Sens come close to fourth straight shutout

OTTAWA (AP) -- The Ottawa Senators showed they're dangerous no matter who's in goal.

Martin Prusek came within 5:41 of recording Ottawa's fourth straight shutout and Marian Hossa scored his 29th and 30th goals to lead the Senators to a 3-1 victory over the Anaheim Mighty Ducks on Thursday night.

Prusek started for the first time in seven games in place of Patrick Lalime, who currently has a 180-minute shutout streak after posting consecutive shutouts in Edmonton and Calgary, and against Tampa Bay.

"That's a little scary when you sit a guy who has three consecutive shutouts, and the other guy comes in and plays that way," Mighty Ducks captain Paul Kariya said. "Our guys were shaking their heads about that."

The 27-year-old Czech rookie stopped 23 of 24 shots, improving to 8-0-0 in eight starts.

"Prusek hasn't lost a game so it's tough to go wrong either way," said Senators captain Daniel Alfredsson, who scored an empty-net goal to seal Ottawa's fourth straight win.

Prusek extended Ottawa's team-record shutout streak to 244 minutes, 47 seconds before allowing Stanislav Chistov's power-play goal with less than six minutes remaining.

"It was a little disappointing," Hossa said. "We would have liked it to go on and scoring with five minutes left in the game, that's pretty tough, but I think Martin still had a really strong game. He made some really key saves."

Hossa, who was named to the Eastern Conference All-Star team during the game, scored his 12th power-play goal of the season in the first period and added his second of the game 4:27 into the third.

"I'm really happy," said Hossa, who learned of his second All-Star selection in three seasons when he was summoned back onto the ice as one of the game's three stars. "It's a great honor to be there and be in the dressing room with such great players."

Ottawa increased its league-leading points total to 64 in 45 games (29-10-5-1). The Senators are 24-4-4-1 since Nov. 12.

"We know it could end any time," Alfredsson said. "We could go on a losing streak and I think that's what we're afraid of. We try to push ourselves every night and put as many wins together as we can."

Anaheim, which began its three-game road trip with a 4-3 victory in Columbus on Wednesday, had a three-game winning streak snapped.

Hossa opened the scoring on the Senators' second of three power-play opportunities when his pass in front of the goal deflected up and over goalie Martin Gerber.

Hossa, who has at least 29 goals in each of the last four seasons, reached 30 for the third straight season with 15:33 remaining when he intercepted a puck in Anaheim's zone before beating Gerber from the slot.

Prusek, who hadn't played since suffering a groin injury early in an 8-1 win over Atlanta on Jan. 2, stuck out his left pad to stop Kariya's shot from the edge of the crease with 2:00 left in the second.

"He's got a lot of Dominik Hasek in him," Kariya said. "He seems a little bit all over the place but he covers the bottom of the net really well and that's what Dominik did in his prime. You had to get the puck upstairs on him to score."

Chistov ended the Senators' shutout streak with his eighth goal of the season to draw Anaheim to within 2-1 before Alfredsson scored into an empty net with 48 seconds remaining.

Game notes
Kariya was named Anaheim's sole All-Star representative. Senators defenseman Zdeno Chara was also named to the Eastern squad. ... Rookie G Ray Emery stopped each of the four shots he faced over the final 10:28 of Ottawa's 6-3 loss in Vancouver on Jan. 8 to begin the Senators' shutout streak. Emery, who made his NHL debut against the Canucks, was assigned to Binghamtom of the AHL when Prusek was activated on Sunday. ... Hossa had 29 goals in 78 games in 1999-2000, a career-high 32 goals in 81 games in 2000-01, and 31 goals in 80 games last season. ... Ottawa is 22-4-3 when scoring first and 20-1-2 when leading after the first period.