Silver Nuggets: Senators clinging to third last; Gonchar feeling better

The Ottawa Senators once again erased a two goal deficit in the third period, but this time could not come away with the win. They did take a point however in the 5-4 shootout loss to the Atlanta Thrashers, and are now one point behind the Florida Panthers and two points behind the New York Islanders. In the event the teams should finish tied, the Senators would unfortunately win the tiebreaker over both clubs.

Here is the remaining schedule for each club:

• Ottawa: at Tampa Bay, at Florida, host Toronto, host Philadelphia, host Montreal, at Boston
• Florida: at Columbus, host Ottawa, host Pittsburgh, at Washington, at Tampa Bay, host Washington
• Islanders: at New Jersey, host Rangers, host Carolina, at Boston, host Pittsburgh, at Philadelphia/

If the Senators beat Florida on Thursday, that could be it for the #3 position considering Florida's remaining schedule.

Here are today's links.

Last game

• Game recap. (Citizen)
• Stats from last night via NHL.com (Boxscore, Game summary, Event Summary, Faceoff Report, Play by Play, Ice time and shifts, Shot summary)
• Craig Anderson wishes he had better support from his team in the shootout. He also thought the ice was awful last night. (Sun)

More after the jump.

General Sens News

• Sergei Gonchar is feeling better and it is hoped that he will practice with the team when they return from the road trip. (Citizen)
• Daniel Alfredsson is travelling with the team and hopes to use practice time to determine whether he needs surgery or not. (Citizen)
• The Binghamton Senators won all three games on the weekend to extend their winning streak to six games. With six games remaining, Binghamton has a seven point lead for the last playoff spot. (pressconnects.com)
• After having many chances and not putting them away, Marek Svatos is finally getting some breaks. Also, Bobby Butler hasn't scored in eight games. What a bust. (Sun)

General Hockey News

• The Vancouver Canucks won their 50th game of the season last night. The Edmonton Oilers have won 50 games combined between this season and last. (Yahoo!)
• Alexander Ovechkin and Mike Green returned to practice for the Washington Capitals. (Stephen Whyno)