Senators Hand Rangers 4th Loss in Five Games

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The New York Sun

OTTAWA – Wade Redden had a goal and two assists and the Ottawa Senators scored three power-play goals in the opening period to beat the Rangers 6-2 last night.


Redden, who scored a career-high four points, set up power-play goals by Dany Heatley and Daniel Alfredsson before scoring his sixth of the season on another man advantage at 12:27 to put Ottawa up 3-2. He added his second goal of the game – his seventh of the season – late in the second.


Anton Volchenkov scored the Senators’ fourth goal on 15 shots at 14:58 of the first, chasing Rangers goalie Kevin Weekes, who was replaced by rookie Henrik Lundqvist.


Ottawa moved ahead of idle Detroit atop the league’s overall standings with 53 points. The Senators won their second in a row after losing five of seven.


Martin Straka and rookie Petr Prucha scored for the Rangers, who took a 2-1 lead 7:51 in. The Rangers lost for the fourth time in five games.


Heatley got his 23rd goal 2:13 in when he put Weekes’s second rebound into an open right side. Straka tied it 0:43 later. Prucha put New York ahead 2-1 at 7:51 when he came out from behind the net to beat Hasek with a shot inside the right post for his 17th goal.


With Martin Rucinsky already in the penalty box, Rangers defenseman Tom Poti was sent off for cross-checking at 11:25. Ottawa needed just five seconds to take advantage of the ensuing 5-on-3 as Alfredsson drove a shot past Weekes for his 23rd goal. Redden restored the Senators’ lead 57 seconds later, benefitting from Dominic Moore’s poor clearing attempt up the middle to beat Weekes with an unassisted effort at 12:27.


Volchenkov ended Weekes’s outing with an even strength goal at 14:58.


***


SABRES 6, ISLANDERS 3 In Buffalo, Chris Drury had a goal and two assists and Ryan Miller made 16 saves to help the Buffalo Sabres to a comeback 6-3 victory over the Islanders last night.


Ales Kotalik, Maxim Afinogenov, Brian Campbell, Thomas Vanek, and Jochen Hecht also scored for the Sabres, who won for the second straight time, and 17th in their last 20 games. Buffalo swept the four-game, season series after losing seven of its last eight games to the Islanders.


With the game tied at 3, Vanek scored on the power play with less than five minutes remaining in regulation, and Drury iced the game 11 seconds later with his 13th of the season.


Jason Blake, Alexei Yashin, and Miroslav Satan scored for the Islanders, who lost their second straight.


Kotalik opened the scoring with his team-leading 17th goal almost 6 minutes into the game, deflecting Campbell’s slap shot from the left point. New York countered with three straight goals to finish the first period. Blake and Yashin scored 90 seconds apart midway through the period, and Satan made it 3-1 on the power play with his team-leading 16th goal.


Afinogenov made it 3-2 with a powerplay goal near the of a two-man advantage just over two minutes into the second period, and Campbell tied it at 3 with 10:35 left in the third with a powerplay goal, blasting the puck past Garth Snow from the high slot. Snow was making just his sixth start of the year for the Islanders, and first since November 29.


Hecht capped the scoring with an empty-net goal with 16 seconds left.


MAPLE LEAFS 2, DEVILS 1 In Toronto, Bryan McCabe scored his 13th goal of the season in the first period and it stood up as the game-winner as the Toronto Maple Leafs beat the struggling Devils 2-1.


Ed Belfour stopped 33 shots and Mats Sundin also scored for Toronto (19-14-3), which has won consecutive games for the first time since November 26-28.


John Madden scored for the Devils, who fell to 1-3-0 with general manager Lou Lamoriello behind the bench as interim head coach. The Devils, 3-6-3 this month, were 0-for-6 on the power play and have four goals in their last 100 man-advantage situations.


Belfour preserved the win with a point-blank save on Jay Pandolfo with the Devils pressuring late in the final minute. Chants of “Eddie, Eddie,” echoed throughout the Air Canada Centre as Belfour stopped former Leaf Alex Mogilny from in close midway through the third.


Devils goalie Martin Brodeur stopped 25 shots.


Madden opened the scoring 3:59 into the game, deflecting a point shot from Paul Martin. Sundin tied it 1-1 at 13:35 of the first, backhanding a nice feed from Tie Domi past a helpless Brodeur. The Leafs took the lead on a 5-on-3 power play with McCabe blasting his trademark shot past Brodeur at 16:20.


Toronto’s Darcy Tucker got a 5-minute match penalty for ripping the helmet off Cam Janssen in a fight and twice hitting him in the face with it.


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