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Eaves scores twice as Senators edge Rangers

Jan 12, 2007 - 5:00 AM NEW YORK (Ticker) -- Although Patrick Eaves waved his stick like a magic wand, the Ottawa Senators still felt uneasy.

Eaves had two goals and an assist and Dany Heatley scored a tally and set up two others as the Senators withstood a late charge to record a 6-4 triumph over the New York Rangers.

Despite nearly watching a five-goal lead disappear, Ottawa raised its record to 8-1-1 in its last 10 games by winning its fourth consecutive road contest and second in three overall meetings with the Rangers this season.

"They got momentum, and a team that gets momentum and the crowd starts going, that's sports right there," Eaves said. "It can change pretty quickly and fortunately, we got a big-enough lead where we could hang on. ... We bent a lot at the end and we didn't break."

"They worked hard to try and get back in the game, and did get back in the game and almost tied it up," Senators goaltender Ray Emery said. "They made it an interesting one, but it wasn't the way we wanted to finish off."

Eaves opened the scoring midway through the first period with a wrist shot from the right faceoff circle that found the top right corner of the net.

"The first one was kind of a turnover at the top of the circles," Eaves said. "I just kind of got it and it was rolling. I just tried to get it on net quick and it went up pretty quickly."

After Chris Kelly and Vermette tallied 56 seconds apart early in the second period, Eaves completed his first multi-goal game of the season later in the session by taking defenseman Wade Redden's feed and lifting a backhander inside the left goalpost.

Captain Daniel Alfredsson netted a goal in his third straight contest just 62 seconds into the third period with a wrister from the slot for a 5-0 advantage.

Emery made 13 saves in the first period and 15 in the second before yielding goals to Petr Prucha, Jason Ward and Marcel Hossa in a 2:41 span early in the third.

Blair Betts made it a one-goal game with 9:21 remaining by deflecting Jed Ortmeyer's shot from the left circle under the crossbar for his sixth tally of the campaign.

"By shaking up the lines, we turned our offense around," Betts said. "It's hard to say. When a team has a 4-0 lead in the third period, they have a tendency to sit back and protect the lead. That kind of opened up the game a little bit more."

However, Heatley's empty-netter with 34 seconds to go sealed Ottawa's third consecutive win.

"When you're up 5-0 and you get it to 5-4, you've obviously made a few mistakes," Heatley said. "But I thought (Emery) was there when we needed him. The last five to seven minutes, we did a pretty good job."

"We didn't give them a sniff, really, for two periods, and when we got to the third and we had to do it the last five, eight minutes of the game, we did it," Senators coach Bryan Murray said. "It's two points and nobody (is) going to remember this other than you (media) guys after Saturday."

Weekes stopped 23 shots before being replaced midway through the second period. Henrik Lundqvist came on and yielded one goal on five shots for the Rangers, who lost for the second time in six games.

"I thought we had a tough start in the third, but somehow, I felt really good when we scored the first goal," Lundqvist said. "I think we played a really good third, but obviously, it wasn't good enough to play just one good period today. We played a really good, smart team that took advantage of the way played in the first two."

"Maybe we learned the most valuable lesson tonight," Rangers coach Tom Renney said. "After all the rhetoric and what you do with the staff and working with your team, maybe showing the resolve in the third period, the determination, the will to get yourself back in the game and avoid being embarrassed is the answer we can conclude."