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Sturm gets hat trick in Chara's return to Ottawa

Dec 20, 2006 - 6:39 AM OTTAWA (Ticker) -- Marco Sturm stole the show in defenseman Zdeno Chara's return to Ottawa.

Sturm recorded his second career hat trick and Patrice Bergeron had a career-high five assists as the Boston Bruins posted a 7-2 victory over the Senators.

Marc Savard tallied twice and collected two assists for the Bruins, who have won six of the last seven meetings overall with the Senators.

In July, Chara signed a five-year deal with Boston after spending the last four seasons in Ottawa. The 6-9 blue-liner finished with an assist in his homecoming, which Sturm headlined.

"It was nice to win obviously on my first game back," Chara said. "There was a lot of emotions and some nervousness as well as excitement in me. "Everybody worked really hard to win the game for me. The power play was strong, so it was a good game."

"He's (Chara) great," Sturm said. "He really competes. He's a real leader for us, on and off the ice. He's on the ice for a lot of minutes because we need him in most situations. He's been good so far and he's helped us win."

Sturm opened the scoring 9:39 into the first period by sending a wrist shot stick side past Senators netminder Ray Emery. Glen Murray and Savard tallied later in the session, extending the margin to 3-0.

At the midway point of the second period, Sturm scored on the power play and notched the hat trick 5 1/2 minutes later for a 5-0 cushion.

On a 2-on-1, Bergeron sent a pass from the right face-off circle to Sturm, who blasted a one-timer past Emery's stick that hit the back bar and ricocheted out of the net. The goal light did not go off, but after review Sturm's hat trick was official.

"Two of my goals were especially nice setups from Patrice Bergeron," Sturm said. "It was very nice to get the hat trick."

It was Sturm's first three-goal game since December 23, 1998 when he was a member of San Jose.

Tim Thomas made 35 saves and defenseman Paul Mara scored his first goal of the season for Boston, which had lost three of its last four contests.

"It was one of those games where everything went right for us and everything went wrong for them (Senators)," Bruins coach Dave Lewis said. "It's hard to explain, but it's one of those nights where the game plan went according to plan."

The Bruins have won all three meetings so far this season with the Senators.

"Right now we have Ottawa's number and hopefully we'll have it the next five times we play them," Savard said. "We moved the puck well on the power play and throughout the game. Our penalty kill was also awesome and that's how you win games in this league."

The next meeting between these teams is here January 9.

Blue-liner Christoph Schubert had a goal and assist for Ottawa, which failed to convert on seven power-play opportunities.