Senators find renewed life
Ottawa cuts Cup finals deficit to 2-1
OTTAWA -- A little too much West Coast sunshine? Too close to Disneyland? Heck, dude, maybe it's just that Canadian ways don't translate in California once the snow melts north of the border. Eh?
Whatever the reason the Ottawa Senators turned up lost and listless last week in Anaheim, they turned it all around here in a hurry last night for a convincing 5-3 win over the Ducks before a flag-waving and crazed sellout crowd of 20,500 at Scotiabank Place.
The victory, Ottawa's first in the finals since beating Boston for the Cup in 1927, trimmed Anaheim's lead to 2-1 in the best-of-seven series. Game 4 will be here tomorrow night, before the series shifts back to Anaheim for Game 5 Wednesday.
"They outworked us," said Ducks coach Randy Carlyle. "Simple as that."
Perhaps of greatest concern for the Ducks was that the Senators got the job done without much offensive aid from their No. 1 skill line of Daniel Alfredsson, Dany Heatley, and Jason Spezza. The Big Three were better, significantly so, but Alfredsson was the only one to pick up a point -- albeit a key goal that supplied the 3-3 tie with 3:46 left in the second period. Otherwise, the Eastern Conference champions were led by some of their lesser names, in large part because of a team-wide commitment to skating, cycling the puck deep in the offensive end, and spurts of ferocious forechecking.
"We got some pucks to the net," said Ottawa coach Bryan Murray, his club finishing with a 29-22 shot advantage. "Finally."
The Ducks got a few to the net, too, and if they could have generated a few more on shaky netminder Ray Emery, they might have left with a 3-0 series lead. Emery looked bad on the Ducks' second goal, by Corey Perry, and the third, by Ryan Getzlaf. All in all, the Ducks managed leads of 1-0, 2-1, and 3-2, and the series appeared to be quickly disappearing for the Senators late in the second period when referee Dan O'Halloran was quick to wave off a goal by Alfredsson at 16:14.
O'Halloran felt that Alfredsson, jostling with Getzlaf for position at the right post, used a deliberate kicking motion to angle in a shot from above the left circle by Wade Redden.
Over on the Senators' bench, Murray was equally emphatic that he wanted a video review of the play. After about a three-minute delay, the goal was allowed to stand. Tied, 3-3, and the Senators were in control of a momentum surge. From that point, they outscored the Ducks, 2-0, and outshot them, 8-3.
"I felt it was a goal all along," said Alfredsson. "To me, it felt like I never kicked the puck. I was confident that it was going to be a goal . . . but at the same time, you never know."
From there, the Senators pulled away, role player Dean McAmmond notching the winner with 1:26 left in the second on what was meant as nothing more than a centering pass. McAmmond raced behind the goal line, to goalie Jean-Sebastien Giguere's right, and swept out a blind relay that had eyes only for Ducks defenseman Chris Pronger's stick. Pronger reached toward the net, only to see the puck angle off of it and slip behind his goalie.
Finally, with 8:22 gone in the third, Anton Volchenkov nailed in the 5-3 final as the result of some dogged forechecking by forwards Antoine Vermette and Chris Kelly. Volchenkov made an uncharacteristic rush to the front and nailed in a forehander as Vermette fed from behind the goal line.
"Every line played well for us out there," noted Alfredsson, his trio able to generate only three shots, all of them from his own stick ( Spezza and Heatley still missing in action). "As a team, we needed to have a good effort out there from everyrone, and we had big shifts from all our guys . . . cycling the puck . . . every line got a goal tonight, and if you do that, you'll be successful. It was nice to see."
Nice for the Senators, too, that they outhit the Ducks, 32-26, blocked more shots (9-8), yielded fewer giveaways (14 to Anaheim's 17). The only disturbing trend remained that the Ducks won 60 percent of the faceoffs. If the Big Three don't pick up the offensive game, and the Senators can't come closer to breaking even at the facoeff dot, it could make for trouble in Game 4.
"Amazingly, as poorly as we played," said Carlyle, "I think we still had a chance to win it." 