SENS BEST BRUINS
Nailbiter snaps losing streak
The Ottawa Senators put the brakes on their four-game losing skid and may have paved the way to the playoffs in the process.
Led by a strong two-goal performance from centre Kyle Turris and a standout effort with 34 stops from goaltender Craig Anderson in his 499th career game, the Senators scored a massive 3-2 victory over the Boston Bruins on Monday night at TD Garden.
With only 10 games left in the regular season, the Senators moved six points ahead of the Bruins for second place in the Atlantic Division as only Torey Krug and David Krejci were able to score for Boston. Tom Pyatt also beat Bruins goalie Tuukka Rask on the 22 shots he faced.
The Senators returned home feeling good about themselves.
“I knew it was going to be a battle. We were struggling coming in and we had a really good third to finish things off,” said Turris. “Anytime you can stop a streak like that and get back in the win column, and start going the other way is important.
“You let those go for too long and you start doubting things and guys start tightening up. It’s nice that we were able to finish that off tonight.”
The Senators were 0-2-2 in their last four games coming into this one and they needed these two points badly to get back on track. Yes, Anderson came up big, but they also got timely scoring in what was a hard-fought, chippy game that ended with a skirmish at the buzzer.
“It was definitely one for the ages,” said Anderson. “It was a physical battle with guys going back and forth after the whistles. It was one of those games where both teams were fighting for the playoff lives and that just made for a hard, gritty game.
“They were crashing the net hard, we were crashing theirs, and the momentum was going back and forth. It was one of those games where tempers flare and I thought we did a good job of paying the price and blocking shots to win a game.”
Turris scored what turned out to be the winner at 4:06 of the third with his 25th goal of the year when he was able to redirect a pass by Dion Phaneuf past Rask from the slot. That came at the end of a power play and the Senators had some good pressure with the man-advantage to set up the goal.
After a terrible unsportsmanlike call on Phaneuf to end the second, Krug, who was one of the Boston players that chided Phaneuf into taking the penalty, tied it up 2-2 only 17 seconds into the third with a great individual effort to beat Anderson stick side.
“I didn’t feel very good but it happens. It felt really bad when they scored. It’s not a feeling you ever want to have being in the box at a key time of the game for them to tie it up,” said Phaneuf. “I thought we stuck with it and it felt good when we got the one to go ahead.
“But it was the end of the period, a scrum and it’s not too often you’re going to pick one guy. It’s part of it. It was an energetic game, but I definitely didn’t feel good about taking it.”
Anderson was solid through 40 minutes and he had to be. The Bruins are fighting for their playoff lives and they pressed hard in the second period by outshooting Ottawa 18-8, but the Senators were clinging to a 2-1 lead.
He made a massive glove stop on Noel Acciari with 5:54 left in the second.
Though the power play struggled to find its way with two chances in the first, the Senators came up big to start the second. Turris fired a shot from the left circle that Rask didn’t see because of a screen from Bobby Ryan to give the Senators a 2-1 lead only 1:34 into the period.
Krejci fired a blast from the point that beat Anderson high at 8:57 to tie it up 1-1 in the first.
While they’ve had a bad habit of giving up the opening goal, it was the Senators who struck first this time. Cody Ceci’s shot from the top of the right circle deflected off Pyatt for his eighth of the season only 4:09 into the game, and that should have served as the boost the Senators needed.
“These are pressure games,” said coach Guy Boucher. “We wanted it to be a pressure game and we wanted to see it as a seventh game for us because we want to be able to manage pressure. We’ve got a lot of young guys in there who haven’t been through the pressure.”
It doesn’t get any easier for the Senators as they host the defending Stanley Cup champion Pittsburgh Penguins Thursday night at home.