Unsung Senators Find Themselves In Playoff Race

Around the NHL

The Ottawa Senators are riding the goaltending of Ron Tugnutt toward their first playoff appearance.

Tugnutt has allowed just four goals in the last four games, including back-to-back shutouts, and the Senators entered the weekend in the eighth and final Eastern Conference playoff spot, three points ahead of Hartford with five games left.

“Everyone’s so excited about it. It’s fun,” Daniel Alfredsson said of the playoff push.

“He’s playing with confidence, and at the same time he’s had real good support from his teammates,” coach Jacques Martin said of Tugnutt. “The way he’s playing, it’s encouraging for our hockey team.”

The Senators were slowed by a 5-2 loss at Pittsburgh on Saturday, providing no relief for the complicated Eastern Conference playoff situation.

Montreal holds seventh place with 72 points. Hartford, which lost to Montreal 4-1, and Ottawa are tied for eighth - the final playoff spot - with 71 points. Tampa Bay climbed ahead of the Islanders and Washington by defeating New York 3-2. The Islanders and Washington, idle Saturday, remain at 68 points.

Portland Whalers?

NHL insiders have been saying that Whalers owner Pete Karmanos would love to make Las Vegas his landing spot.

Word around the league last week had it that Commissioner Gary Bettman, who objects to the league’s presence in Las Vegas, would try to convince Karmanos to give up the puck and sell the Whalers to Paul Allen, the co-founder of Microsoft. Allen would bring the team to Portland, to share the Rose Garden with his NBA Trail Blazers.

Brodeur: The puck stops here

While it is fashionable to judge NHL goaltenders against Dominik Hasek and Patrick Roy, Martin Brodeur of the New Jersey Devils might be the best this season.

Brodeur stopped 26 shots for his third straight shutout and lowered his league-leading goals-against average to 1.89 in beating the Tampa Bay Lightning 3-0 Friday night.

The shutout was a league-best ninth for Brodeur. It was also his 36th win, tying him with Colorado’s Roy and Buffalo’s Hasek for tops in the league.

With five regular-season games left, Brodeur is on the verge of becoming the second goalie in the past 22 years to lead the NHL with a goals-against average under 2.00.

Worst to first

The Dallas Stars finished last in the Western Conference a year ago with 65 points. An active off-season, in which they landed winger Pat Verbeek and defenseman Sergei Zubov and re-signed center Mike Modano and goalie Andy Moog, has turned Ken Hitchcock’s club into a contender.

Modano scored his 34th and 35th goals Saturday as the Stars tied the Los Angeles Kings 3-3 to close within two points of first-place Colorado in the Western Conference.

Asked about the remarkable turnaround, Hitchcock said, “If you were a betting man, I don’t think there’s a horse running that you’d want to bet on with those kind of odds. This is a team that believed in itself. We’ve earned it.”

Oilers clinch playoff spot

Martin Gelinas scored with 2 seconds remaining in regulation to give the visiting Vancouver Canucks a 2-2 tie with Edmonton, a decision that clinched a playoff spot for the Oilers.