SAN JOSE – A
two-goal second period proved the difference Thursday night as the
red-hot Ottawa Senators turned back the San Jose Sharks 4-1 at
sold-out HP Pavilion.
Bringing in a
9-1-1 mark for their past 11 outings, the Senators (60 points)
continued one point behind Boston for the top spot in the Northeast
Division by erasing an early 1-0 deficit. The last Senators win in
San Jose had been a 4-1 nod on Oct. 18, 2003. San Jose, with a
7-2-2 mark in the last 11 games, remains atop the Pacific Division
with 57 points.
The Sharks play
three games in Western Canada within the next five days, then begin
a two-game homestand after the All-Star Weekend (Jan. 31 against
Columbus).
Senator Erik
Karlsson, a 21-year-old playing in his 183rd NHL game,
extended his scoring lead among defensemen by one-timing a shot
from the top of the right circle at 4:30 of the second period.
Karlsson’s seventh goal of the year (45th point) gave
Ottawa a 2-1 lead.
The visitors
needed 22 seconds to turn a Jamie McGinn kneeing penalty into a
power-play goal at the 14:50 mark. Filip Kuba’s shot from the left
point went wide right for the Senators, but Colin Greening
collected the rebound and snapped a shot past defenseman Justin
Braun and into the top right corner of the net to make it
3-1.
The Senators
extended the lead to 4-1 on their 18th shot of the
night. Greening, matching his career high for goals in a game with
two, drove a low shot from the high slot inside the right post at
9:34 of the third period..
San
Jose has been effective when scoring the game’s first goal, owning
a 15-2-1 mark for that statistic going into Thursday’s
game.
The Sharks opened
the scoring at 3:10 of the first period. Brad Winchester, on his
first shift of the game, set up at the left dot in the Ottawa zone
and one-timed a feed from Andrew Desjardins over the shoulder of
goaltender Craig Anderson and into the net. Defenseman Dan Boyle,
owner of the first assist on the play, ignited the scoring play
when he zigzagged through the defense to threaten Anderson with a
point-blank shot.
Despite being
out-shot 16-7 over the first 20 minutes, the Senators went into the
first intermission in a 1-1 deadlock.
Sergei Gonchar,
playing in his 1,100th NHL game, dished a cross-ice pass
to Kyle Turris in the left circle. As both Brent Burns and Logan
Couture defended the left edge of the crease, Turris sent a low
shot on net that flew past the shoulder of goaltender Antti Niemi
for the equalizer.
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