Senators put up a fight but lose 5-2 to the Bruins
The game started brightly for the Senators, with Ottawa getting the bulk of the scoring chances and outshooting Boston 10-2 early in the first period. Clearly feeling this was an unacceptable sequence of events, Matt Carkner decided to fight Milan Lucic. 24 seconds later Boston took the lead through Rick Peverley.
Ottawa didn't go away though and ended up tying the game in the second period through Daniel Alfredsson after a nice setup by Jason Spezza. Boston retook the lead on a goal by notorious bad guy Chris Kelly midway through the second after Matt Carkner broke his stick and David Rundblad couldn't contain Kelly.
The game was over as a contest early in the third period with Boston scoring goals on two breakaways, the first of a Daniel Alfredsson give away and the other with Jesse Winchester some how being the last man back. Jason Spezza pulled a goal back late in the game, but Craig Anderson helped kill any hopes of a miracle come back by allowing Daniel Paille to score from a place he really shouldn't.
In the end the shots were 49-29 to Ottawa, though the Senators had five power plays to zero for Boston. The Bruins have a world class goaltender, the Senators do not. Ottawa outshot Boston 33-24 in 5-on-5 play.
Sens Hero: Jason Spezza
You are probably not aware of this as Spezza has been doing a lot of bad things in the past week, but Spezza now has 7 points in his last 4 games and 12 points in the last 10. This was his 10th multipoint game of the season. He had six shots on the night and looked dangerous all game. Definitely Ottawa's player of the game in my books. At the time of writing, Giggles is also tied for ninth in the NHL in points.
Sens Hero: Daniel Alfredsson
Alfredsson scored the goal that got Ottawa back into the game and was tied with Erik Karlsson with seven shots on the night. His giveaway for the 3-1 goal killed the game, but I have to pick a couple players to be heroes after the team put in such a good performance for the most part.
Sens Zero: Craig Anderson
The second, third and fourth goals he gave up weren't bad goals. The first and fifth one were. Even on the two early third period goals, it is a 2-1 game in the third period, the Senators gave up consecutive breakaways and he allowed a goal on both of them. Total back-breaker. If we are going to credit him for making a save at the right time, then you have to fault him for not coming up with them at the right time.
Sens Killer: Tim Thomas
What can you say about this guy? Ottawa outshot Boston 49-29 but the Senators come away with two goals. He's now 21-8-2 against Ottawa in his career. A lot of his saves were of the spectacular variety, the one that sticks out is the high glove save on Daniel Alfredsson.
Sens Killer: Power play
Boy does this team miss Sergei Gonchar on the power play, going 0 for 5 in nine minutes of power play time. They did get 15 shots on the power play though.
Other Notes
- Ottawa had 40+ shots for the second straight night. They outshot Buffalo 44-29 on Tuesday night.
- Every Ottawa player had at least one shot on goal tonight.
- Jared Cowen led the way for Ottawa with 27:06 of ice time. Nick Folgino led all Ottawa forwards with 20:05.
- Tonight was the first time Peter Regin has been on the ice for a goal against.
Shot Chart
Game Highlights
