SENS BEAR DOWN

Ottawa erases two-goal deficit to top Bruins

Goalie Craig Anderson and Co. bounce back from early deficit against visiting Bruins to post 4-2 victory.

It took the Ottawa Senators nearly 20 minutes to realize they were in a hockey game.

But thanks to a timely goal from Chris Neil, they shook off their first-period stupor and handed the Boston Bruins a 4-2 loss on Friday night.

Down 2-0 halfway through the first period, the Senators woke up when Chris Neil brought them to within one with 50 seconds to go in the first.

After a scoreless second, they then flew past the Bruins with third-period goals from Jason Spezza, Jared Cowen, and Bobby Ryan.

Loui Eriksson and Brad Marchand scored for the Bruins, who were playing the first of a three-game road trip.

Craig Anderson, who last won on Oct. 23 in Detroit, faced 32 shots, while Tuukka Rask faced 31.

The one sour note for the Senators was that Ryan left the game at 16:25 of the third after being elbowed in the head by defenceman Dennis Seidenberg.

For most of the first period, the Senators looked as miserable as they did in Tuesday’s 5-0 loss to the Philadelphia.

Fifteen minutes in, they were being outshot 11-3 and were behind 2-0, an entirely deserved result.

On Boston’s first goal at 6:03, which was first given to Matt Barkowski before being credited to Eriksson, the Senators had four chances to get the puck out of the zone but turned it over four times. It was a comedy.

Then, Eriksson’s deflected shot got an unintentional assist past Anderson from Derek Grant.

Almost four minutes later, Marchand cut across the high slot from right to left and put a wrister under the bar to the top right.

At that moment, it looked like the game was about to go sideways for the Senators, but they rescued it with a couple of energetic shifts in the final five minutes. Neil pulled them to within one with a bullet from the right circle that just got inside the top left corner.

That goal, with only 50 seconds left in the period, shifted the momentum and made it a game.

While the Senators had only seven shots in the second, they played with more vigour and also with more discipline, giving the puck away only two times, compared to the eight giveaways they coughed up in the first.

The Bruins were still considerably better than them in this department, though.

They gave the puck away only twice in the first and only four times in the second. It’s tough to get chances on a team that tight, and the Senators didn’t test Rask as much as the Bruins tested Anderson.