Senators 4, Bruins 3
OTTAWA -- Winger Bobby Ryan scored the tie-breaker with 4:35 left in the third period and the Ottawa Senators held on to defeat the Boston Bruins 4-3 Saturday night at the Canadian Tire Centre.
Ryan's team-leading 18th of the season was a brilliant solo effort, as he stole the puck from Bruins defenseman Tory Krug at the Ottawa blue line and finished off a breakaway with a backhand after deking Bruins goaltender Chad Johnson to the ice.
The win was just the fourth for the Senators in their last 18 meetings with the Bruins, and it successfully avenged their 5-0 loss in Boston on Friday.
The Senators survived a late penalty to center Zack Smith, which allowed the Bruins to pull their goalie and have a six-on-four advantage in skaters for the final two minutes.
Goalie Craig Anderson, who ended up with 29 saves, was particularly strong in the dying moments.
Defenseman Patrick Wiercioch, winger Cory Conacher and Smith also scored for the Senators. Bruins goals were scored by defenseman David Warsofsky, winger Jarome Iginla and winger Daniel Paille.
Playing in his fourth NHL game, Warsofsky scored his first goal with a wrist shot from the right wing circle at 6:36 of the third to tie the game at 3.
The Senators established a 3-1 lead when Smith scored a short-handed goal at the 29 second mark of the second period. At that point, Bruins coach Claude Julien pulled goalie Tuukka Rask, who had given up three goals on 11 shots, and replaced him with Johnson.
Iginla tapped in his 12th of the season after a nice setup by winger Milan Lucic at 13:51 of the second period to pull the Bruins to within one.
The Senators opened the scoring at 7:04 of the first when Wiercioch fired in a rebound after Rask made the initial save off defenseman Cody Ceci. The Bruins tied it at 1 five minutes later on a great solo effort by Paille. The winger beat Senators winger Clarke MacArthur in the defensive zone, then defenseman Erik Karlsson just inside the Ottawa blue line before taking a shot between Anderson's legs.
Conacher restored Ottawa's lead by deflecting a shot over Rask's shoulder at 14:28 of the opening period.
The Senators have now won two of three against the Bruins this season.
NOTES: Senators C Jason Spezza was a game-time scratch with a lower-body injury. Also a late scratch was Senators D Chris Phillips, who was injured blocking a shot the night before in Boston. That left the Senators without two of their regular letter-wearers. D Erik Karlsson and C Kyle Turris each wore an 'A' for the first time this season. ... The Bruins played their first game without D Dennis Seidenberg, who will miss the rest of the season after tearing the ACL and MCL in his right knee Friday. ... Bruins D Zdeno Chara was also a late scratch. The reason was undisclosed. ... After ending a 30-game slump Monday, Senators LW Cory Conacher now has two goals in the last three games. ... Senators D Cody Ceci had two first-period assists, giving him the first multi-point game of his career. ... The Bruins entered the night with a string of seven games in which they had a player score at least two goals, tying a franchise record that was set in 1929.
