Senators suffer 15th road loss of season
The Devils’ Dainius Zubrus scores his first of two goals against Ottawa goalie Alex Auld.(Bill Kostroun/Associated Press)
Chris Phillips and the Ottawa Senators found a way to lose another road game, besides blowing a lead.
Whistled for holding 19 seconds into overtime, the defenceman watched as Brian Rolston fired a screened shot through Alex Auld’s legs at 1:43 of the extra frame to cap a 4-3 New Jersey Devils win on Sunday night.
“It’s been a bit of a struggle coming back from my ankle [injury],” said Rolston, who has five goals in his last 10 games and six overall. “It was just a 4-on-3 situation and I just pulled it to the middle. Gio [Brian Gionta] had a good screen in front and I got off a good shot. There wasn’t much complicated about it.”
Auld didn’t have much of a chance.
“I did see the shot but then I lost it along the way,” said Auld, who made 31 saves on the night. “It was kind of a weird play. It still hit me in the blocker or the arm and sort of bounced down. I felt it hit off the back of my feet. I kind of knocked it in trying to close it up.”
Ottawa, which suffered its 14th loss in the past 15 road starts and 15th overall this season, coughed up leads of 1-0, 2-1 and 3-2.
The setback was the fifth in the first six games of the Senators’ eight-game road trip that continues Tuesday against Northeast Division rival Buffalo.
Fresh off a 3-1 loss at Toronto on Saturday, Ottawa entered the game with an NHL-low 84 goals scored, but for a change got some secondary scoring as the top forward line of Daniel Alfredsson, Dany Heatley and Jason Spezza was held to one assist.
Nick Foligno, Brendan Bell and Chris Kelly found the back of the net against Scott Clemmensen, who stopped 17 of 20 shots for his second win against the Senators this season.
Clemmensen sports a 15-6-1 record since taking over for the injured Martin Brodeur as the No. 1 goaltender and he could tell the Devils were not at their sharpest.
“We were right there the whole game,” Clemmensen said. “But we just lacked that extra push to get us into high gear. We couldn’t find it tonight. You can’t play 82 perfect games all year, but you just hope in the ugly ones you get points here and there.”
Kelly snapped a 2-2 tie early in the third period with his fourth goal of the season and first goal in eight games when he lifted the puck past Clemmensen, who was making his 11th consecutive start.
But the Devils forced OT with less than four minutes left in regulation, ending a 2-for-25 skid on the power play after failing to convert their first three manpower advantages.
Jamie Langenbrunner sped into the Senators’ zone and blasted a shot by Auld to the blocker side with Bell in the box.
“It’s the story of the Devils,” Auld said. “Any time you make a little mistake or take an untimely penalty, they jump on it. That’s what they are all about. This one is obviously tough. We had the lead three times and they kept battling back.”
Auld, who faced 35 shots, has dropped his past five starts and sports an 0-5 record in his career versus New Jersey. The Devils have won four in a row against the Senators and five of the last six at home in the series.
They also improved to 13-7-1 at home this season and 23-12-3 overall.
Dainius Zubrus had the other two goals for New Jersey, while linemates Patrik Elias and Gionta added two assists each. Elias has seven goals and 15 helpers in 38 career contests against Ottawa, which fell to 13-18-6.
After Foligno opened the scoring for the Senators at 2:10 of the first period, Zubrus tied it in the final minute of the frame by putting the rebound of a Gionta shot past Auld. Elias made a nice cross-ice pass to set up Gionta’s shot although it looked like the Devils forward was close to being offside.
With New Jersey trailing 2-1 in the second, Zubrus got his 10th goal of the season after play seemed to pause for a second with the puck under Gionta in front of the Ottawa net. The Devils got control and Gionta sent a cross-ice pass to Elias who found Zubrus alone in front for an easy redirection into an empty net.
With files from the Associated Press
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