In his first postseason game against the team he grew up with, Scott Gomez assisted on three of the New York Rangers' goals in a 4-1 win over the New Jersey Devils to open their NHL playoff series Wednesday. Ryan Callahan surprised Devils goalie Martin Brodeur with a goal-scoring swoop around the net in the third period, and the Rangers wrested away home-ice advantage from New Jersey. Brendan Shanahan, Sean Avery and Nigel Dawes also scored for the Rangers, who went 7-0-1 against New Jersey in the regular season. Paul Martin scored a power-play goal and Brodeur stopped 24 shots for the Devils, who'll host Game 2 of the best-of-seven series Friday. Penguins 4, Senators 0: In Pittsburgh, Gary Roberts and Petr Sykora scored in the first period to set up Pittsburgh's win over Ottawa. The favored Penguins, determined not to duplicate their awful postseason opener of a year ago, rode Marc-Andre Fleury's goaltending after that to secure the opening win in their Eastern Conference playoffs. Roberts had two goals, only one fewer than he had throughout an injury-interrupted season, and Evgeni Malkin – the NHL's No.2 scorer – had a goal and two assists. Pittsburgh, which never recovered from its opening-game loss to Ottawa in its five-game series last April, takes a 1-0 lead into Game 2 on Friday. The Penguins have won their past nine home games. Fleury made 26 saves in his first career playoff shutout, improving to 11-2-1 since returning from a nearly three-month layoff with a badly sprained ankle. Avalanche 3, Wild 2, OT: In St. Paul, Minnesota, Joe Sakic tipped in a shot by Ruslan Salei midway through the first overtime period to send Colorado past Minnesota. Sakic's eighth career playoff goal in extra time gave the Avalanche a 1-0 lead in this first-round series. Game 2 is at Minnesota on Friday. Kurt Sauer and Ryan Smyth scored for the Avalanche. Mikko Koivu and Todd Fedoruk had goals to tie it. Flames 3, Sharks 2: In San Jose, California, Stephane Yelle scored two goals to lead Calgary to an upset win over San Jose in their series opener. Miikka Kiprusoff made 37 saves and the seventh-seeded Flames stunned the NHL's second-best regular-season team. Dion Phaneuf also scored a power-play goal for the Flames, who opened the best-of-seven Western Conference series with three opportunistic goals and a late defensive scramble to win a game largely controlled by the Sharks. Game 2 is Thursday. Ryane Clowe scored two goals as San Jose outshot Calgary 39-23, but the Flames generated three scores in the first 40 minutes and then held on after Clowe's second with 56 seconds to play. Evgeni Nabokov stopped 20 shots for the Sharks, who hadn't lost a home game in regulation since Feb. 14. __
