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.
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.
