In Ottawa, the Senators got two goals from Anthony Duclair, who had three points on the night, in a 5-2 win over the visiting Boston Bruins on Monday night.
Athyony Duclair had two strikes for Sens in win over Boston – file photo by Lewis Bleiman
“The game’s fast and he’s our fastest player,” Senators coach D.J. Smith of Duclair. “He’s making plays, certainly he’s confident right now, and he’s been reliable. Sometimes that’s with confidence, sometimes with age, but he’s been good for us all year.”
Anders Nilsson made 38 saves to backstop the win.
Jake DeBrusk and Patrice Bergeron scored for the Bruins.
Boston is 0-2-1 in their last three.
“We’re going through a tough stretch in terms of getting our energy level where it needs to be,” Boston coach Bruce Cassidy said. “If you’re not competing hard on the puck, around the puck, on the puck, in this League, you’re not going to beat anybody. Ottawa was just better than us. They won more races, they were more competitive early on. Now we eventually got to our game, but again, it’s too late. We knew this would catch up to us, so another kind of learning experience for us.”
Chris Tierney and Artem Anisimov also scored for the Senators who improved to 13-17-1.
“Everyone’s been buying in for a while now, and it’s nice to see,” Duclair said. “You guys see it from up top, we’re sacrificing our bodies, and that gives us momentum. It’s nice to see.”
Jean-Gabriel Pageau added an empty-net, shorthanded goal for Ottawa late in the third period.
“For sure they are (the best team in the League),” Smith said. “They’re ready to win now and they came within a game of winning the Stanley Cup (last season). They have some high-end players and some guys that know how to win over there.”
[WATCH:Â All Bruins vs. Senators highlights]
Tuukka Rask made 23 saves in the loss.
“It’s been happening for a while now, that we fall behind in games. I think we want to correct that,” Rask said. “A lot of it is on me. When I play, I want to give us a chance to get the lead and not fall behind one or two goals, in the first period, especially. That never helps. Then again, we battled back and we kind of found our game late in the game. But sometimes, you play with fire when you fall down a few goals and you’re trying to catch up.”
You must be logged in to post a comment.