ALLARD: JOE SAYS, AFRAID IT'S SO, BUFFALO

Jean-Pierre Allard of Smarting Senators weighs in following the Senators' 4-3 double overtime win over the Sabres in Game 2 of the East final last night, which gave Ottawa a 2-0 lead in the best-of-7 series.

When often-maligned Senators defenseman Joe Corvo scored the double OT winner last night on a knuckleball that even third-string 1960s Yankee catcher Johnny Blanchard would have caught, there likely wasn't a happier person in HSBC Arena than John Muckler, Corvo and his Sens aside.

Not only did Muckler sign Corvo as a free agent last summer from the L.A. Kings, thus getting a bit of vindication with this huge goal, but he was also ridiculed by many for choosing Oleg Saprykin over Gary Roberts at this year's trade deadline.

While I too have joined the circus with my sapristi sobriquet, I did remember at the time that Saprykin played some decent playoff games for the Flames in 2004. Now he's jumped on a chance to replace Patrick Eaves and with every game, the former Coyote has been more and more of a fast and gritty fourth-liner.

The Senators got away with their annoying habit of not showing for the first period, getting back into it last night on Conn Smythe favourite Daniel Alfredsson's goal which cut an early Buffalo lead to 2-1. Some more iffy calls from the officials aided and abetted Ottawa when they scored two second-period power-play goals to take the lead, forcing Buffalo to scramble in the third in an effort to take charge of the game, and their season, which they mostly failed to do. Credit Sens coach Bryan Murray for perhaps outcoaching his pupil Lindy Ruff and sending out fresher troops from his fourth line to neutralize the potent Sabres attack.

But then another missed call on Chris Kelly, a crosscheck from behind no less, allowed the Sabres to keep the puck and just like that, Daniel Briere sent the game into overtime.

It hurt like hell to see a visibly fuming Muckler.

Corvo was a potential goat in the first overtime when he was sent off for interference, which was a make-up call for Alfie's unpenalized hit from behind on Sabres d-man Henrik Tallinder.

Considering Corvo's well-documented fragile psyche, can you even begin to imagine how this would have affected him if the Sabres had scored while he was in the box? Instead, he became Ottawa's latest overtime hero after Jason Spezza outwitted Sabres co-captain Chris Drury on the biggest faceoff of his adult life. It was a chilling message to Sabres fans: Afraid that Joe says it is so Buffalo, you gave it your best shot and it still wasn't enough.

As impressive as Ottawa has looked, they still have a few issues. They have won 10 of 12 games, which speaks volumes about Captain Alfie and the majority of his players' willingness to make sacrifices and bail out the usual suspects.

NOTES

• In one of my pre-series comments to a certain reader so bent on speaking on behalf of the Ottawa fans that I took to surreptitiously dub him General Guderian -- from Al Stewart's epic Roads To Moscow -- I said that I wouldn't be able to see how the Sabres and Sens would fare until I saw a period or two, adding that nothing would surprise me less than to see Ottawa win in four straight. This might not be as implausible as it sounded last week. Mind you, I'm the same dude that ran into hockey writer Al Strachan at Ottawa International Airport on the eve of the 2001 playoffsand told him that Toronto was about to sweep the heavily favoured Senators, even giving him my e-mail address so he could chime in later. I'm still waiting for the former Satellite Hot Stove panelist to respectfully write to tell me I was dead on.
• While the Senators' Red Army were all rejoicing in finally taking a 2-0 series lead after eight fruitless attempts, somewhere, NHL czar Gary Bettman sure as hell couldn't have been too enchanted by the extremely poor officiating that marred an otherwise excellent game. So if Lil' Gary missed this one -- there was a NBA game last night, after all -- he and his barons should take note of the following: There is nothing wrong with the current overtime format and everything wrong with your officiating. Fix the latter and the former will become even better.
• The ultimate irony is Sens Army members with too much time on their hands were to meet at Lynx Stadium yesterday at 4 p.m., the place they have abandoned during their 10-year unconditional love-in for their Sennies. Apparently, this was intended to be a car rally that would take them across town to Scotiabank Place to sit in an empty parking lot, and try their best at replicating scenes from Buffalo's world-famous NFL tailgates.
  
  D'oh! The SBP folks had no immediate plans to show the game on its Jumbotron. Oh well, hope those idiots have filed the address of Lynx Stadium for future reference. Or better, I hope they took a break from repeatedly returning to the well, er keg, and were still awake to see the entire game. Sometimes, I think the real fans are the ones that just keep their yap shut and watch the game quietly at home.