Arnott, Elias lead Devils past Senators

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. -- The New Jersey Devils rode the resurgent "A Line" to another victory.

Jason Arnott and Patrik Elias each had a goal Saturday night in the Devils' 3-2 win over the Ottawa Senators.

The line of Arnott, Elias and Petr Sykora erupted for five goals and 12 points Thursday night as the Devils won their first game of the season, a 6-1 rout of the San Jose Sharks. The "A Line" kept rolling against the Senators.

"We played a solid game," Arnott said. "We're all skating and working hard for one another. We kept working tonight, even when the bounces didn't go our way."

Sykora also pointed to teamwork as the key to the line's recent success.

"We're supporting each other," Sykora said. "We're not trying to do it by ourselves.

"We're definitely moving the puck well," he said.

Scott Niedermayer also scored for the Devils, who have won two straight after starting the season winless in four.

Zdeno Chara and Magnus Arvedson scored for Ottawa, which lost its third straight to extend its winless streak to four.

The teams exchanged goals in the first period. Arnott staked the Devils to a lead at 1:00 with a deft deflection of a centering pass from Elias.

Chara pulled Ottawa even at 8:30 with a shot from the right point as Martin Havlat screened goalie Martin Brodeur's line of sight.

Elias and Niedermayer scored second period goals to give the Devils a 3-1 lead.

Elias, snagging a turnover by Radek Bonk, slipped behind the Ottawa defense. He made multiple dekes in the slot before whipping a backhander past Patrick Lalime at 1:14.

Niedermayer worked his way from the blue line to the right faceoff dot to beat Lalime with another backhand shot at 9:15.

The second period, the turning point in the game, ticked off Senators coach Jacques Martin.

"We beat ourselves," Martin said. "We gave them two goals with two turnovers in the second period. You just can't do that against this team."

In the third, the Senators cut the Devils' lead to 3-2 when Arvedson took a centering feed from Bonk and beat Brodeur from the slot at 4:33.

Ottawa pressed for the tying goal after pulling Lalime for an extra attacker. Brodeur, who made 21 saves, preserved the victory with a stop of a point-blank shot from Marian Hossa in the closing seconds.

"Maybe we let up a little at the end," Arnott said. "Marty came through for us big time.

"He was like the old Marty, the Marty from last year," he said.

Notes: The Devils continue to shuffle players to and from their Albany (AHL) farm club. They recalled defenseman Mike Commodore on Thursday and right winger Andreas Salomonsson on Friday. The Devils assigned right winger Jiri Bicek to Albany on Saturday after he cleared waivers. ... New Jersey put Salomonsson in the lineup and sat out Pierre Dagenais, who scored the game-winner Thursday night in the Devils' 6-1 win over the San Jose Sharks. ... The Devils continued their policy of resting their veteran defensemen. Ken Danyeko missed the Sharks game and Tommy Albelin was scratched Saturday.