Michael Ryder scored 2:32 into the second overtime to give the Montreal Canadiens a 6-5 victory over the Carolina Hurricanes on Monday night and a 2-0 lead in the Eastern Conference series.
Chris Higgins chased down the puck behind the net, then centered it to Ryder, who quickly ended the game with a slap shot.
Alex Kovalev and Richard Zednik scored 36 seconds apart in the third period to give Montreal a 5-4 lead, but Cory Stillman forced the extra period with a goal with 90 seconds left in regulation. With goalie Cam Ward on the bench, Bret Hedican sent a pass across the ice to Stillman, who sent a one-timer in off the right post.
PHOTO: AP
Ryder had two goals, and he, Jan Bulis and Radek Bonk all scored in the first period to give Montreal a 3-0 lead, forcing Hurricanes coach Peter Laviolette to bench goalie Martin Gerber. Gerber has allowed nine goals on 34 shots in the two games.
Rod Brind'Amour had two goals and Ray Whitney and Matt Cullen added goals to help Carolina take a 4-3 lead, but Kovalev tied it and Zednik put Montreal back in front.
Game 3 of the first-round series is today in Montreal.
PHOTO: AP
The Canadiens opened the series with a 6-1 victory Saturday night.
Avalanche 5, Stars 4, OT
At Dallas, Joe Sakic scored his NHL playoff-record seventh overtime goal, tipping in a shot at 4:36 of the extra period to give Colorado a 2-0 series lead.
PHOTO: AP
Sakic broke a tie with former Montreal star Maurice "Rocket" Richard for the most overtime goals in the playoffs. It was Sakic's 79th goal in 12 playoff seasons.
Sakic deflected John-Michael Liles' slap shot from the point past goalie Marty Turco seconds after Dallas' Jason Arnott hit the post at the other end.
Game 3 of the Western Conference series is Wednesday night in Denver.
After blowing a 3-0 first-period lead, Colorado forced overtime when Brett Clark scored a short-handed goal with 2:04 left in the third period.
Rob Blake, Andrew Brunette and Milan Hejduk also scored for the Avalanche. Jere Lehtinen had two goals for Dallas and Mike Modano and Jussi Jokinen also scored.
Devils 4, Rangers 1
At East Rutherford, New Jersey, John Madden tied an NHL playoff record with two short-handed goals and finished with his first postseason hat trick for New Jersey.
With the victory, the Devils ran their winning streak to 13 games and took a 2-0 lead in first-round Eastern Conference series. Game 3 is Wednesday night in New York.
Brian Gionta also scored for New Jersey, the Devils' sixth power-play goal of the series. Blair Betts scored for the Rangers in their seventh straight loss.
The Rangers played without leading scorer Jaromir Jagr, defenseman Darius Kasparaitis and goalie Henrik Lundqvist. Jagr, the NHL's second-leading scorer, was forced to miss his first game of the season because of a shoulder injury sustained in New York's 6-1 loss Saturday. Kasparaitis aggravated a groin injury during the pregame skate, and Lundqvist was benched in favor of Kevin Weekes.
Sabres 8, Flyers 2
Buffalo, New York, J.P. Dumont and Jason Pominville each had three goals and an assist to help the Sabres take a 2-0 lead in the Eastern Conference series.
Chris Drury and Ales Kotalik also scored, and Paul Gaustad had three assists in the game the Sabres led 5-0 after the first period.
The Sabres, who needed 58 shots to beat Philadelphia 3-2 in double overtime on Saturday night, scored twice on their first three shots and needed only 12 to build a 6-1 lead on Dumont's third goal midway through the second period. The eight goals were the most since Buffalo's 8-0 victory over Philadelphia in 2001.
Simon Gagne and Petr Nedved scored for the Flyers.
Game 3 is today in Philadelphia.
Sanjay Kumar, the co-owner of the National Hockey League's New York Islanders and former CEO of Computer Associates International Inc, pleaded guilty on Monday to obstruction of justice and securities fraud charges in a massive accounting scandal at the Long Island-based software company.
According to a 2004 indictment, Kumar was so involved with adding false revenue to a financial quarter even after it closed that he flew on a corporate jet to Paris in July 1999 to finalize a US$19 million deal and signed a contract that had been backdated.
The indictment also charged that executives instructed salespeople to complete deals after the quarter had closed -- a practice known within the company as the "35-day month" -- and "cleaned up" contracts by removing time stamps from faxes.
The company's former head of worldwide sales, Stephen Richards, pleaded guilty to the same charges in federal court in Brooklyn.
Five other top executives had previously pleaded guilty.
Kumar and Richards are free on US$5 million bond while awaiting their Sept. 12 sentencing. The law allows a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison for the offenses, but the term could be substantially less under federal sentencing guidelines.
Kumar and Computer Associates founder Charles Wang bought the Islanders in 2000 for an estimated US$190 million.
Jagr still injured
Czech winger Jaromir Jagr was dropped from the New York Rangers' lineup on Monday night because of an arm injury sustained in the loss to the New Jersey Devils that opened their first-round NHL playoff series.
Jagr, who played all 82 regular-season games, was hurt on Saturday just moments before Patrik Elias' power-play goal gave New Jersey a 6-1 lead with only 4:26 remaining.
The Rangers also played without Lithuanian defenseman Darius Kasparaitis, who aggravated a groin injury during Monday's skate before Game 2 of the first-round series. Kasparaitis was shelved for 12 of the final 14 regular-season games.
"He felt really uncomfortable so we decided not to dress him," coach Tom Renney said.
Very rarely during the season was Jagr used to kill penalties. Renney was criticized for changing that policy so late in a playoff blowout.
New York allowed five goals in 13 short-handed situations against New Jersey, and Renney defended his decision to play Jagr by saying he could use practice killing penalties.
Jagr was injured when he tried to hold off Devils forward Scott Gomez while carrying the puck.
Jagr finished with team records of 54 goals and 123 points and led the NHL in both categories for much of the season.
Lundqvist benched
Olympic gold-medal winning goalie Henrik Lundqvist was dropped by the Rangers to the bench for Game 2 of their NHL playoff series against New Jersey on Monday.
Lundqvist, who led Sweden to gold in the Turin Games this year, allowed all the goals in New York's 6-1 loss to the Devils on Saturday in Game 1 in his NHL playoff debut.
He received little help in defense as the Rangers gave the Devils 13 power-play chances and allowed five goals. Most were not Lundqvist's fault, but the goalie admitted that he had trouble throughout the game picking up the puck.
He was disappointed in coach Tom Renney's decision, but was quick to say he supported the move and would work harder to get his No. 1 job back.
Lundqvist had missed seven games at the end of the regular season with a hip injury, and didn't get back into the lineup until the regular-season finale -- a 5-1 home loss to Ottawa.
"It's a new experience for me coming back from the injury," Lundqvist said. "My game is maybe not on the top right now but I felt pretty good anyway."
He was replaced for Monday's game by Kevin Weekes, based on Weekes going 2-3 in five games against the Devils this season, plus his performance four years ago in leading the Carolina Hurricanes to a surprising upset of the then-defending Stanley Cup champion Devils.
Weekes has been in eight career playoff games, all in 2002 with Carolina.
"We're sort of playing a hunch as much as anything," Renney said. "He's played New Jersey well, and our last good game of hockey was here against them with Kevin in goal, so I don't think that is unreasonable at all."
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