It’s what it’s all about Alfie!

The Captain came through again, much like he has in three consecutive series, Daniel Alfredsson the Senators on ice general grabbed his team by the scruff of the neck and launched them into the Stanley Cup final on Saturday.

It was Alfredsson’s floater in the Buffalo end in overtime that found its way to the back of the net, crushing the hopes of the Sabres and their thousands of fans in and outside of the HSBC arena.

It’s been Alfredsson throughout the playoffs who has kept the Senators focused on their goal, when they get a goal down, when they stumble in their own end, inevitably it’s their captain who jumps onto the ice and leads them back to the other end. Usually with a positive outcome. There are few players who can give the Conn Smythe engraver a heads up in this playoff run so far, but if the Sens can make the final hurdle on their journey, there will be no better candidate for the MVP of the playoffs award that number eleven in an Ottawa sweater.

Saturday’s game, once again provided the kind of anxiety that Ottawa fans have come to loathe over the last few years. A battling Buffalo squad that took an early lead, held onto it for a fair amount of time and then reversed the Ottawa flow of the second and third periods to force overtime.

Penalties figured large in the Sabres comeback, the Sens taking five penalties in the third period alone. Two successive third period penalties to Anton Volchenkov and Christoph Schubert left the Sens to face a five on three, a situation that they handled quite well until the final few seconds when the Sabres Maxim Afinogenov picked up the required goal to send the game to an extra period.

It was a game that started out rather tentative in the first period, but finished in a flurry of rushes from end to end, scoring opportunities and game saving shot blocking from goaltenders, defensemen and forwards (just ask Chris Drury).

In the end, justice in a way was served for the Senators and their captain. It was last year when Daniel Alfredsson’s check got away from him and Jason Pominville put away the Senators on an unexpected goal.

This time it was the Sens captain who put to rest the ghosts of playoffs past, skating into the Buffalo end, somehow not attracting the attention of the three Sabres at hand and lofting his soft shot on and into the net behind the spectacular Ryan Miller, a player who perhaps deserved a better fate than the one provided in OT.

In a way it’s unfortunate that one of these two teams would end up eliminated, they are very much similar in their make up and their curses, though the Sabres have more experience with the near misses in recent history than the Sens. And by the end of play on Saturday afternoon, the Sabres had added one more bitter chapter to the book of what could have been.

With the captain’s winning goal, the nervous ones in the capital and the Sens fans scattered across the nation could breathe a sigh of relief, for the first time since 1927 an Ottawa team will be competing for Lord Stanley’s Cup. For those looking for destiny in their Stanley Cup storylines, it was eighty years ago that another Senators team won that fabled trophy, Ottawa fans will no doubt be crossing their fingers, wearing their lucky clothing and holding their breath for a similar outcome in 2007.

Snippets of coverage thus far on the Sens series clinching victory:

Ottawa off to Cup after winning Eastern Conference final

Alfredsson the overtime hero to lift Ottawa Senators into the Cup final

FINAL-LY

Sabres add more angst for suffering Buffalo fans

Ottawa in Cup finals

Senators off to Stanley Cup

Mission finally completed

Alfredsson a deserving hero

It's fitting that captain Daniel Alfredsson would score the overtime winner after all the scrutiny he's endured

Great for the fans

Ruff hopes team feels power of pain

Murray's happy at home

This has been a long time coming

Greektown or Disneyland? It doesn't matter to Emery

Game over for Sabres

Miller saves goals, Miller saves Season, for now…

The brooms have been put away, the party on Bank Street held back for at least one more game. The Ottawa Senators were rocked back on their heels in the first period of Wednesday’s game four, as the Buffalo Sabres finally provided some of the excitement and scoring touch that they became known for in the regular season.

The Sabres entered game four fully aware that a loss meant the season was over and judging by the play of Ryan Miller in the Sabres net, they just weren’t ready to take their summer vacations just yet.

Buffalo showed a bit of pride in their job on Wednesday, returning to the kind of play that took them to the top of the East division this year, they had a much better fore-check in place Wednesday, at times shutting down the Sens before they could get started, Buffalo began to fire pucks at the sens Ray Emery, one key shot an attempt that somehow eluded Emery, putting the Sabres up by three goals and normally in safe spot for a victory.

