ALLARD: NOT THE SENATORS OF OLD

Jean-Pierre Allard of Smarting Senators weighs in following the Senators' 2-0 win over the New Jersey Devils in Game 3.

What a huge letdown Game 3 between the Senators and Devils was, at least insofar as the first two periods were concerned. It had its brilliant moments when both teams opened up and skated recklessly, especially the Senators who weren't about to offer a repeat of Game 2's first period stinker, but for the most part, it was nothing more than glorified skating and checking.

This suited the Devils just fine, happy that they were just waiting to pounce on a golden opportunity to score while confident that Martin Brodeur, the best goalie in the world when the chips are down, would be as stingy as ever. That both teams went to their dressing rooms after 40 minutes was no shock.

The surprise was not so much that Ottawa scored first, at 4:46 of the third period, but that Brodeur was beat on a seemingly harmless high shot from Tom Preissing after he had spent the entire game stoning Ottawa shooters, although I certainly didn't need to see all the replays to determine that Mike Fisher had committed enough goaltending interference to cause Brodeur to be slightly off position.

But hey, that's part and parcel of the game and if the Senators' only sin is to win a playoff game with a dirty tactic, then all the more reason to rejoice, especially since, with every game, the good guys continue to make believers out of many skeptics.

Whether it's hanging on like they did in Game 1 or coming back at the very end of Game 2 to force overtime or winning a tight and low-scoring affair like last night, they're finding new ways every game to grow as a team while gathering up steam on their playoff drive.

Consider the surprising grit they displayed in the first series against the Pens as a first sign that things might just be different this year. Then add the shot-blocking abilities from the defence, most notably Anton Volchenkov, and the increasing defensive responsibilities given to Jason Spezza, known until the last week or so as strictly a one-dimensional player and all signs are pointing to a whole new edition from last year.

Last night, Ray Emery won the goaltending battle, turning back 25 shots, even if his counterpart was more spectacular and busier with 33 shots on him. All this despite Emery clearly favoring his trapper hand on a few mishandled shots. A cool customer this Razor is turning out to be, even admitting in the post-game interview that Brodeur couldn't have been his childhood hero since the Hamilton native grew up a Leafs fan and Brodeur kept beating his team.

I'm likely getting a tad too excited as it's only one victory, no matter how huge it is, and while they could conceivably win this series without taking two games in a row, any serious Cup contender wins a few games in a row sooner or later. So how soon is now? How about Wednesday night at SBP, for the Sens to go up 3-1?

Jean-Pierre Allard is a freelance writer who has been following the Expos/Senators for MVN since 2004. In addition, he has covered the Ottawa Senators since 2004-05 on MVN and now will chronicle the 2007 Ottawa Lynx, the Philadelphia Phillies' Triple-A team.

His work has also been published in the Washington Times, Ottawa Citizen, Ottawa Sun, Toronto Sun, Calgary Herald, Vancouver Province and Ottawa City Woman Magazine. As a sports historian, he has also appeared on Global TV, CBC radio and SRC radio.

Also last night:

Sharks 2 Red Wings 1 (San Jose leads series 1-1): Detroit missed a chance to put the Sharks down early and the rest of the game was just an inevitability for the Sharks, who went ahead on Jonathan Cheechoo's third-period goal.