No NHL fan would ever mistake Jean-Sebastien Giguere for Martin Brodeur. Brodeur is a future first-ballot Hall of Famer with three Stanley Cup rings, while Giguere has had his ups and downs. But when it comes to playoff overtime, it's Giguere who's the star and Brodeur who keeps coming up short.
Barring some fluke, Brodeur will start his NHL-record 141st consecutive playoff game when New Jersey hosts Carolina on Saturday in Game 4 of their Eastern Conference semifinal series. But the Devils must be hoping that the game doesn't go into overtime because Brodeur has had more troubles in overtime than any active goaltender, and arguably more than any other great goaltender in NHL history. The Devils' 3-2 loss in OT at Carolina on May 8 dropped him to 8-19 all-time in playoff overtime games; he's 80-44 when the game is decided in regulation time.
Three other active goaltenders have more than 15 playoff overtime decisions; all three (Ed Belfour, Dominik Hasek, and Curtis Joseph) have records of .500 or better. Patrick Roy, whose record for consecutive playoff starts Brodeur broke this year, was 40-18 in playoff OT games.
Though Giguere has been relegated to watching rookie Ilya Bryzgalov carry the Anaheim Mighty Ducks to the Western Conference finals, he has added to his perfect playoff portfolio this spring. Giguere got the win when Anaheim beat Calgary 3-2 in Game 4 of their Western Conference quarterfinal series. He now has a perfect 8-0 mark in playoff OT games and has stopped all 95 shots he's faced in those games. Two of those overtime wins came against Brodeur in the 2003 Stanley Cup Finals, when Giguere won the Conn Smythe Trophy even though the Devils won the Cup.
Streak stopper -- Bryzgalov's 249:15 shutout streak left him 20:53 short of the record set by George Montreal's Hainsworth in 1930, though the rules of that era made for a much lower-scoring game. The rookie goaltender stopped 99 consecutive shots before Colorado's Dan Hinote ended his streak late in the first period of Game 3.
All over -- Anaheim's sweep of Colorado in the Western Conference semifinals marked the end of an era for the Avalanche. Not only was it the first time the Avalanche have been swept in 26 playoff series since moving from Quebec to Denver in 1995, it was the first time the Avalanche failed to win at least two games in a series. The only time the franchise had been swept was 1982, when the New York Islanders did it against the Quebec Nordiques in the semifinals.
One reason the Avalanche are starting their summer vacation is the absence of power on its power play. Colorado went 0-for-24 against the Mighty Ducks in the series and finished on a 0-for-33 slide dating the last man advantage in Game 3 of its series against Dallas.
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Anaheim's Joffrey Lupul is the first player in NHL playoff history to score all four of his team's goals and score the game-
winner in overtime, as he did in Game 3 in Colorado.
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Score four -- Joffrey Lupul became the fifth player to score or more goals while accounting for all of his team's scoring when he got all four of Anaheim's goals in the Mighty Ducks' 4-3 overtime win at Colorado in Game 3 of their Western Conference semifinal series. Amazingly, however, it was only the third time that a team getting that kind of performance won the game -- and the first time since 1944, when Rocket Richard scored all five of Montreal's goals in a 5-1 victory over Toronto. Both Chicago's Denis Savard (1986 vs. Toronto) and the Islanders' Ray Ferraro (1993 vs. Washington) scored all four of their teams' goals in 6-4 losses.
Lupul did get a line in the record book that's all his own: He's the first player to get all four of his team's goals and score the game-winner in overtime. He also had as many goals in Game 3 as the Avalanche managed in the entire series.
Not first, at last -- The Chicago Blackhawks' playoff-record streak of scoring first in 11-straight games, set in 1973, is safe. Buffalo had scored first in nine consecutive games before Ottawa got the opening tally in Thursday's 2-1 victory. One good sign for the Sabres: They're tied for second on the all-time list with the 1995 New Jersey Devils, who scored first in their first nine games during the postseason -- and won the Cup.
Broom to broomed? -- The Devils looked like world-beaters during their first-round sweep of the New York Rangers. Now they're trying to avoid something that hasn't been done under the current playoff format: being swept in the round after completing a sweep. The Devils are down 3-0 entering Saturday's home game against Carolina. A loss will make them the first team since the 1993 Buffalo Sabres to be swept in the second round after a first-round sweep; however, that was done under the format that matched division rivals in the first two rounds. Buffalo swept Boston in the Adams Division semifinals, then was swept by Montreal in the division finals.
Still the ones -- They haven't won an overtime game since 1993, but the New York Islanders are still the kings of OT, percentage-wise. The Islanders have a 29-11 record in their 40 playoff overtime games, a .725 winning percentage, slightly better than Anaheim's .714 (10-4). At 18 games over .500 in overtime, the Isles also lead in that category; Montreal is plus-16, but at 71-55 (plus 2 ties) has played 88 more OT games.
