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Spezza leads charge as Senators cruise past Sabres

Oct 28, 2008 - 4:51 AM BUFFALO, New York (Ticker) -- The usual suspects helped the Ottawa Senators end their losing streak.

Jason Spezza recorded two goals and an assist and Dany Heatley added a goal and set up another as the Senators ended a four-game skid with a 5-2 victory over the Buffalo Sabres on Monday.

"When you're losing, it's tough to get out of a losing streak - and when you get a couple of wins, it's tough to have a loss because you start feeling good about yourselves," Spezza said. "A win definitely helps, especially with a couple of days off here. If we would have won this one, it would have been even tougher mentally for us."

Captain Daniel Alfredsson had two assists and helped provide enough support for goaltender Alex Auld, who made 25 saves.

"I'm a believer that you don't have to get a lot of minutes to still be sharp - and that just comes from a lot of work in practice," Auld said. "Then when you play three games in four nights, it makes it a little easier."

Defenseman Christoph Schubert opened the scoring with 1:54 left in the first period, firing a wrist shot from the slot past Patrick Lalime.

"It was good to get the first goal," Auld said. "(It was) the first time in a while we've been able to get to the good start and get a good lead like that. Playing with the lead makes the game so much easier for everybody. It's a great road win against a really hot team, so it's a good win for us."

Heatley then began a three-goal outburst just 19 seconds into the second. Spezza took possession behind the net and fed a backhanded pass to Heatley, who unleashed a wrister for his fifth goal of the season.

"Things haven't been going good the last couple of weeks," Heatley said. "We were finding ways to get behind early and not coming out hard, just playing pieces of our game and not a full game. I think tonight we came out strong, continued that through the second and eventually finished our chances."

Ottawa extended its advantage nearly 4 1/2 minutes later when Spezza converted a pass from Antoine Vermette. Vermette stole the puck at center ice and slid a cross-ice feed to Spezza, who created a breakaway by beating Derek Roy down the ice and solving Lalime with a wrist shot from the right side.

Spezza struck again with 1:42 remaining in the session, banking in a rebound from the left doorstep off Heatley's initial attempt from the point. Shean Donovan gave the Senators a 5-0 lead just under six minutes into the third.

"We made some mistakes, we weren't good with the puck," Buffalo coach Lindy Ruff said. "If you look at their first goal, we handed it to them and then Derek (Roy) handed another one to them. You make those mistakes and you're going to pay for them, but they've had some success with the puck. I'm not concerned."

Auld's shutout bid ended when Clarke MacArthur scored on the power play with 5:23 left in the third. Maxim Afinogenov took a slap shot from above the circles and MacArthur redirected the attempt in the air by slapping it into the net.

Defenseman Teppo Numminen capitalized on the power play with 32 seconds remaining for the Sabres (6-1-2), who suffered their first loss in regulation.

"After a long afternoon we didn't play up to par," Roy said. "Our power play wasn't really good. We scored two at the end but we need to score early and score often. They are a team that if they score first, they are a real good team after that."

Numminen's tally was his first since March 2, 2007. The 40-year-old missed all but one game last season after undergoing heart surgery.

Starting in place of Ryan Miller, Lalime turned aside 23 shots for the Sabres, who outshot the Senators, 12-3, in the third.

"I don't think it's a relief, winning should never be a relief," Ottawa coach Craig Hartsburg said. "We knew we had to do some things, we had to tighten some things up and we did a good job of it for the most part. There's still a lot of steps here. We need to continue to take that next step."