OTTAWA (AP) -- Martin Havlat and Daniel Alfredsson kept up the goal
scoring for the Ottawa Senators, even if the numbers were scaled back a
bit from the gaudy totals they fashioned in Buffalo.
Havlat and Alfredsson both scored for Ottawa, one night after each tied
the team record with four goals, leading the Senators to a 4-2 victory
over the Tampa Bay Lightning on Thursday night.
Havlat scored his sixth of the season -- his fifth in two games since
returning from a five-game suspension for kicking Boston's Hal Gill --
7:13 in to open the scoring.
"It wasn't that much fun when I wasn't playing," Havlat said. "It's a
much better feeling here in the last two games."
Alfredsson, who had six points against the Sabres, made it 2-0 on his
12th goal 31 seconds later.
"You've got to be ready to play any team in this league, and we wanted
to be ready tonight and I think we were in the first period,"
Alfredsson said. "I think that's the biggest thing for us. If we go out
there and give it a great effort, we're a tough team to beat. We've got
a great chance of winning every game now, and that should be our
mind-set."
Dany Heatley, who scored Ottawa's other two goals in a 10-4 victory in
Buffalo on Wednesday night, assisted on Alfredsson's goal to extend his
team-record points streak to 12 games to begin the season.
"It was good for me to come here. I've had a lot of fun so far," said
Heatley, acquired in an Aug. 23 trade that sent Marian Hossa to
Atlanta. "I'm playing on a good team with a great bunch of guys, so
it's been a lot of fun for me so far."
The Senators moved into the Eastern Conference lead with 20 points.
Wade Redden scored his sixth goal 6:32 into the third to put the
Senators up 3-2. Mike Fisher added his second of the season at 8:48 to
restore Ottawa's two-goal lead.
"I thought we battled pretty hard," Redden said. "Even though they tied
it early in the third, we kept coming and got the win."
Vincent Lecavalier and Brad Richards scored power-play goals for Tampa
Bay, which lost its second straight following a season-high, three-game
winning streak.
"We can't put our heads down after this one," Lecavalier said. "We came
back, we played well offensively, we were skating -- it was a great
hockey game on both sides, but we didn't get a chance to finish them
off after we tied it.
Senators goalie Dominik Hasek played a big part there, stopped 31 shots
-- including 18 of 19 in the third -- to improve to 7-2-0.
"He was the difference in the game, I felt," Ottawa coach Bryan Murray
said. "We got a couple of pucks into the slot that we scored on, and
they had a couple of really good chances and I thought Dominik was
outstanding for the most part."
Richards drew the Lightning within one before the end of the period,
scoring his sixth of the season to complete a fine passing play with
Martin St. Louis and Vinnie Prospal. Lecavalier evened it at 2 with his
ninth goal 4:12 into the third, also with the man advantage.
Game notes
Lightning goalie John Grahame made 27 saves. ... Alfredsson has six
goals and seven assists in his last five games. ... The Senators have
58 goals in 12 games.