Dora's adventures figure to be tame compared to those of the Ottawa Senators and Buffalo Sabres as they search for wins in their Eastern Conference semifinal.

The Senators host Buffalo for Game 1 of their best-of-seven series at Scotiabank Place in Ottawa on Friday, with the building unavailable the next two days due to events featuring the popular children's show Dora the Explorer.

The Northeast Division rivals will renew acquaintances after eight regular-season meetings, five of which were won by the Senators.

Buffalo's Ryan Miller and Ottawa's Daniel Alfredsson figure to go head-to-head in the second round. (Don Heupel/Associated Press)

"We're definitely the underdog going into this series with the year Ottawa had, and the offence they piled up and their record against us," Buffalo coach Lindy Ruff said. "We've got a challenge."

While that technically may be true, one can't help but sense a bit of gamesmanship on Ruff's part as well. Buffalo (52-24-6) recorded the same amount of wins as Ottawa (52-21-9), finishing just three points behind in the standings.

Ottawa's players probably won't put too much stock into Ruff's claims.

"We know they're going to be a tough test," Senators captain Daniel Alfredsson said. "They're a strong team, they've got a lot of speed. We've had tough games against them all year and this should be a good series."

Teams on the offensive in the first round

That could be an understatement, as both teams played several exciting games in the first round of the playoffs. No other clubs scored nearly as many goals as Buffalo (27) or Ottawa (23).

Ottawa turned back the defending Stanley Cup champion Tampa Bay Lightning in five games, with the Sabres needing one more game to eliminate the Philadelphia Flyers. In general, though, Ottawa's series was shorter and the Senators' victories were more competitive than those of Buffalo, which had two romps and a shutout against the Flyers.

The Senators have been off since Saturday, a three-day cushion over Buffalo, which could be an advantage for a team that has had its share of injuries.

All but one of Buffalo's 20 skaters registered at least one point and 11 scored at least one goal against Philadelphia. Ottawa did even better, with a whopping 14 players scoring in a six-game series.

Teams can go the entire four rounds of the playoffs without as many players producing as much as the Sabres and Senators.

Still, while the excitement both teams bring to the table with their speed and passing abilities figures to continue, there are a few reasons to suggest that the goal totals might drop just a tad.

The first is obvious. Neither of these teams is defensively as porous as their first-round victims.

The second reason is in net. Buffalo's rookie goaltender Ryan Miller played solidly in the first round, capping the series with a shutout and only faltering on the road when Peter Forsberg was at his dominant best.

Meanwhile, Ottawa's rookie netminder, Ray Emery, brushed off attempts by Tampa coach John Tortorella to rattle his nerves, playing only one game in the series that could be described as subpar.

Season's meetings

Finally, some of the head-to-head regular-season meetings between Buffalo and Ottawa may provide clues as to what ultimately may take place.

Throw out the first three meetings, which took place early in the season, as a likely blueprint.

Ottawa was barnstorming through much of the league with a torrid offensive start that drew comparison to the 1980s Edmonton Oilers. Buffalo, meanwhile, struggled to find their game in the first weeks.

The Senators trounced the Sabres each time, outscoring them by a combined 21-5.

The last two meetings of the season were Buffalo wins within the same week early in April, and they also come with an asterisk.

The Senators played those games with a host of minor-league defencemen in the lineup.

Anton Volchenkov missed one of the games, while Zdeno Chara, Wade Redden and Chris Phillips all missed both due to injury or, in Redden's case, to be with his ailing mother before she passed away.

The most instructive games would probably be the three in the middle, all played in February or March.

They were all fairly close contests that consisted of two Ottawa wins and a Sabres shootout victory. The highest goal output of any team in a single game was four, which included an empty-netter.

Miller played three of those games in net, with Emery the starter for two of them.

"It's going to be a tough series," Miller said. "Both of our teams can skate. We both have defences that can move the puck. ... We've identified how we have to play. Now we have to execute."

Finesse and toughness

Buffalo's cadre of speedy forwards, led by Daniel Briere, will want to disrupt the ability of Redden and Chara to spring Ottawa's big guns up front through the neutral zone.

The Sabre defensive zone will also be an area of the ice to watch. The ability of Ottawa's forwards to pass the puck in the face of an unheralded Buffalo defensive corps will be telling.

The notion that these are two finesse teams could also be challenged from time to time. Both teams have grinders who willing to muck in the corners, and even the most competitive games during the season featured at least one roughing penalty, with Ottawa's Brian McGrattan and Buffalo's Andrew Peters on standby for enforcement purposes.

Teams have playoff history

The teams have some post-season history, and are linked by two players and a general manager.

GM John Muckler, goaltender Dominik Hasek and grinder Vaclav Varada all have moved from Western New York to the Canadian capital.

The two clubs have met twice before in the playoffs, both wins by the Sabres.

Hasek injured his knee in Game 3 of the opening round in 1997 against an Ottawa team making the franchise's first playoff appearance. Steve Shields stepped in, with the Sabres winning in overtime in Game 7.

Two seasons later on their way to the Stanley Cup final, Hasek was his dominating self as the Sabres swept the Senators in the opening round.

Alfredsson and Redden were members of both of those teams, with Phillips a part of the latter defeat.

Buffalo's Jay McKee also played in both series, while Varada was a Sabre in the 1999 playoff campaign.

Hasek is unlikely to make an appearance against his old team, as much to do at this point with Emery's performance as his own mysterious abductor injury.

The winner of the series will take on the survivor of the Carolina-New Jersey series in the Eastern Conference final.