OTTAWA (AP) -- Daniel Alfredsson thinks he's playing the best hockey of
his career -- and he has seven goals in his past three games to prove
it.
The Ottawa captain scored his 13th and 14th goals of the season and
also had an assist, and Dominik Hasek made 28 saves for his third
shutout in the Senators' 6-0 victory over the New York Islanders on
Saturday night.
Alfredsson, tied for the NHL scoring lead with Carolina's Eric Staal
with 26 points, has seven goals and nine assists in his six-game
scoring streak.
"The biggest thing is I'm having fun playing out there and we're
creating a lot of chances every game," Alfredsson said. "I'm playing
well. I feel good. Skating's good. I've got a lot of confidence.
"I'm playing a lot and I'm putting it in when I'm getting chances. In a
long year you'll go through ups and downs and right now we're having a
lot of fun with it."
The 40-year-old Hasek, in his first season with Ottawa, has 66 career
shutouts to tie Patrick Roy for 13th place on the career list.
"He saved us in the second period when they were buzzing big time in
our end for 10 minutes and he made some big saves to keep it a two goal
game," Alfredsson said.
Dany Heatley, Chris Neil, Martin Havlat and Brian Smolinski also scored
to help the Senators improve to 11-2-0 with their third straight
victory.
"They're the best team in the NHL by far," Islanders center Jason
Blake. "When you put Alfredsson, Heatley and (Jason) Spezza out there
on a power play, they're bound to cash in."
Heatley, who also had an assist, has points in all 13 games the
Senators have played, tying him with Marian Hossa for the franchise
record. Heatley, acquired from Atlanta during the offseason, has 11
goals and 13 assists this season.
Alfredsson opened the scoring at 9:22 of the first period just seconds
after emerging from the penalty box and while the Senators were still
killing off another minor penalty to Mike Fisher. A point shot
deflected off Senators' defenseman Chris Phillips leg and went to the
neutral zone where Alfredsson had a breakaway from center ice and beat
Rick DiPietro low.
Heatley extended his points streak at 15:14 of the first when he banked
in a rebound on the power play. Chris Neil deflection a point shot from
Brian Pothier past DiPietro 13 minutes into the second period to give
Ottawa a 3-0 lead.
Havlat scored his sixth goal in his past three games to gave the
Senators a 4-0 lead, wristing a shot past DiPietro three minutes into
the third period.
Alfredsson picked up his second goal of the game after being pushed
into DiPietro by Islanders' defenseman Brent Sopel.
Smolinski scored the Senators' third power-play goal at 13:19 of the
third period.
The Senators set an attendance record with 19,776 tickets sold. The old
record was 19,661, set during their 5-0 home opener win over the
Buffalo Sabres on Oct. 8. Capacity at the Corel Centre until this
season was 18,500. ^Notes:@ Jason Spezza reached 100 career points when
he assisted on Heatley's first-period goal. Spezza finished the game
with two assists, giving him 34 goals and 67 assists in 124 career
games.