Sabres are still on the short end

Ottawa has two days off to stew about what went wrong and prepare for Game 5 Saturday.

OTTAWA (AP) — It’s going to take more than the Ottawa Senators’ first playoff loss this month to rattle forward Jason Spezza and his teammates.

After all, they have a commanding 3-1 edge over the Buffalo Sabres in the Eastern Conference finals, and remain one victory from clinching their first trip to the Stanley Cup finals.

“It’s disappointing, but it’s not the end of the world,” Spezza said Thursday, a day after the Senators lost 3-2. “We’re a little upset because we don’t like losing hockey games, but we knew it wasn’t going to be easy.”

Snapped streak

The defeat snapped a franchise-best, six-game playoff win streak. It was the first loss for the Senators since a 3-2 double-overtime loss to New Jersey on April 28 in Game 2 of their second-round series and only their third of the postseason.

Ottawa has two days off to stew about what went wrong and prepare for Game 5 at Buffalo Saturday.

“You’ve got to keep an even keel,” captain Daniel Alfredsson said after a brief team meeting. “Playoffs are not a breeze. You just can’t go through and expect everything to go your way. You’re going to have to face adversity.”

The top-seeded Sabres have faced enough tests so far, and finally figured out a way to respond, even though they nearly blew a 3-0 lead Wednesday.

Ryan Miller stopped 31 shots, including 15 in the final period, and the Sabres rattled the Senators when Derek Roy opened the scoring 9 seconds in.

The Sabres hung on to bounce back from two demoralizing losses. They squandered a two-goal lead in a 4-3 double-overtime loss in Game 2 and then came out flat two days later, managing a mere 15 shots, in a 1-0 loss.

Big win

“It was a big road win,” Chris Drury said after an optional skate in Buffalo. “Everything had been going their way in the series, so to get one on the road and come back, we know how excited our fans are.”

Daniel Briere hoped the win might raise some doubt in the Senators.

“As soon as you start losing, there’s a red flag that goes up in your head,” Briere said. “I don’t know how they are going to approach this loss or how they’re dealing with that. All I know is on our side, it’s a little bit of momentum.”

Not all the news was good for Buffalo.

Forward Dainius Zubrus is expected to miss Game 5 with what the team is calling a lower body injury. Zubrus only played 4 minutes in Game 4, but the Sabres still managed to shut out the Senators top line of Alfredsson, Spezza and Dany Heatley.