• Preview
• Recap
• Bleachers

Spezza scores twice as Senators take down Thrashers

Nov 10, 2010 - 5:31 AM Ottawa, ON (Sports Network) - Jason Spezza scored two goals and added an assist and Brian Elliott turned away 35 shots to lead Ottawa to a 5-2 win over Atlanta at Scotiabank Place.

Sergei Gonchar, Chris Neil and Jesse Winchester had the other goals and Eric Karlsson recorded two assists for the Senators, who have won four in a row and six of their last seven.

"We're getting contributions from different guys," Ottawa head coach Cory Clouston said when asked about the key to the winning streak. "The last little while we've been able to put a complete game together and most of that is based on confidence."

Andrew Ladd and Anthony Stewart notched the goals for the Thrashers, who have dropped three in a row and four out of five.

Chris Mason was pulled after yielding four goals on 18 shots to suffer the loss while Ondrej Pavelec stopped 10 of the 11 shots he faced in relief.

The Thrashers needed only nine seconds to capitalize on their first power play chance of the night.

Off a right circle draw, Dustin Byfuglien moved the puck to the left point for Tobias Enstrom, who moved in and shot from the faceoff dot. Elliott made the save before Ladd backhanded the rebound past him 4:01 into the contest.

Ottawa tied the game seven minutes later. Alex Kovalev rang a shot off the left post before the rebound caromed to the right point where Karlsson sent the puck cross ice to David Hale, who then sent a pass to the left circle for Spezza, who wristed it top-shelf past Mason.

The Sens took the lead for good with just under 4 1/2 minutes to go in the period when Spezza won a left circle draw back to the point to Karlsson, who slid a cross ice pass to Gonchar, who one-timed a slap shot by Mason.

After review showed a Thrashers shot did not cross the goal line three minutes into the middle session, the Sens added to their lead two minutes later.

Chris Kelly sent a shot from right of the net that kicked off the skate of Mason into the left corner and up the boards toward the left circle. Chris Phillips pinched in and sent a shot to the net that Neil deflected past Mason.

Nick Foligno tried a stuffer from the right of the net that was denied but Winchester was there to jam home the rebound for his first goal of the season at 9:12 to make it 4-1 and spell the end of the night for Mason, who had stopped 52 of 55 shots in a win over Florida on Tuesday in his last outing.

Trying to kill off a penalty early in the third, Jim Slater's attempted clearing pass was kept in at the point by Chris Campoli. He got the puck to Daniel Alfredsson, who found Spezza at the left circle and his wrister beat Pavelec to make it 5-1 only 1:23 in.

The Thrashers struck again with the man advantage a little less than four minutes later to cut the lead to three. Niclas Bergfors passed from the left circle down low to Evander Kane, who sent the disc to the top of the crease to Stewart, who one-timed it home for his fifth of the season.

"Their power play was very good," Ladd said. "It was a weird game. At times we had a lot of pressure in their end, then all of a sudden it's another goal in our net, another goal in our net."

Game Notes

Elliott is 4-2-0 in seven meetings with the Thrashers...He notched his first career win over Atlanta October 10, 2007...Spezza has eight goals and 27 points in 21 career games against the Thrashers while Gonchar has 13 tallies and 38 points in 41 meetings with Atlanta...Mason is 1-3-0 in four matchups against the Sens...Enstrom played in his franchise record 261st consecutive game...Atlanta has scored a league-best 18 power play goals after going 2- for-5 with the man advantage...The Thrashers had won the last three meetings last season.