Five score in Senators' rout of Hurricanes
RALEIGH, N.C. -- Three days after losing to one of the NHL's best
goalies, the Ottawa Senators beat the league's latest player of the
week.
Patrick Lalime stopped 28 shots and Sami Salo scored a shorthanded goal
as the Ottawa Senators defeated Tom Barrasso and the Carolina
Hurricanes 5-1 on Tuesday night.
Ottawa beat Barrasso after being shut out by New Jersey's Martin
Brodeur on Saturday.
Barrasso, 3-1 with a 1.73 goals-against average last week, allowed five
goals for just the second time this season and first since a 5-0 loss
to the New York Rangers on Nov. 27.
"I thought we've been playing pretty well lately -- we've been getting
good efforts," Ottawa coach Jacques Martin said.
The Senators won for the 14th time in 22 games (14-5-3).
"Sometimes it doesn't always show up. Saturday night was a good
example," Martin said. "We outplayed New Jersey and lost, but I thought
we came back strong again and it paid off."
Carolina lost for the first time since general manager Jim Rutherford
said nine days ago that he was re-evaluating everyone on the team. The
Hurricanes earned nine of 10 points before Tuesday.
"That's a humbling game," Carolina defenseman Glen Wesley said. "We
made some mental mistakes and got caught out of position. When you give
a talented team like that opportunities, they're going to take
advantage of them."
Wesley made the game's most glaring mistake in the second period, and
it changed the momentum.
With Ottawa leading 2-1, Wesley misplayed the puck near the Hurricanes'
blue line but got back in time to keep Marian Hossa from getting a
clean shot. The puck appeared to bounce in off the skate of Shawn
McEachern, who was knocked to the ice by Wesley, but the official
scorer gave the goal to Hossa after the game. It was his 11th.
"That game just cannot get to 3-1 in the manner it did and that's the
bottom line," Hurricanes coach Paul Maurice said. "We got back into the
game and had the control we wanted in the second period, the zone time
and the shots. It gets to 3-1 and you're in such a huge hole against
such a good team defensively."
Martin Havlat scored his 15th goal 6:22 in, beating Barrasso to the
glove side with a hard shot from the left circle.
Carolina was on the power play for the first 4:23 of the second period
-- 1:08 with a two-man advantage -- but Ottawa took a 2-0 lead 4:06
into the period when Salo one-timed a pass from Mike Fisher for his
second goal of the season.
It was Ottawa's fourth shorthanded goal this season and the third
allowed by Carolina.
"We got the goals at the key times, and the shorthanded goal was a big
key for us because they came out pretty hard in the second," said
Lalime, who with 65 victories tied Damian Rhodes for second on Ottawa's
career list. "After we got that goal, it seemed to give us a little
break."
Todd White and Radek Bonk also scored for Ottawa in the third period.
Ottawa had as many shots in the first period (11) as Carolina allowed
in its 7-0 win over Pittsburgh on Sunday. The Senators had six shots
before Carolina got its first -- nine minutes in -- and finished with
30.
Notes: Ottawa leading scorer Daniel Alfredsson missed his fourth
consecutive game with a hip flexor injury. ... Brind'Amour has 12
points in eight games. ... Barrasso started his eighth straight game.
... Bonk has 10 points in seven games.