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Alfredsson, Robitaille help Senators survive late barrage

Nov 2, 2007 - 4:01 AM OTTAWA (Ticker) -- Daniel Alfredsson and Randy Robitaille helped the Ottawa Senators build what they thought was an insurmountable lead. But Ilya Kovalchuk forced them to hang on for dear life.

Alfredsson scored two goals and set up two others and Robitaille also tallied twice as the Senators held on for a 6-4 victory over the Atlanta Thrashers on Thursday.

Kovalchuk recorded his eighth career hat trick, scoring three goals in the third period to help the Thrashers rally from a 5-0 deficit. But Alfredsson sealed the game with a shorthanded empty-netter - the 300th goal of his career - with 21.6 seconds left in the game.

"You're always happy to score a goal that's meaningful," Alfredsson said. "I guess scoring your 300th goal, even into an empty net, is something to remember. "We had the big lead and I think we let up a bit. They came on strong in the third period and made it close, but we helped them by getting into penalty trouble. Playing 5-on-5, they wouldn't have scored goals the way they did."

Robitaille scored the first two tallies of the contest, and the Senators used a four-goal second period to jump out to a 5-0 lead.

"It was great getting those two goals and being able to contribute to the win," Robitaille said.

Kovalchuk started the Thrashers' rally with his first goal on a wrist shot at 9:24 of the third. Marian Hossa picked up an assist, snapping his five-game pointless streak.

Atlanta climbed within 5-2 as Eric Perrin blasted a slap shot past goaltender Ray Emery with 7:14 remaining. Kovalchuk then scored power-play goals less than two minutes apart to cut the deficit to 5-4 with 2 1/2 minutes remaining.

The Thrashers then pulled their goalie for an extra attacker, but Alfredsson iced the game with the empty-netter to help the Senators to their fifth straight win.

"We weren't happy with the way we played in the first two periods," said Hossa, a former Senator. "We wanted to come out and win the third period, and we did that, but we fell a little short. We want to take some momentum from the last 20 minutes tonight and play better in our next game."

"Scoring goals like that doesn't really mean much when you lose the game," Kovalchuk said. "But we did show that we don't give up, and we can take something from this."

Emery stopped 15 shots but nearly cost his team the game with his third-period collapse.

It was a different story over the first two periods as he barely was tested while the Senators built their huge lead. Ottawa, which is off to its best start in franchise history (10-1-0), outshot Atlanta, 23-6, in the first 40 minutes.

With Ottawa up, 1-0, in the second, Alfredsson started a 2-on-1 rush and sent a pass to Robitaille on the right side of the net. The veteran, who was filling in for the injured Jason Spezza on the Senators' No. 1 line, cradled the puck and skated around sprawled goaltender Johan Hedberg before slipping the puck into a wide-open net at 1:26 for a 2-0 lead.

However, Robitaille left the game midway through the second period when he was checked in front of the Thrashers' net and fell face-first to the ice. He left with facial contusions and did not return.

Ottawa, which entered tied for the third-most goals in the Eastern Conference, got tallies from Patrick Eaves and rookie Nick Foligno to make it a four-goal bulge.

Hedberg was then pulled in favor of Ondrej Pavelec, but it made no difference as Alfredsson capped the four-goal second period with his 299th career tally at 19:12.

Hedberg stopped 15 shots and Pavelec made seven saves for Atlanta, which was 2-for-6 on the power play and had its two-game winning streak snapped.

"We talked about it in the second intermission, and we decided we were going to show some pride instead of just packing it in and heading to Tampa," Atlanta coach Don Waddell said.