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Getzlaf, second-period outburst lift Ducks

Oct 25, 2008 - 4:15 AM OTTAWA (Ticker) -- Ryan Getzlaf finally made his presence felt as the Anaheim Ducks started their first winning streak of the season.

Getzlaf scored his first goal of the campaign to cap a second-period outburst and the Ducks held on for a 4-3 victory over the Ottawa Senators on Friday.

The Ducks (3-5-0) also improved to 2-0-0 on a four-game road trip, which will take them to Montreal on Saturday and Columbus on Monday.

"Every win is big for us right now," Getzlaf said. "We've earned two tough road wins on this trip so far, so we'll just keep going and get as many more as we can before we head back home."

Todd Marchant and Samuel Pahlsson added goals in the second session after Brian Sutherby tallied in the first for Anaheim, which has won two straight and three of four after dropping its first four games of the season.

Dany Heatley notched three assists for the Senators, who rallied behind power-play goals in the third by captain Daniel Alfredsson and defenseman Alexandre Picard.

"You knew they were going to come with some form of a charge," Anaheim coach Randy Carlyle said. "That's what good teams do and proud teams do. You know that sitting on a 4-0 lead, one penalty and one power play can turn the momentum, and that's what it did tonight.

"We haven't played to the level that's required. Tonight, we found a way to put some pucks in the net, so we'll take it even though we made it tight. It seems we have a knack for making it interesting."

Tough guy Chris Neil cut the deficit to one midway through the final period. Jason Spezza, who has six points in his last four contests, gained possession behind the net and fired a pass to Neil, who buried it from the doorstep for his first goal of the season.

"It's a tough loss, but we have to look at it positively and see that we can play pretty darn good against a team that played really well defensively," Alfredsson said. "We just have to get that mind set and play it from the get-go.

"We've shown we can play periods of really good hockey, and it's frustrating when we can't get wins out of it. The way we start has been hurting us, and we have to get past that and come out better."

Giving starting goaltender Jean-Sebastien Giguere a rest, Jonas Hiller made 27 saves for the Ducks.

"Jonas stood on his head for the first two periods," Getzlaf said. "It could have easily been a close hockey game throughout those two periods, but he made a couple of key saves, and that's what you need out of your goaltender."

"We played good for the first two periods," Hiller said. "We were lucky on a couple of goals and kind of left our game in the third. We're happy about the win, but we'll definitely have to talk about it and see if we can prevent that kind of thing from happening again."

Sutherby got Anaheim on the board with 9:28 left in the first, banking the rebound of Brad May's initial attempt past netminder Alex Auld, who held the Ducks at bay before their outburst in the second.

Marchant began the rally just 50 seconds into the session with a bizarre goal.

"I don't even know how that one went in," Carlyle said. "I guess it surprised Auld. It sure surprised us."

Marchant batted the puck out of mid-air as Ottawa defenseman Jason Smith attempted to drop it to the ice after gloving it down. Caught completely by surprise, Auld did not move as Marchant's attempt flew past him on the glove side.

"I don't know what I can say," Marchant said. "I saw Teemu (Selanne) flip it up in the air, and then I saw Jason go and grab it, and I happened to be right there, so I took a whack at it. At first, I had no idea it went in. It's just a fluke, and sometimes those are the kinds of things you need to have happen when you're trying to get out of a funk like we've been in."

Pahlsson netted his second of the season at 7:45, taking a loose puck in traffic and firing a wrister past Auld to extend the Ducks' bulge to 3-0. Getzlaf then struck from between the circles after receiving a pass from behind the net by Corey Perry.

Held out of the lineup in Tuesday's 3-2 shootout win over the Toronto Maple Leafs with a gum infection, the 23-year-old Getzlaf led Anaheim in scoring with 82 points last season but had notched just one assist in six contests entering this one.

Auld turned aside 28 shots but failed to improve upon his spotty history against Anaheim. He entered with a 2-5-0 lifetime record and 4.32 goals-against average against the Ducks, allowing four or more goals in five of his previous six starts vs. the club while playing with three different teams.

The Senators (2-4-1) have been unable to reverse their early-season struggles, suffering their third straight loss and fourth in five games.

"We lost the game," Spezza said. "That's the bottom line. We really poured it on in the second and third periods with a lot of chances and a lot of shots, but we just seem to come up short. We're not happy. We show flashes and we know what we're capable of, but until we're consistent and until we're winning games, we can't be happy.

"When we get going, we know we can play with anybody, so we just have to keep going and try to play better, and hopefully, we'll get out of this."

Selanne registered an assist after posting just one point in the first seven games.