The tonic for the Sens

Unaccustomed to losing skids this season, the Ottawa Senators probably looked forward to their trip to Long Island before the Christmas break.

The Sens scored four goals against the Islanders Friday night, on the way to a 4-2 victory the third time they've defeated the Islanders so far this season. Bryan Murray credited the Islanders with a tough game as they battled back to try and close the gap between themselves and the Sens.

Ottawa however, proved to be too strong once again and collected another two points, their 51st of the season and head into the two day Christmas break on a positive note. A timely thing for a team that seem to stumble down the last ten days or so. From the time they hit the west coast for a game against the Canucks and on through Calgary, Colorado and Philadelphia they seemed to more mortal than previously thought, having dropped three of their last four games the match up with Islanders gave them a chance to head into the Christmas break with something more than missed opportunities on their minds.

Friday night they split the scoring up as Patrick Eaves, Zdeno Chara, Andrej Meszaros and Dany Heatley counted markers as Ray Emery turned aside 25 shots on the way to the victory.

The Sens will meet the Islanders one more time this season, a return engagement in Ottawa next Friday night. After that the two teams won't see each other until any possible playoff match ups fall into place.