Late Predators goals stun Hasek, Detroit

Associated Press

Last update: April 15, 2008 - 2:53 AM

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The Nashville Predators are back in the series. The Red Wings are searching for their lost momentum. Jason Arnott scored with 3:58 left in the final period, the second Nashville goal in nine seconds, as the Predators rallied to beat Detroit 5-3 Monday night and cut the first-round series deficit to 2-1.

"There’s moments that are going to happen in a series that can change the whole series," Nashville coach Barry Trotz said. "I don’t know, we might have just had ours."

Ryan Suter tied the score only nine seconds before Arnott’s goal, putting a slapshot from the left side past Dominik Hasek, who had dominated the Predators for most of the game and the series. Martin Erat’s goal into an empty net with 41 seconds left sealed the victory.

Nashville will try to tie the series at home in Game 4 on Wednesday night.

The somber Detroit locker room felt like that of a team that had just been eliminated, not like that of the NHL’s top seed and still the series leader.

"Guys are down. Guys are hurting," Detroit center Kris Draper said. "At the same time, when we wake up [today], we’re still up 2-1, even if it doesn’t feel that way."

Pittsburgh 4, Ottawa 1: Goals by Sidney Crosby, Jordan Staal and Marian Hossa in the third period lifted the Penguins over the Senators in Ottawa and gave Pittsburgh a 3-0 lead in the first-round series.

Maxime Talbot scored in the second period, and Hossa also had two assists, pushing his former team to the brink of elimination one year after it beat Pittsburgh in five games on its way to the Stanley Cup Finals.

Game 4 is Wednesday night in Ottawa.

The Penguins will have an opportunity to claim their first playoff series victory since 2001, when they beat Buffalo in a seven-game conference semifinal before losing the East final to New Jersey.

"It would be awesome, no question about it," Staal said. "It would be a little payback for last year. The fourth game is always the toughest to win, and we’re going to have to come out with an even better effort than we did tonight."

Crosby got the tiebreaking goal 12 seconds into the third, stunning the Senators’ crowd with his first goal of the playoffs after busting in on a two-on-one break.

Notes

• Vancouver fired General Manager Dave Nonis on Monday after missing the playoffs for the second time in his three seasons in charge. Nonis had already been in the organization for six years as director of hockey operations when he took over the general manager duties from Brian Burke just before the NHL lockout in 2004.

• It remains unclear whether Boston center Patrice Bergeron will play again this spring. Bergeron has been held out of the playoffs as a precaution because of a concussion he suffered in October.

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