EAST RUTHERFORD, New Jersey, 23 May 2003 — A goal by Chris Phillips 15:51 into overtime handed the Ottawa Senators a 2-1 win over the New Jersey Devils on Wednesday and forced a seventh game in the Eastern Conference final.

Defenseman Phillips helped the Senators stave off elimination for the second straight game and send the series back to Ottawa for the decisive contest today. The Senators are trying to become the fourth team in this year’s playoffs to win a series after trailing 3-1. Alone at the top of the crease, Vaclav Varada was stopped twice by Martin Brodeur before Phillips swooped to put the puck beyond the goaltender.

It was his second playoff goal and first since Game Three of the conference quarterfinals, a span of 14 games. The Senators collapsed en masse around an ecstatic Phillips, who was not even sure he had scored. Just minutes earlier, Ottawa’s Daniel Alfredsson had rattled a backhander off the Devils goal post before colliding with Brodeur, who had not lost at home in these playoffs while posting three shutouts.

Brodeur turned back 32 shots, two more than Ottawa netminder Patrick Lalime.

The game followed the pattern of previous matchups involving the Senators and Devils, the team scoring first going on to win.

Ottawa dominated early, outshooting New Jersey 13-7 in the opening period, but the Senators were unable to beat Brodeur.

A Brodeur miscue led to the opening goal at 17:49 of the second period.

With New Jersey a man down, Brodeur attempted to ice the puck but his clearing pass was knocked down at the blue line. Radek Bonk found a gap between his legs to make it 1-0, with Marian Hossa and Karel Rachunek collecting assists.

Grigorenko’s Condition

Slightly Better After Surgery

In Moscow, Russian international Igor Grigorenko remained in an emergency unit in hospital on Wednesday, but his condition has slightly improved.

“He remains on life-support systems, but doctors said that for the first time his condition has stabilized,” a hospital spokesman in the industrial city of Togliatti said on Wednesday. “Actually we saw a slight improvement in his condition today.”

Grigorenko, 20, underwent surgery last Saturday on a broken leg he suffered in a car crash in his hometown on the Volga River the day before. But his condition took a turn for the worse on Tuesday and doctors feared he might slip into a coma.