Seven satisfying goals for Sens

The Ottawa Senators have finally it seems finished off their November blues, having recently returned home from a most successful early December road trip they left some of the goal scoring show for the folks at home.

Having been away from Scotiabank Place for over two weeks, the Senators brought their high flying and high scoring game back from their business trip, removing some of the fears of the local faithful who had bad memories of the November slump.

Saturday night the Senators turned on the scoring power with seven goals on their way to a convincing 7-3 thrashing of the Atlanta Thrashers.

The Sens chased starting goaltender Johan Hedberg from the nest in the second period after he gave up his fifth goal on 24 shots, replaced by Kari Lehtonen, the Thrashers didn’t provide much in the way of defensive help as the Sens continued on their scoring spree putting 2 more goals behind an Atlanta goaltender on 19 more shots.

Martin Gerber made his second start in a row, and didn’t face much in the way of work in the first two periods where the Thrashers could only manage to fire off twelve shots over forty minutes.

Things picked up a bit in the third as Atlanta took advantage of a four minute five-on-three power play. They picked up their third goal of the game bringing them to within two of the Sens, a gap that would soon be expanded for good.

Goal scorers for the Sens included two for Dany Heatley and one each from Antoine Vermette, Nick Foligno, Chris Kelly, Joe Corvo and Andrej Meszaros.

Ilya Kovalchuk scored two goals for the Thrashers, while Eric Perrin had the other in the Thrashers fourth loss in a row. An unsuccessful foray north of the 49th which saw them lose all three games in Eastern Canada.

Sens return to a familiar standard

While November was a month to forget, December seems to be shaping up as one to remember.

The Ottawa Senators who suffered one of their worst slumps in recent history during November, have found that hockey in December is a much more enjoyable process as they continue to return to the level of play that had the team jump out to a huge lead in the East at the start of the season.

Wednesday night it was clinic night in Raleigh, as the Sens dominated most of the sixty minutes with crisp passes, strong hits, scoring chances, solid goaltending and for good measure a couple of fights.

All in all a most rewarding game for coach John Paddock, who only had one concern on his mind at the end of the convincing 6-0 victory, that being the status of Ray Emery. The Sens goaltender faced but one shot before pulling himself out of the game with an undisclosed hip injury, setting the stage for Martin Gerber’s successful return to Carolina, accentuated by the shut out.

The Sens had much more jump than the Hurricanes in this one, as they beat the Hurricanes to the corners, relayed the puck at will through the neutral zone and raced from end to end to fire yet another scoring chance at the unprotected Cam Ward.

For Ward it was a night to forget, letting in two goals on the first four shots that he faced and looking shaky on a number of other Senator scoring opportunities.

At the other end of the rink, the Senators seemed to tighten up their recent sloppy play, keeping the Canes close to the boards and denying them the chance to put together any kind of consistent attack.

Next up for Ottawa is the final game of the current road trip as they stop in at Pittsburgh to go end to end with Sidney Crosby, Saturday finds them back at home ready to take on the Atlanta Thrashers.

With their game firmly back on track after a few weeks of angst, the fans at Scotiabank Place should be breathing a little easier, ready to cheer the Sens on through the holidays.

Globe and Mail--Sens back on track

National Post--Emery goes down in Senators win

Ottawa Citizen--Sens shake, rattle and roll over Hurricanes

Ottawa Sun--Sens blank Canes 6-0

Time on the road proving to be the cure for Sens

The Senators rolled into Dallas on Friday night and continued to right their listing ship, with an instructive 4-2 victory over the Dallas Stars.

The Sens, who have been defensively suspect in recent efforts, put together a much more concentrated defense of their own zone, eliminating chances and second opportunities for the Stars while their offense regained some of its form on the way to the victory.

Head coach John Paddock, who has had a front row seat to his teams recent slide of intensity was much more impressed with his teams effort on Friday, finding that they were winning the tough battles on the boards and in front of the Stars net, calling the effort, “the most urgent game we've played in a while.”

It marked the second straight Senators win, improving their record to a Northeast Division-best 39 points, still tops in the Eastern Conference.

Now that they’re back on the winning track, a break in the schedule comes at a most unfortunate time. The Sens won’t see action again until Wednesday night when they play in Carolina.

Progress gained after a lengthy battle, can also be lost quite quickly.

Paddock will have to find some activities to keep his now finally meshing squad on the same page and path.

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CBC Sports--Rebounding Senators double Stars

National Post--Senators make it two in a row

Ottawa Sun--Win streak in Stars