updated 3:21 a.m. ET May 8, 2006

OTTAWA - Dora the Explorer sent the Buffalo Sabres home for the weekend and allowed Ottawa Senators captain Daniel Alfredsson to have some bonus family time during the playoffs.

With Scotiabank Place unavailable throughout the weekend because of a series of concerts staged by a traveling production of the children's TV show, both teams got an extra day off to regroup and prepare defensively for Game 2 of their Eastern Conference semifinal Monday night.

“I was walking out of the game and I asked them who was there and somebody said ’Dora,”’ Sabres center Tim Connolly said. “I didn’t know who that was, but Teppo Numminen did. He filled me in on it.”

The Sabres returned to Buffalo immediately after their wild 7-6 overtime win in Friday’s series opener and practiced there Saturday and Sunday.

“I think with having two days off, it was better to come back,” Connolly said. “Guys get to relax at home, maybe see their families. They don’t have to sit around the hotel for two days, which can kind of get stale if you do that.”

The Senators worked out both days at their nearby practice facility.

Alfredsson appreciated having the extra day to dissect how the top-seeded team in the East managed to blow five straight leads — including two in the final 1:37 of regulation — before losing just 18 seconds into overtime following the last of countless turnovers in the game.

“I think it’s good,” Alfredsson said before taking his 3-year-old son Hugo to Dora’s Sunday matinee. “We have some things to work on and mentally, to get back where we want to be, I think it’s a good thing as well.”

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Monday’s game is the first of three in four nights. The series moves to Buffalo for Game 3 on Wednesday, followed by Game 4 on Thursday.

“The nice thing is it’s an extra day of rest for some guys,” said Senators defenseman Chris Phillips, who returned Friday after missing the final game of Ottawa’s first-round win over Tampa Bay because of a left knee injury.

Phillips and Zdeno Chara were on the ice Sunday after the two defensemen were given the previous day off by coach Bryan Murray. Defenseman Brian Pothier is also available to play in Game 2, as is rookie center Chris Kelly, who will have to wear a face shield to protect a cut near his left eye after he was struck there by a puck late in Friday’s game.

Buffalo co-captain Daniel Briere missed both weekend practices because of an upper body “ailment.” Briere’s absence from the Sabres’ training facilities led to speculation that he was ill, as opposed to injured.

Coach Lindy Ruff said Briere “should be” able to play Monday night.

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Left wing Jochen Hecht took part in a full workout and might be able to return for Game 2 as well.

“We’ll let him skate (Monday) morning and see where he’s at,” Ruff said.

Asked if he was going to come back with rookie goalie Ryan Miller, who allowed six goals on 33 shots Friday, Ruff played it coy and said, “He’s going to dress.”

Otherwise, Martin Biron will make his first career playoff start.

“We’ve had the option early in the year of having three goalies and then it became two goalies,” said Ruff, who also had Mika Noronen in the mix this season before he was traded to Vancouver. “Both goalies were good options for us and both played very well. I think if you look back to Marty’s last game it was a shutout in Carolina. He played tremendous in that game.”

Despite allowing seven goals on 23 shots — including two in the second period while facing only four shots, Senators rookie Ray Emery will be back in Ottawa’s net.

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“I’m going to worry about the guy between our pipes, they’ll worry about their guy,” Ruff said. “I think we nipped them by one is the way to look at it. I think I’ve got to get our guy settled down and I know from watching games from Tampa Bay, Emery put in some very solid performances.”

Sabres defenseman Toni Lydman felt too much attention was being placed on the play of both rookie goalies in Game 1.

“You can always blame the goaltender for every goal, but I don’t think that’s the case,” Lydman said. “You look at the goals that we scored and they scored, they were pretty nice backdoor plays and I think it’s just more about us as a five-man unit playing more solid defensively. We know they have a good team and a good offense. We just have to be ready for them, too.”

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