Senators blow two-goal lead, lose 4-3 to the Bruins

[Boxscore] [Game summary] [Face-offs] [Play by play] [Ice time]
[Corsi] [Head-to-head] [Zone starts] [Scoring Chances]


The Ottawa Senators may have lost 4-3 to the Boston Bruins, but by no means were they outplayed by the champions. Despite many things going against them, they were in the game right to the end. The play had been spotty on the west coast trip, but after a week off, the Senators came to play and dominated Boston for stretches. On 5-on-5, Ottawa outshot Boston 33-22 on the night.

The Bruins took the lead in the first period on a power play goal from, what else, a Zdeno Chara slap shot. The Senators would tie it up later in the period when Colin Greening tipped in his 12th goal of the season. A 1-1 scoreline on the road in Boston was certainly a good effort by the visitors.

The second period was complete and utter domination by the Senators. Kyle Turris put the Senators ahead on a beautiful snipe from a Daniel Alfredsson pass. Turris returned the favour to Alfredsson, but the captain's shot would hit the post. Ottawa wouldn't back off and took a 3-1 lead from Erik Karlsson's eighth goal on a 2-on-1 with Chris Neil. A two-goal lead heading into the intermission would have been fantastic, but it was not to be. Milan Lucic's shot hit Erik Karlsson's leg and deflected into the net with just 45 seconds left in the second period.

Karlsson was called for tripping on the slightest of touches early in the third period and Brad Marchand tied the game on the resulting power play. At the 7:09 mark, the Bruins went ahead for good on a goal that can be blamed entirely on Craig Anderson. Dennis Seidenberg's shot from centre ice beat the Ottawa goaltender. Not much else you can say on that. The Senators had two or three great chances in the last 30 seconds, but could not find the equaliser.

Sens Hero: Kyle Turris
Turris was dominant tonight. He scored a goal, setup Alfredsson on a tee and his line was creating chances all night. Great game from Turris.

Sens Zero: Craig Anderson
After the Senators had blown a 3-1 lead, you need your goaltender to calm things down. What you don't need is the goaltender to allow a goal from centre ice. Anderson had been brilliant over the last month, but that was an embarassing goal at the worst time.

Sens Killer: Penalty Kill
Boston scored on its first power play to go ahead 1-0 and scored on their second power play to tie the game at 3-3. The third penalty kill was just under 3 minutes left in the game which Boston used to run down the clock. The last power play was with 6 seconds left. Thus, the penalty kill allowed goals on both attempts where the Bruins were trying to score.

Sens Killer: Referees
The game was officiated by Dan O'Rourke, the referee that labelled Erik Karlsson a diver. The Senators then did not get a single power play all night against one of the most penalised teams in the league. I don't want to say it is a conspiracy against Ottawa, but it sure seemed like O'Rourke wasn't pleased about being called out by Paul MacLean after the Anaheim game. MacLean was visibly upset at the end of tonight's game, however he chose to be diplomatic after the game, saying that the team needs to work harder to gain respect.

Game Highlights


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