But in playoff hockey, no lead is really safe and the Sabres tried their best to give it back to the Sens, hit posts and clanging crossbars provided some nervous moments for the Sabres faithful back in Buffalo. By rights with a few inches either way, the Sens could very well have been ahead by a couple of goals, the Sabres vanquished and heading back to Buffalo.

The Second period had the Sabres on their heels and looking like a team ready to topple, if the second period had but five more minutes to play, there’s a very good chance that Ottawa not only would have picked up a tying goal but taken the lead, such was the pace of their attack in the second half of the second period.

But Ryan Miller kept his team in the game and in the series; remarkable saves traded spots with bad Senator’s luck, as the puck refused to sneak in behind the Buffalo goaltender for an equalizer.

Still, as remarkable as Miller’s performance was on Wednesday, you can’t help but think that the Sabres days are numbered as far as this years playoffs are concerned.

The Senators regained control of the play by the second period, and you had the feeling that it was only a matter of time before they had the game in their control.

Ottawa almost put them away in a four game sweep, those chances will return in game number five and if Ottawa can just convert on one or two of the types of chances that they had on Wednesday, then this series will end on Saturday afternoon.

If it doesn't, then Ottawa may find itself in a wee spot of trouble, giving these Sabres a life is not a strategy that bodes well considering recent history between these teams, it might be best to use game five on Saturday to shut the Sabres down once and for all this playoff season.

Buffalo on the brink of extinction

Game three of what the Buffalo Sabres can now only hope (and maybe now is the time for prayer as well) will be a seven game series, was dominated completely by the host Ottawa Senators. Only the magical goaltending of Sabres goaltender Ryan Miller, kept Monday night’s game from becoming possibly one of the most embarrassing losses in Sabres history.

Had anyone else rather than Miller been in the nets, there’s a very good chance Ottawa would have been celebrating a five or six to nothing victory. As it was, the 1-0 win, was much more flattering to the Sabres that reality should have provided for.

There was no aspect of this game (except for Ryan’s theatrics) where the Senators did not hold total control, from the outset of play Monday, the amazing play of captain Daniel Alfreddson provided proof as to how Alfredsson has become perhaps one of the most dominant two way players in the playoffs this season. He was everywhere in the play, fore checking deep in the Buffalo end, swiping away at stray pucks in the neurtal zone and then speeding to the goal crease to knock away one of the few dangerous opportunities that the Sabres could muster in a game they surely needed but exhibited no real sense of urgency in.

The captain is but one highlight in a continuous highlight reel of action, from his line mates of Spezza and Heatley, through the lines to the checking one, the Senators seem to be possibly just as dangerous at scoring on all four lines as they are on line number one. It’s the kind of performance that wears an opponent down, demoralizes them and can begin to set them off against each other. Missed assignments by the Sabres, sloppy play and frequent turn over’s gave the Sabres a poor deal on Monday, it was as though they were waiting for the deluge of Senators goals to finally put this one away.

Ray Emery almost had the night off, the shot totals laughably low from a team that normally is an offensive machine, power play opportunities were plenty for Buffalo, in fact a couple of times they were provided with two men advantages only to watch as the Senators played a formidable game of keep away. At what point in this series now does Lindy Ruff try and decline the penalty opportunities lest it continue to eat away at the collective minds of the Buffalo power play?

Defensively Ottawa has started to hit their stride, three solid lines of D men that can seemingly interchange with each other and not slow down the pace nor allow much in the way of opportunity for the Buffalo forwards.

Early on the Sens weathered the anticipated Buffalo assault, a fast and furious ten minutes at the start of the game that provided an early tease that this may be the pivotal game, one which would be robust hockey as both teams tried to score that first quick goal to set the other team on it’s heels a bit. Instead, it was a complete melt down on the power play that seemed to set the Sabres back, frequently shaking their heads as passes went astray, shots were gobbled up by sprawling defencemen or by an under worked but never the less fully attentive goaltender in Emery.

This most anticipated of series now has the aura of a quick and sudden ending coming its way, Buffalo will summon up some pride to try and avoid a sweep, but Ottawa has taken charge of this series and has more than begun to dictate the terms as far as the play goes.

All that may be left now, may be the final terms of surrender!

We’ll provide below, some links to some of the coverage of game three that we come across.

