Senators 4, Bruins 3 OT

OTTAWA (AP)—The Ottawa Senators reached down a little further to stay atop the NHL standings.

Radek Bonk scored 28 seconds into overtime as Ottawa held onto first place in the league with a 4-3 victory over the Boston Bruins on Tuesday night.

Zdeno Chara scored with 7:47 left in the third period to tie it before Bonk scored on a backhander through goalie Jeff Hackett’s legs as the Senators recovered from blowing a two-goal lead.

“Getting down 3-2 in the third, we tried to get the bench going and push ourselves a little bit more,” Ottawa captain Daniel Alfredsson said. “We were able to get the tying goal and then in overtime you never know. They had a great chance early in overtime, they missed the net and we went down and scored. It was a great move by Bonky.”

The Senators, who have 96 points, won their fourth straight to remain one point ahead of Dallas.

“It means a lot because Boston is a very desperate team and they’re fighting for the playoffs,” Chara said. “They played a very good game.”

Karel Rachunek and Curtis Leschyshyn scored first-period goals as defensemen accounted for all of Ottawa’s goals in regulation.

Joe Thornton scored a pair of special-teams goals early in the second and P.J. Axelsson scored midway through the third as the Bruins scored three straight after falling behind 2-0 in the first.

Thornton scored with a short-handed effort on a breakaway 1:43 into the second before tying it at 4:27 with his 34th goal—scored during a power play.

“We should have won that game, but at least we got the point,” Thornton said. “We’ve just got to keep our confidence and keep going every game now.”

The Bruins, who traded for defensemen Dan McGillis and Ian Moran earlier in the day, are seventh in the East with 74 points. Boston is 3-1-0-1 in its last five games after winning just one of 12 (1-7-3-1).

“It’s a big point for us—they’re a great team,” said Bruins forward Glen Murray, who had two assists. “They play hard and we matched their hard work, I think. We battled them and we did really well.”

Ottawa acquired forward Bryan Smolinski in the flurry of deals that preceded the NHL’s afternoon trading deadline. None of the three new acquisitions played.

Rachunek opened the scoring 16:39 in with his third goal in three games, just eight seconds after Boston killed a tripping penalty to Nick Boynton.

Leschyshyn ended a 65-game scoring drought that stretched to last season with a goal at 18:46. Leschyshyn, who had just five assists in his first 51 games this season, redirected Martin Havlat’s shot past goalie Jeff Hackett to put the Senators up 2-0.

Thornton’s two goals came 2:44 apart early in the second. Axelsson put the Bruins ahead 10:09 into the third with his 16th of the season.

Chara got his eighth goal to tie it 12:13 into the third with a slap shotfrom the point past Hackett off a faceoff in the Bruins’ zone.

Notes

Axelsson has eight points in four games. … LW Rob Ray—acquired by Ottawa from Buffalo on Monday—was in the penalty box for Thornton’spower-play goal. … Ottawa is 11-4-2 in its last 17 games.