Senators take over first place in division after beating Avalanche
Second-period surge makes difference in win that caps perfect road trip.
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Senators 4, Avalanche 2
DENVER — The Ottawa Senators flew home late Saturday night on a Rocky Mountain high after taking over top spot in the National Hockey League’s Atlantic Division.
Despite being starved of top offensive threats Mark Stone, Kyle Turris and Bobby Ryan because of injuries, the Senators rallied to defeat the dysfunctional Colorado Avalanche 4-2.
The victory allowed the Senators to sweep their three-game road trip to Dallas, Arizona and Colorado, and it extended their season-high winning streak to six games.
Goaltender Craig Anderson, now 9-2 since returning from his leave of absence, registered his 147th career victory with the Senators, taking over the franchise record from Patrick Lalime.
The tide turned in the second half of the second period, when Fredrik Claesson, Alex Burrows (on a power play) and Mike Hoffman beat Avalanche goaltender Calvin Pickard to erase Colorado’s 1-0 lead. Ryan Dzingel put the game out of reach in the third period, scoring his first goal since Feb. 18. Erik Karlsson had a pair of assists, giving him three goals and eight assists in his past eight games.
The Avalanche opened the scoring on Matt Nieto’s first-period goal and completed the scoring when Sven Andrighetto scored on a power play with 11 seconds remaining.
The victory, the Senators 39th of the season, gave them 84 points for the season, tied with the Montreal Canadiens. However, the Senators have played only 67 games, one less than the Canadiens, so they rank higher in the division standings.
“I thought it was pretty impressive, what the boys were able to do here when you look at all the guys that are missing and you keep the opponent to 16 shots,” Senators coach Guy Boucher said. “We wanted to tighten up defensively. We were loose against Arizona and Dallas, the structure wasn’t as good defensively. We kept paying the price in front of the opponents’ goaltender (against Colorado) and the mix of those two gave us another win.”
Saturday’s game was a tale of two teams going in opposition directions. The Senators found another way to win, their confidence continuing to grow by the game. The Avalanche found yet another way to lose, falling apart when the Senators picked up the pace in the second period.
With Turris, Stone and Ryan on the sidelines, the Senators were missing a combined 56 goals and 106 points. That put a strain on the rest of the lineup. Phil Varone was recalled from Binghamton of the American Hockey League to take Stone’s spot on the roster.
While Pickard held Avalanche fort for a while, Claesson solved him with 9:19 remaining in the second period. It was the second career goal for Claesson, who also scored in Wednesday’s 5-2 win over the Dallas Stars.
Five minutes later, Burrows finished off a pretty passing play from Hoffman on a power play. Burrows has four goals in six games since being acquired from the Vancouver Canucks before the March 1 trade deadline.
“We neutralized their speed and skill and once we took over in the second, I thought we did a good job,” Burrows said. “(The confidence) is pretty high. It’s fun to come into a group that has a total buy in to what the coaching staff is trying to sell. Everybody knows where they’ve got to go. “
Hoffman padded the lead to 3-1 with 1:06 left in the period, beating Pickard with a shot from a sharp angle.
“We made it tough on them to enter our zone, tough on them to get shots,” Hoffman said. “We got one on the power play, which was nice and kind of a lucky one by myself at the end of the period. It was one of those games that we knew, if we stayed patient and stuck with our system through 60 minutes, it was going to come out in our favour.”
It ended up being an easy night for Anderson, barely tested after facing 10 first-period shots.
The Avalanche haven’t had much to be excited about all season — judging by the scores of empty seats at the Pepsi Center, Colorado fans aren’t very excited, either — but they did enter the game on a two-game winning streak after beating the Carolina Hurricanes and New Jersey Devils.
There were so many ugly numbers, but among the worst coming into Saturday’s game was that the Avalanche had scored the fewest goals (129) and allowed the most goals (217) in the 30-team NHL.
The Senators have found ways to win a string of tight-checking games, including a come-from-behind 3-2 overtime win in Arizona.
“It was one of the better games we’ve played. Overall, we just kept them to the outside,” Anderson said. “We didn’t panic. We stuck with it. It’s a long game and there are going to be times in the game where you don’t have your best stretch, but it’s about how you respond and I thought we responded great.”
After a hard opening push by the Senators, including a Karlsson shot off the post and Pickard’s save off Claesson on a two-on-one break, the Avalanche opened the scoring. Nieto, alone in front of the net, deflected Cody Goloubef’s hard pass behind Anderson.
The Senators face the Tampa Bay Lightning at Canadian Tire Centre on Tuesday night.
kwarren@postmedia.com
Twitter.com/Citizenkwarren
Three Stars
- Mike Hoffman, Senators: Set up Alex Burrows for a go-ahead goal in the second period, then provided insurance with a goal late in the period.
- Jean-Gabriel Pageau, Senators: Pageau’s ability to shut down top lines is becoming routine and he extended his point-scoring streak to five games with an assist on Claesson’s goal.
- Erik Karlsson, Senators: Two more assists and another strong defensive effort for the captain.
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