Lalime, White carry Senators to 2-1 series lead

UNIONDALE, N.Y. (AP) -- Todd White has been watching the NHL playoffs, and didn't want the Ottawa Senators to have the same poor fate as the Stanley Cup champions.

White tipped in his second goal of the game 2:25 into the second overtime Monday night to give Ottawa a 3-2 victory over the New York Islanders and a 2-1 series lead for the top-seeded Senators.

The Senators, who won the Presidents' Trophy with 113 points -- 30 more than eighth-seeded New York -- only need to win their remaining two home games to reach the second round for the second straight year.

But winning at home has been difficult for nearly every team in the playoffs.

Stanley Cup champion Detroit fell into a 2-0 hole at home against upstart Anaheim, which won the first game in triple overtime despite being outworked and outchanced by Detroit.

"Overtime is fickle, all it takes is one chance,'' White said.

Ottawa had only 18 shots through regulation, but found its second wind in overtime when it peppered Garth Snow with 14 shots -- 12 in the first extra session.

"Snow made a couple of big saves for them,'' White explained. "I didn't want to say it, but you look at what happened to Detroit a few nights ago, and you don't want that happening to you.''

Chris Phillips also scored for Ottawa, which got 30 saves from Patrick Lalime.

Alexei Yashin and Randy Robitaille scored for New York, which got 29 saves from Snow.

Game 4 is Wednesday night on Long Island, and the series returns to Ottawa for Game 5 on Thursday.

A turnover in the neutral zone led to the winning goal. Magnus Arvedson carried into the New York zone and sent in a shot from the top of the right circle. White, standing in front, got enough of the puck to put it between Snow's pads on the Senators' second shot of the second overtime.

"I just wanted to get a stick on it,'' White said. "I didn't know if Arvy saw me. In fact, I went looking for a rebound.''

Snow said he saw the initial shot and stuck his leg out to stop it.

Ottawa has dominated the Islanders, especially at Nassau Coliseum. The Senators entered this series 21-2-7 in the last 30 games against New York. On the road, the Senators are 11-0-4 since last losing to the Islanders in New York on Jan. 6, 1996.

The Senators pressured from the start of overtime, taking seven of the first eight shots and forcing Snow to use every bit of his equipment to keep the game going.

"I think we felt OK,'' Islanders defenseman Janne Niinimaa said. "We were a little tentative in the first overtime.''

New York got a rush from Robitaille, who shot wide. Earlier he hit a post and was robbed by Lalime.

The Senators survived a second period in which they were called for five penalties. They turned aside each New York power play and scored the only goal of the period to tie it at 2 with 43.6 seconds left. All it took was a redirection of a pass for Phillips to make it even through 40 minutes.

Through two periods, New York had only capitalized once on the power play despite nine chances and 21 shots.

Niinimaa was frustrated that the Islanders didn't shoot enough when they had the advantage.

"We should have put them away earlier,'' he said. "We had so many chances.''

New York killed off Niinimaa's fourth penalty of the game, midway in the third to keep it 2-2. Ottawa was short-handed again less than three minutes into overtime, but the Islanders had just one shot during Anton Volchenkov's boarding penalty.

New York grabbed the lead 8:14 in when video replay was needed to determine a goal was scored and who scored it.

Oleg Kvasha took a shot from behind the net to Lalime's right that got caught up in the goalie's pads and skates. The whistle didn't blow as Kvasha, Yashin and Eric Godard whacked away.

The puck finally trickled through Lalime's legs toward the right post. Yashin skated to the other side of the net and poked the puck in as it inched toward the goal line.

Initially it was credited to Kvasha, but was soon changed to Yashin's second of the series. Godard, known for his fists, earned his first NHL point.

Ottawa made it 1-1 with only 13 seconds left in a power play when White fired a wrist shot from the high slot past Snow.

New York needed just 24 seconds, 11 into its power play, to go back on top. Robitaille carried a pass from Yashin down low and squeezed a shot in between Lalime and the right post.

Game notes
The Islanders are 22-2 in series when winning the opener. In those they lost, they were beaten in Game 3. ... Ottawa is 6-3 in Game 3s, 2-1 after winning Game 2. ... Each goalie posted a 3-0 shutout in the first two games. Snow had stopped 56 shots coming in, and Lalime turned aside 47.