-1, midway through the second period. The former Boston College star appeared to be knocked unconscious on the play, but was seen talking and moving his hands while he was leaving the ice. He was not taken to a hospital, and the Senators said he had a head injury -- almost certainly a concussion. His status for Game 4 tomorrow night was not certain, but a concussion would likely keep him out.

The game became visibly more physical after that, with several fights. Penguins rookie Evgeni Malkin even dropped the gloves to fight defenseman Chris Phillips late in the game.

"I think you kind of dig a bit deeper when you see one of your guys go off on a stretcher like that," Senators goalie Ray Emery said. "It's something you don't want to see and maybe it's something you can rally around."

The Penguins' offense struggled again, getting outshot, 25-19, in the game and have been outshot, 99-66, in the series. Sidney Crosby, the NHL scoring leader, had five shots, but didn't score until it was out of reach, and Malkin didn't score.

The Penguins struck first on Gary Roberts's goal with only 52 seconds gone. The goal made an already loud crowd for the Penguins' first home playoff game since May 19, 2001, louder still.

But the Senators got the tying goal late in the period when Dean McAmmond put in a rebound of Eaves's shot that goalie Marc-Andre Fleury stopped but couldn't control. The Senators got the go-ahead goal early in the second when Mike Comrie swept a loose puck past Fleury.

Alfredsson's first goal came on a power play about five minutes later on a hard shot from the left wing circle and his third of the series came late in the period.

And, this time, the Senators didn't allow a third-period comeback, though Crosby scored another of his can-you-top-this goals with five minutes left.