Martin Havlat scored his third and fourth goals of the playoffs, and defenseman Wade Redden had a goal and two assists to lift the top-seeded Ottawa Senators to an 8-4 victory on Tuesday night over the Tampa Bay Lightning.
Ottawa rebounded from a third-period collapse at home two nights earlier and took a 2-1 lead in the best-of-seven, first-round series in the Eastern Conference.
Redden returned to the Senators after missing Game 2 following the death of his mother.
PHOTO: AP
Antoine Vermette also scored twice for the Senators, who got 35 saves from rookie goalie Ray Emery.
Paul Ranger scored twice and Martin St. Louis once for the Lightning, who closed within 5-2 on Ranger's unassisted goal just 20 seconds into third period.
Dany Heatley and Zdeno Chara pushed Ottawa's advantage to 7-2.
The game featured 139 penalty minutes -- 79 for Tampa Bay -- five fighting majors, and seven misconducts. Many came during a melee with 2:17 left.
Flames 5, Mighty Ducks 2
At Anaheim, California, Darren McCarty and Robyn Regehr scored 34 seconds apart in the third period to break open a tight game and lift Calgary over Anaheim.
The Flames took a 2-1 lead in the first-round Western Conference series. Game 3 of the best-of-seven matchup is Thursday in Anaheim.
Chuck Kobasew's goal at 15:34 of the second period snapped a 2-2 tie.
Calgary scored five times on only 24 shots against goalie Jean-Sebastien Giguere. Miikka Kiprusoff faced 29 Anaheim shots.
Kristian Huselius had a goal and two assists for Calgary. Daymond Langkow also scored for the Flames.
Defenseman Francois Beauchemin provided all the Ducks' scoring, becoming the first Anaheim rookie to notch two goals in a playoff game.
Sharks 4, Predators 1
At San Jose, California, San Jose captain Patrick Marleau scored two goals and Vesa Toskala stopped 16 shots to give the Sharks a 2-1 lead over Nashville in the Western Conference playoff series.
The Sharks went ahead on rookie Steve Bernier's first playoff goal late in the second period, and NHL goal-scoring champion Jonathan Cheechoo also scored in the third as fifth-seeded San Jose moved halfway to the second round despite no points from Joe Thornton, the NHL's leading scorer.
Chris Mason, the Predators' backup goalie, made 36 saves.
Kimmo Timonen scored a short-handed goal in the first period for the Predators, who have tallied just two goals in 160 minutes since their three-goal first period in the series opener.
Defenseman Christian Ehrhoff had three assists for the Sharks.
Game 4 is today in San Jose.
Oilers 4, Red Wings 3, 2OT
At Edmonton, Alberta, Jarret Stoll's goal 8:44 into double overtime gave Edmonton a victory over top-seeded Detroit and a 2-1 lead in the first-round playoff series.
Game 4 of the best-of-seven Western Conference series will be Thursday in Edmonton. The Red Wings came into the 1-8 matchup with the NHL's best regular-season record (58-16-8).
After Edmonton blew a 3-1 lead in regulation, it hardly seemed likely the Oilers would pull this one out.
The Red Wings were celebrating almost 15 minutes into the first overtime when they thought Jason Williams won the game with a low shot off the wing. However, video replay showed that the puck slid under the side of the goal after Oilers netminder Dwayne Roloson bumped into it and caused it to lift up slightly.
Roloson finished with 18 saves in the first overtime and 44 overall.
Jaroslav Spacek, Ryan Smyth and Raffi Torres scored in regulation for the Oilers.
Henrik Zetterberg had two goals, and Mathieu Schneider added another for Detroit.
The Vancouver Canucks fired head coach Marc Crawford on Tuesday after missing the National Hockey League playoffs for the first time in five seasons.
Crawford was behind the Canucks' bench for seven seasons, leading them to the Northwest Division title in 2003-2004.
They entered this season expected to be one of the top teams in the Western Conference, but instead finished ninth, losing six of the last eight games to fall three points behind the Edmonton Oilers.
Crawford, who led the Colorado Avalanche to a Stanley Cup in 1996, finished his stint in Vancouver with a 246-197-70 record, but only won one series in four trips to the playoffs. The Canucks twice lost a Game 7 on home ice under his leadership.
He had one year left on his contract.
Crawford, who also coached the Colorado franchise, has 411 career NHL wins.
Crawford played every game of a nine-year pro career in the Canucks organization, recording 19 goals and 31 assists in 176 NHL games. He began his NHL coaching career in Quebec in 1994-1995, becoming the youngest to win the Jack Adams award as coach of the year that season.
Crawford was also the head coach of Team Canada at the 1998 Olympics in Nagano, Japan.
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