newjerseydevils.com – With his winning goal in overtime against Ottawa on Saturday night, Jamie Langenbrunner moved into a tie with some of the Devils’ elite postseason performers.

What he also did was add a chip that the Devils have typically cashed in on over their recent postseason history: a victory in sudden death.

The Devils have won the previous eight playoff series in which they have registered at least one overtime victory, a stretch that began in the first round of their run to the 1995 Stanley Cup Championship.

That trend continued in the first round of these playoffs, when a Scott Gomez overtime goal beat the Lightning in game four of the Conference Quarterfinals, and the Devils went on to eliminate Tampa in six games.

On Saturday night, Langenbrunner’s breakaway tally gave New Jersey a 3-2 overtime win in game two of the Conference Semis. It was the winger’s sixth winning goal in his postseason career as a Devil, and tied him with Patrik Elias, Claude Lemieux, Petr Sykora and Scott Stevens for the franchise record.

The overtime marker was also the second sudden-death goal of Langenbrunner’s Devil career, and added the Cloquet, MN-native to an even shorter list of Devils with as many as two postseason OT goals: Stephane Richer and Randy McKay.

Langenbrunner’s previous postseason overtime goal came in game two of the 2003 Eastern Conference Semis against the Lightning, as the Devils took the first two games of the series on Langenbrunner winners. New Jersey went on to defeat Tampa in five games.

The Devils resume their 2007 Eastern Conference Semifinals in Ottawa on Wednesday for game four, which gets underway at 7 p.m. (VERSUS, WFAN 660 AM).

New Jersey returns to the Meadowlands for game five at 8 p.m. this Saturday, May 5 (FSN NY, 92.3 Free FM). Tickets can be purchased at the arena box office, or by visiting ticketmaster.com.

with wire services