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Erat's late goal sends Predators to victory

Nov 30, 2007 - 5:08 AM OTTAWA (Ticker) -- Martin Erat scored the winning goal with 23 seconds remaining in the third period as the Nashville Predators downed the Ottawa Senators, 6-5, on Thursday.

Erat's late tally capped a flurry of third-period scoring, as the teams combined for six goals in the final 20 minutes. Erat added two assists, giving him 13 points in his last seven games for the Predators, who won for just the second time in six road games against the Senators.

"It was very nerve-racking, from a coach's standpoint," Nashville coach Barry Trotz said. "You've got a two-goal lead in the third period, you've got to hang on to the game there. It was a wild game, but we came in and got the two points we wanted."

"We battled hard, and so did they," Erat said. "In the end, we got the big goal we needed, so this is a big win for us against a very good team."

The go-ahead goal put an abrupt end to a furious rally by Ottawa, which forged a tie on four different occasions during the course of the game.

"We thought we were headed to overtime at the end, but fortunately, J.P. (Dumont) and Marty made a great play and I just went to the net and we got it in," Predators captain Jason Arnott said. "It's a big confidence (boost) for our club.

"It was a great up-and-down game. We had 20 guys going tonight and I thought we played as well as we have all season. It was a good, solid team win."

The Senators knotted the contest at 5-5 on captain Daniel Alfredsson's tally with 46 seconds remaining in the third.

"We're finding ways to lose instead of finding ways to win." Alfredsson said. "Everybody's working hard, but we're making mistakes that are costing us. The concern is, we're giving up too many goals. We've been losing games by one goal or in a shootout, and it happened again like that tonight."

Nashville appeared to put away the contest at 8:39 of the third, when Martin Gelinas made it 5-3 after a bad play by Ottawa goaltender Martin Gerber.

Predators defenseman Ryan Suter dumped in the puck, but Gerber whiffed on it, allowing Jordin Tootoo to find Gelinas, who happened to be in the right place at the right time as the puck slid to the left side of the net and bounced off the skate of Senators defenseman Andrej Meszaros and in.

"They came back to tie a few times and we didn't panic," said Dumont, who had a goal and three assists in the contest. "But we kept pressing, and somehow we knew we could win if we just kept working."

Jason Spezza drew Ottawa within 5-4 exactly three minutes later, when he redirected a shot by defenseman Wade Redden.

The Senators have dropped five straight games, their longest losing streak since dropping five in a row from October 28-November 8, 2006.

"They were all over us at times and we responded every time they scored." said Nashville goaltender Dan Ellis, who made 27 saves. "Give our team a lot of credit for that. I wasn't happy with the last goal they scored, but thankfully, the guys bailed me out."