Lightning streaks ahead to round two

Patrick Lalime, right, of the Senators slides across the crease as Ron Francis, left, of the Maple Leafs misses on this scoring opportunity at the Air Canada Centre in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, Friday. PHOTO: AFP

Martin St. Louis scored in overtime to beat the New York Islanders 3-2 and send the Tampa Bay Lightning into the second round of the NHL playoffs for the second successive year on Friday.

"He's a little guy, but he comes up with some big plays," teammate Tim Taylor said of the 1.76m St. Louis.

"When you're looking for heroes and MVPs on your team, his name keeps jumping out. But his body keeps jumping out there, too."

St. Louis scored 4:07 into overtime, giving Tampa Bay -- the No. 1 seed in the Eastern Conference -- a 4-1 series victory over the Islanders.

The Lightning also got another solid performance from goalie Nikolai Khabibulin to advance to the second round for the second time in franchise history. They will play the lowest remaining seed in the conference semifinals.

"They're a real good hockey club, and certainly their kid in goal has got it going," Islanders coach Steve Stirling said. "On paper, they don't have the most talent, but they played well as a team."

In the only other playoff game on Friday, Toronto beat Ottawa 2-0 to take a 3-2 series lead.

Khabibulin in his bid for an NHL-record fourth shutout in his series, but finished with 24 saves -- two in overtime before St. Louis lifted the Lightning's only shot of the extra period over goalie Rick DiPietro's glove.

"When you get to overtime, you just never know," Stirling said. "It isn't always the prettiest shot. It's just whoever gets the puck and throws it toward the net."

Fredrik Modin had assists on all three Tampa Bay goals, giving him eight points in the series.

After being shut out in the first two games, which the teams split, St. Louis had four goals and one assist in the last three.

The Islanders didn't take any consolation in playing well after being dominated in Games 3 and 4 at the Nassau Coliseum, where they had the best home record in the East during the regular season.

"No matter how good you play, we lost the series," DiPietro said. "We're going home and they're still playing."

Oleg Kvasha scored on a power play for New York midway through the first period against Khabibulin, who hadn't given up a goal since early in the third period of Game 2.

Tim Taylor and Ruslan Fedotenko scored late in the second to give Tampa Bay a 2-1 lead. But New York's Mark Parrish tied it with his first goal of the series with 12:32 left in regulation.

"That's a good team. ... I don't think anybody wanted to go back to New York," Lightning coach John Tortorella said. "Even though we gave up that second goal in the third period, I thought we played probably our best game in the series."

No has posted four shutouts in a series and it took a video replay to confirm Khabibulin lost his bid on Kvasha's power-play goal with 9:19 remaining in the second period.

That ended Khabibulin's shutout streak at 145 minutes, 9 seconds, and was New York's first goal since Jason Blake's empty-netter in the final minute of the Islanders' victory in Game 2.

DiPietro his best to protect the slim lead, rejecting everything the Lightning had to offer until Taylor and Fedotenko scored within a minute span late during the second period.

Maple Leafs 2, Senators 0

Ed Belfour stopped all 21 Ottawa shots and he and the Toronto Maple Leafs shut out the Senators for the third time in the playoff series, winning 2-0 Friday night.

Tie Domi and Joe Nieuwendyk scored third-period goals for the Maple Leafs, who lead the best-of-seven series 3-2 and can advance to the second round by beating Ottawa on Sunday.

"It's a big win for us, but the job is not done yet," said Toronto's Matt Stajan, who replaced injured captain Mats Sundin.

Sundin was out because of a left leg injury.

"You haven't seen the last of us yet. We're going to force this to Game 7 and come in here next Tuesday and win this series," Ottawa captain Daniel Alfredsson said.

The Senators outshot the Maple Leafs for the fifth straight game, but couldn't get the puck past Belfour.

He recorded his 14th career playoff shutout despite not having to make any spectacular saves.