The highs and lows of overtime

The playoffs are filled with highs and lows — sometimes, just seconds apart.

For Canes defenseman Dennis Seidenberg, a low came in the opening minute of overtime Wednesday against the Bruins. Boston forward Milan Lucic spun Seidenberg around with a nifty move with the puck, then suddenly was one-on-one with goaltender Cam Ward.

With the RBC Center crowd in a collective gasp, Lucic's shot was blocked by Ward — in the Canes' case, disaster averted.

"I knew Cam was there so I was sure it wasn't over," Seidenberg said today. "It was close. I mean, he put a couple of good moves on me and I turned the wrong way. You just don't expect it from a big guy like that."

Seidenberg was relieved to see the puck at his skates after Ward fought off the shot.

"Luckily Cam was there and great like he has been the whole playoffs," Seidenberg said. "I looked for the puck and kind of kicked it. I knew it was between my legs, so I kicked it in the the corner to try to help clear it."

But 10 seconds later, Seidenberg was faced with another, bigger problem. The Bruins' Marc Savard, a more dangerous shooter and scorer than Lucic, was lining up a shot from the slot. Savard fired — once, twice — but Seidenberg got a piece of the puck each time.

"Again, it was close," Seidenberg said. "He faked the shot and then I got a stick on it. It hit me in the hip. The second time, he got another opportunity and he hit my shin pad."

Seidenberg smiled, saying, "It was a tough shift. The first shift of overtime was a really tough shift but we came out of it on the good end."

The good end being Jussi Jokinen scoring on the rebound of a Sergei Samsonov shot at 2:48 of overtime for the 3-2 win and 2-1 lead in the series.

"Cam saved us from not losing the game and then we got a chance and Sammy made a great move and then Jussi, like always in the playoffs it seems, was there and put it in," he said.