TAMPA, Fla. — The Tampa Bay Lightning are finding ways to make Martin Brodeur look ordinary.

Vincent Lecavalier scored his fourth goal of the playoffs, and Brad Richards and Vinny Prospal each tallied their first in helping the Lightning beat the New Jersey Devils 3–2 last night in Game 3 of their first-round Eastern Conference series.

Johan Holmqvist, who has rebounded from a shaky NHL postseason debut to outplay Brodeur the past two games, stopped 30 shots as the seventh-seeded Lightning took a 2-1 lead in the best-ofseven matchup. Game 4 is at Tampa on Wednesday night.

Brodeur, a three-time Stanley Cup champion, entered the playoffs with a 1.89 career goalsagainst average, but has given up three in each game of the series. Tampa Bay also won three of four regular-season meetings against the goalie, who won a leaguerecord 48 games.

Lecavalier scored his power-play goal on a sharp-angle shot that appeared to catch Brodeur by surprise in the first period. He had an assist on the winner, which Prospal scored from in front of the net with 6:29 remaining in the third.

John Madden and Zach Parise scored for the Devils.

Brodeur’s experience and strong track record are the main reasons many expect the Devils ultimately to win the series, however the 28-year-old Holmqvist is making it interesting in his first postseason appearance.

Holmqvist rebounded from allowing five goals on 24 shots in a Game 1 loss to make 34 saves in Tampa Bay’s 3–2 victory in Game 2 at New Jersey. He was solid again Monday night, even after the second-seeded Devils tied it at 1 on Madden’s goal with 2:33 left in the second.

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SABRES 3, ISLANDERS 2 Thomas Vanek and the Buffalo Sabres forwards stayed down only so long.

After two games where most of the offense came from the defense, Vanek, Daniel Briere, and Adam Mair all connected in the second period Monday night to lift Buffalo to a 3–2 victory over the New York Islanders and give the topseeded Sabres a 2–1 lead in the first-round, Eastern Conference playoff series.

The Sabres, who led the NHL with 308 goals, scored six while splitting the first two games on home ice. Chris Drury, who assisted on Mair’s goal, scored twice in the series-opening victory for the only goals by Buffalo forwards.

That all changed when the Sabres scored three times in a span of 7:39. Trent Hunter and Ryan Smyth answered in the second period in front of a towel-waving, sellout crowd and NHL commissioner Gary Bettman. It wasn’t enough, despite 32 saves by Rick DiPietro in his first home game in three weeks following a bout with post-concussion syndrome.