Sens hope home ice will be nice
OTTAWA— Despite snatching homeice advantage from the Montreal Canadiens in the opener of their Eastern Conference quarter-final, the Ottawa Senators know they missed a big opportunity with a poor effort in Game 2.
And the club will look to rebound when the Sens host the Habs in Game 3 on Sunday night with the series knotted at a game apiece.
With Max Pachioretty, Brian Gionta and Lars Eller all out of the lineup due to injury in Game 2, the Senators could have come home with a 2-0 series lead, but instead fell 3-1.
“We had an opportunity to really take a stranglehold so we’re disappointed, but now we’re home and we have to take care of our business. It’s not going to be easy but we’re in aposition that we can control,” Senators coach Paul MacLean said Saturday.
Ottawa, which took Game 1 of the series 4-2 on Thursday, hosts the next two games of the series at Scotiabank Place. Game 4 goes on Tuesday.
The Senators were one of the top home teams in the league during the regular season with a 15-6-3 record.
The Canadiens, meanwhile, compiled a 15-7-2 road record, which was fourth best overall.
Ottawa captain Daniel Alfredsson says his club took too many penalties in Game 2 and after allowing the Canadiens to take a 3-1 lead late in the second period, the didn’t have the pushback they were looking for in the third period.
“Getting one game is better than getting none obviously, and it puts us in the driver’s seat at home,” Alfredsson said. “We want to take advantage of the way we’ve been playing at home all year and try and take charge of this series.”
Ottawa centre Kyle Turris says more offensive zone time is required if the Senators are going to be successful.
“We want to spend more time in their zone. We’re getting chances off the rush but we have to create more offensive zone time. More play in their end will create less time for them in our end,” said Turris, who has one assist and five shots through the first two games.
“We have to be physical. That’s something they took to us a bit in Game 2 and we’re going to have to engage in that more.” Senators defenceman Eric Gryba will serve the second of his twogame suspension Sunday for a hit that left Canadiens forward Lars Eller with a concussion, as well as a broken nose some lost teeth. Gryba, who received a five-minute major penalty for interference and a game misconduct on the play, maintains the hit was clean. “Obviously disappointed with the league’s decision on that, but there’s nothing I can do but move on,” Gryba said. The incident has sparked controversy not just for the hit, but for comments made by both teams in its aftermath. MacLean was accused of being disrespectful for saying Montreal defenceman Raphael Diaz was to blame for the incident for feeding Eller a dangerous pass up the middle, and by referring to Diaz as No. 61 and not by name. And on Friday, Canadiens enforcer Brandon Prust called MacLean a “bug-eyed, fat walrus.”