Rookie goalie Ray Emery stopped 30 shots and Martin Havlat scored for the fourth straight game for Ottawa to beat Tampa Bay 5-2 and push the defending Stanley Cup champion Lightning to the brink of elimination on Thursday.
The Senators lead the best-of-seven playoff series 3-1 and can close it out by winning Game 5 in Ottawa today.
To stay alive, the Lightning have to win three straight games against an opponent they have beaten only three times in 24 meetings over the past five seasons.
PHOTO: AFP
Dany Heatley had a goal and two assists for Ottawa, while Jason Spezza, Chris Phillips and Chris Neil each scored a goal.
Havlat, who assisted on Heatley's goal, has eight points in the series after missing 58 regular season games with a dislocated shoulder.
Martin St. Louis and Brad Richards scored in the opening period for Tampa Bay, which sputtered after a strong start.
Red Wings 4, Oilers 2
At Edmonton, Alberta, Nicklas Lidstrom scored the winning goal during a two-man advantage in the third period and Detroit beat the Oilers in a penalty-filled playoff game.
The Red Wings evened their best-of-seven series at two wins each with Game 5 today in Detroit.
Tomas Holmstrom and Henrik Zetterberg also scored power-play goals for the Red Wings, while Robert Lang had a goal and two assists.
Fernando Pisani and Jaroslav Spacek scored power-play goals for Edmonton before a loud sellout crowd of 16,829 at Rexall Place.
Mathieu Schneider had three assists for the Red Wings who snapped a two-game losing streak despite playing without captain Steve Yzerman, who was out with a back injury.
Mighty Ducks 3, Flames 2, OT
At Anaheim, California, defenseman Sean O'Donnell scored 1:36 into overtime to help Anaheim even its best-of-seven playoff series with Calgary. Game 5 will be played in Calgary today.
O'Donnell scored his first goal of the postseason on a slap shot from the top of the left circle, with goalie Miikka Kiprusoff screened on the play. It was his fourth career playoff goal.
Anaheim goalie Jean-Sebastien Giguere stopped 25 shots. Kiprusoff had 27 saves.
After the Flames seemed mostly on their heels for the first two periods and fell behind 2-0, Jarome Iginla abruptly evened it up with two goals in the first 3:16 of the third period.
The Flames captain scored just 11 seconds into the period, then added his third goal and sixth point of the series about 2 minutes later.
Ryan Getzlaf and Teemu Selanne scored in a 3:26 span of the second period, the first goal of the series for each, to give the Ducks the 2-0 lead.
Sharks 5, Predators 4
At San Jose, California, Patrick Marleau scored three goals for his third career postseason hat trick, and San Jose pushed Nashville to the brink of elimination.
Marleau, the Sharks' franchise leader in postseason goals, scored a career-best 86 points during the regular season. He punctuated four games of outstanding hockey against the Predators with two power-play goals in the second period and a third-period tip-in on an outstanding pass from rookie Steve Bernier, his linemate and housemate in San Jose.
The Sharks went up 5-2 on that goal, but Mike Sillinger and Scott Hartnell scored in the final 10 minutes for Nashville, which outshot San Jose 14-3 in the third period.
The Predators pulled goalie Chris Mason, but couldn't score in the frantic final seconds.
Mark Smith and Patrick Rissmiller also scored for the Sharks.
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