By Tom Canavan
The Associated Press

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. - Martin Brodeur and the New Jersey Devils took the NHL off the hook - and put Ottawa on it.

Brodeur made 24 saves for his fourth shutout of the playoffs and Sergei Brylin scored the only goal the league deemed to count in a 1-0 victory Thursday night. The Devils lead the Eastern Conference finals 2-1, with Game 4 set for Saturday at the Meadowlands.

Game 3 will remembered for the goal the NHL missed with New Jersey leading 1-0 with 7:50 left in the first period.

Jay Pandolfo took a pass from Jamie Langenbrunner and slid a shot under Senators goalie Patrick Lalime.

"I could have sworn I saw it go through his legs," Pandolfo said.

A not-so-funny thing happened, though.

Goal judge Paul McInnis didn't put on the red light. Referee Kerry Fraser didn't signal a goal and the Devils didn't celebrate, other than Langenbrunner raising his stick briefly as he skated around the net.

"I guess I'll start celebrating every shot now," Langenbrunner said, laughing.

After replays officials didn't see anything on the first few replays, the game resumed with a hurry-up faceoff.

Some 40 seconds later, the replay officials got an in-net camera view, which was their third option following the overhead net angle and television replays. The angle showed the puck going in the net, hitting the roll inside it and bouncing back out quickly, ending up under Lalime.

The discovery came too late for the Devils. Because play had re-started, the error could not be corrected.

"In this case, it didn't effect the outcome of the game," said NHL executive vice president Colin Campbell in admitting the league erred on the play. "But we can't let it happen again."

To the Devils' credit, they didn't get caught up in the mistake that came to their attention in the final minutes of the period when the replay was shown on a big screen inside the arena.

Devils coach Pat Burns waved his arms in disgust after watching it.

However, the team's veterans took control between periods.

"We just said let's move on and forget about it," captain Scott Stevens said after New Jersey pushed its home record in the playoffs to 7-0. "Fortunately everything worked out and we won the game."

New Jersey moved within two games of reaching the Stanley Cup finals for the third time in four years by bottling up Ottawa's swift offense in the neutral zone. The Senators had only 11 shots on goal in the first two periods in losing consecutive games for the first time in the playoffs.

When they finally got untracked in the third period and fired 13 shots on goal, Brodeur handled every one.

"Marty has come up big for us all year long and tonight was no different," Devils defenseman Colin White said. "That's what makes him such a great performer, the playoffs. That's when his true colors come out."

The only puck that really fooled Brodeur was a first-period dump in from center ice by Bryan Smolinski about five minutes after the opening faceoff.

Brodeur went behind the net to play the puck after it hit off the glass in the corner, but the puck took an unbelievable bounce and rolled right through the crease, missing the wide-open net by inches.

"I couldn't believe it didn't go in," said Brodeur, who shook his head behind the net as the puck rolled harmlessly to the corner. "Sometimes you need breaks like that."

Brylin scored at 10:48 of the first period, just seconds after he was tripped carrying the puck in the left circle. Senators defenseman Karel Rachunek retrieved the loose puck behind the net and tried to clear it around the side boards.

Devils defenseman Brian Rafalski stopped the puck at the point and fired a low shot that Brylin tipped into the net with his back to Lalime.

Ottawa had about five or six good scoring chances, with the best being a third-period shot by Radek Bonk that Brodeur made a snapping glove save.

"They hemmed us up in the neutral zone but we didn't help ourselves," Smolinski said. "In a one-goal game with the fire power we have, we should at least get one. We had some quality chances but he made some dynamite saves. We just move on to Saturday."