Dominating performance by Ottawa shows it's now men versus boys

Ottawa shuts out Buffalo

Senators one victory away from Stanley Cup final

Senators close in on first Cup finals

Sens push Sabres to the brink

Sabres remain positive despite 1-0 loss

Senators shut down Sabres

Senators one win from Stanley Cup final after 1-0 win over Sabres

Sens win

Final countdown

Best punch not enough for Sabres

Lindy Ruff’s Sabres came out at the start of game number two and set the pace for a wild and what would be woolly double overtime game.

Off to a quick start, the Sabres were quickly up by two goals, the perfect start for the faithful at the HSBC and the assorted masses in the parking lot. Early heroes for Buffalo would be Tomas Vanek and Jochen Hecht who scored in the first six minutes to stake a claim for sending the series back to Ottawa tied at one.

The Senators traditionally seem to have a problem with game number 2 of a playoff series, frequently finding themselves on the short end (or some cases long long end) of the stick, often a game that can change a destination.

But as is quickly being learned in this season’s playoff games, these are not your former Senators. This line up is a battling batch of dedicated players, not easily frazzled, able to channel disappointment or disaster into a possibility.

And that’s precisely what happened as Game Two progressed, the Sabres took their two goal lead as far as the fourteen minute mark of the first period, when Daniel Alfredsson playing some of the finest hockey of his career, put his team on the scoreboard, finally solving the immovable force of Ryan Miller in the Sabre nets.

The second period featured goals from Mike Fisher and Wade Redden putting the Sens up by one and looking ready to head back to Ottawa after sixty minutes up by two games. However, as is the norm in Buffalo, the Sabres don’t quit until that final horn sounds, they battled back through the third period coming close only to be denied by Ray Emery in the Ottawa net. It was a wild scramble on the boards that sent a puck out to the right of Emery’s net giving Daniel Briere a game tying goal with mere seconds left in regulation time.

With momentum decidedly on the side of Buffalo heading into the dressing room, the Sens core group of leaders took over the room, telling the team to look past the last second goal, focus instead on the challenge ahead, to get one goal to take a 2- 0 lead in the series heading for home.

A first overtime period featured many chances at the Buffalo end of the rink, as Miller held the fort and denied the Sens on key opportunities throughout the period. Emery was kept active in the Ottawa end, but not nearly as frequent as Miller in the Buffalo end.

The Sens were tenacious in their fore-check, hemming the Sabres deep into their own end time and time again. It was as near complete game from all players as you might find in playoff hockey. Occasional lapses would be picked up by someone, allowing the Sens to continue to work hard in the Buffalo end.

A work ethic that would pay off in the second overtime, five minutes into the second extra period Jason Spezza won the draw deep in the Buffalo zone, a rolling puck traveled back to Joe Corvo who smacked a knuckle ball shot over Millers catching glove. The silence that descended on the rink, provided an ominous scene for the Sabres who now are clearly in a bit of trouble in their quest to challenge of the Stanley Cup.

While it’s never over until it’s over, the Senators will be feeding off the enthusiasm of the Ottawa crowd on Monday in game three. Coming home with a 2 game lead in a best of seven series puts the Sens on the threshold of putting away an old foe and a lot of ghosts.

We’ll follow up on some of the press that game two has received:

Sens and Sabres show new NHL at its best

Senators head home with 2-0 lead
Senators beat Sabres in O/T

Senators prevail in double overtime

Not your average Joe

Sens work OT to break curse

Corvo gives Senators stranglehold on series

Senators sock Sabres with stinging blow in double OT

Senators take game one from Sabres

They came out of the gate looking like a blow out was on their minds, handed the momentum back to the hosts for the second period and then turned around and retook the game in the third.

If you’re looking for the game in a capsule that would be the synopsis for the Sens Game one victory in Buffalo on Thursday night.

Ottawa gave every indication of looking to take the Sabres to the clinic in the early stages, scoring two goals in the first eight minutes. But, to the credit of Buffalo, they refused to be run out of their own building.

The Sabres mounted an impressive comeback in latter half of the first and through the second period, catching the Sens and taking the play into the third tied at two goals a piece.

It was a fast flowing game, though one riddled with errors on both sides, giveaways, fancy passes that had best not be made and in the case of the Sabres some special teams miscues that would come back to haunt by the end of the third period.

