While the void of offense and excitement featured in the “dead puck” era of the 1990s is thankfully behind us, the maxim from the various Stanley Cup finals of that time holds true – goal-tending wins championships. If Game 1 is any indication, the Ottawa Senators are in trouble.

Interestingly, the sub-headline on NHL.com for their feature on Ottawa goalie Ray Emery states “…concentrate on the important stuff – he’s a winner.” Essentially, what the author is trying to say is: Don’t worry about all the soft goals he gives up – Ottawa’s defense and shot-blocking are still going to make him seem like a competent starting goaltender.

Well, he’s not…and he wasn’t a winner tonight, either.

It could all have been so different for the Senators. Just 1:38 into the game, Mike Fisher’s deflected shot somehow looped over Jean-Sebastien Giguere’s shoulder and into the net. At this stage of the season, the first goal is usually the most important. It seemed like Ottawa had marched into Anaheim’s building and seized the momentum.

The Ducks, though, deserve a lot of credit. They rebounded quickly from that setback and had the Senators back on their heels for the rest of the period. Although they didn’t register many shots on target, they kept up the pressure on the disaster waiting to happen in Ottawa’s net. Sure enough, Emery was out of position for Andy McDonald’s snap shot halfway through the period. It may not have been one he definitely should have saved, but he sure didn’t steal it away from Anaheim, either.

Ottawa weren't going to fold that easily though. Anaheim’s penalty-killing had failed them during the Detroit series, and they hurt themselves in the second period by taking a series of indisciplined penalties. While they had several, it was actually on the first power play of the period that Ottawa struck. Giguere lost his stick in a scrum around the net, and in an unusual move, Ducks forward Sammy Pahlsson tried to flip Giguere’s stick back to him. Normally, the play is for a forward or defenseman to hand over their stick to the netminder. Giguere was seemingly distracted, allowing Wade Redden’s blast from the point to get past his shoulder. If he had a stick (even a forward’s one), he probably would have saved it.

It was another instance in which Anaheim could have been disheartened by a bad break. However, they not only recovered from that, they prevented the Senators from scoring on a 5-on-3 power play for more than a minute and a half. That was surely the turning point in the game, as the Senators never seriously threatened the Ducks’ net again. Also, while two of the Senators’ big line of Daniel Alfredsson-Jason Spezza-Dany Heatley assisted on Redden’s goal, Pahlsson’s line effectively marked them out of the game the rest of the way.

Still, Ottawa looked good for their 2-1 lead after two periods, as they had benefited from all of the breaks up to that point. The problem for them was that their lead should have been bigger – especially with a volatile goaltender. Sure enough, early in the third, Emery cost them dearly.

Ryan Getzlaf circled around his defender and came in on goal from a bad angle. He was on his backhand, and had nothing to shoot at. But he shoveled the puck at the net anyway, and it found daylight through Emery’s five-hole to pull the Ducks into a 2-2 tie. It may have been the softest goal allowed to date in the playoffs – if it wasn’t the softest, it may prove to be the costliest.

The Ducks had the game by the jugular after that, and Travis Moen’s late goal had an air of inevitability to it. Now, Ottawa has to figure out how they are going to overcome Anaheim’s size and home-ice advantage to earn a split heading back to Ottawa on Saturday. For starters, they might want to think about installing Martin Gerber in goal for Game 2.