Ottawa found scoring from all segments of the game, the power play, the penalty kill, the first line and the fourth line. Buffalo made too many errors in their own end, leaving Ryan Miller at the mercy of Ottawa snipers, give Mike Fisher a breakaway, Daniel Alfredsson a lane or Jason Spezza a rebound and most times the puck is going in behind the goaltender.

All three events took place resulting in goals, while goals Oleg Saprykin and an empty netter from Dean McCammond rounded out the Ottawa scoring in game number one, Maxim Afinogenov and Toni Lydman countered for the Sabres, but by the end of the night the Sabres were still three goals short of extending the game.

The Senators showed flashes of dominance through the game, then inexplicably would allow the Sabres to carry the bulk of the play, the second period in particular took on a Buffalo shine as the Sabers did everything but take the lead from the Sens. For Buffalo it was a power play that sputtered that became costly, in fact the Sens made the best of a gift on a Buffalo power play by turning a turnover into a short handed goal early in the game, it set the tone for the Sabres tentative power play that never really seemed to threaten the Senators for most of the night. When the play did seem to get heated in the Ottawa end however, the Sens could count on their goaltender, who had a rather light night on the job, but made the saves that counted when they needed to.

Ray Emery, the incarnation of public enemy number one in Buffalo this week rose to the occasion, though he slipped on one goal of the two, a lapse that didn’t haunt him in the end. Emery benefited greatly from an Ottawa defence that is not afraid to block a shot, Anton Volchenkov alone seemed to deflect, knock away or smother six to eight shots all on his own. Overall, Emery had a relatively light workload, twenty shots all told; his counterpart in the Buffalo end, Ryan Miller faced 38 shots and frequently saw his defence stray away from their assignments leaving him alone with attacking Senators.

Game One is a key match up in any playoff round, though surely not the weathervane for ultimate success. It’s just one game closer to moving on to the final round of the Stanley Cup playoffs, a mission the Sens have set for themselves this year and one which took a solid step forward on Thursday night.

The reviews are moving along the news sites and we’ll feature some of the insight to Thursday’s action below:

Sabres gift wrap opener
MacGregor: Snakebitten cities might share a kinship, but for bad blood
Senators Score Late and Often in Taking an Early Series Lead
Saprykin scores winner as Sens draw first blood in 5-2 win over Sabres
Senators excel at Sabre rattling
Senators stick it to Sabres in Game 1
Sens draw first blood in win over Sabres
Senators overpower Sabres
Net gains for Sens goalie
Sens roll to Game 1 victory
Fourth- liners take spotlight
Senators Strike 1st for 1-0 Series Lead
Senators flatten Sabres to take opener in East finals
Senators’ Saprykin picks good time to end playoff goal drought

Now all they have to do is play hockey!

The preamble to the Eastern Conference final is providing for enough news that might see the continents pulp and paper industry spring back to life.

It may not be the dream match up for the NHL head office, as far as size of markets goes, but, as far as mini dramas to play out before a game is played, this one is becoming the thing of a classic.

Whether it’s Ray Emery’s opinions of Buffalo, or Lindy Ruff and some touristy type suggestions for the Sens goaltender, everybody is talking hockey in Buffalo this week. The two teams are busily preparing to take to the ice on Thursday night in game number one, of what should be a highly entertaining best of seven series for the Eastern title.

Recent history has made these two teams bitter rivals, past playoff drives for Ottawa have ended on the road to Buffalo as frustrating a situation as any Sens fan has had to face.

This past season the Sens turned the tables on the Sabres winning the bulk of the regular season games and becoming public enemy number one in the Sabres lexicon thanks to a particular night in February.

All of it ratcheting up the expectations for an Eastern final that may just salvage what so far has been a rather mind numbing and tedious couple of rounds of playoff hockey.

Here’s just a sample of some of the tone (and tonnes of comment) on the series before they even drop a puck…

Plenty of bad blood between Sabres and Senators

Lots to like about Senators Sabres showdown

Senators Sabres the season series

All Sabres pointed at Emery, who relishes role of enemy

Sabres sticking to business

Ottawa, East Finalist, Asks: Canada, Where’s the Love?

Border clash: Sabres-Senators to renew hot rivalry

Eight reasons to believe in the Ottawa Senators

Hatred aside, Sabres-Senators series a potential classic

Sens' Emery, Senators expecting rough ride from Sabres fans