Final
Senators win sixth straight over Islanders behind Emery
Dec 28, 2006 - 5:23 AM OTTAWA (Ticker) -- Rick DiPietro had been invincible of late. Ray Emery was impenetrable in this battle.Emery made 18 saves and Mike Fisher and Chris Kelly tallied as the Ottawa Senators extended their winning streak against the New York Islanders to six games with a 2-0 triumph.
Entering with shutouts in each of his last two games and a scoreless streak of 138 minutes, 18 seconds, DiPietro was solved by Fisher late in the first period. The goal proved to be enough for Emery, who notched his second blanking of the season.
"We realize sometimes we have to win 1-0 and 2-0," Emery said. "We did a good job dumping the puck and controlling the zone. When we do that, we're hopeful to get the win. It's good for us to learn how to play like that, how to protect a lead."
Making his eighth straight home start, Emery stopped three shots in the opening session, 10 in the second and five in the third en route to his fifth career shutout. He had surrendered 15 tallies in his previous four appearances.
"It was a great game overall, with great efforts from everybody," Ottawa captain Daniel Alfredsson said. "When you have that, good things happen. The Islanders didn't look like they were forechecking very much today, and when they did, we were able to shut them down by having three guys back all the time."
Kelly added insurance late in the third with a power-play goal for the Senators, who halted a three-game home skid in which they were outscored, 14-5.
"This game is what it's all about, everybody working hard and contributing," Kelly said. "It was a great team effort right up from Ray to all the forwards. We played a solid 60 minutes and we felt relaxed out there."
DiPietro finished with 27 saves for New York, which has not beaten Ottawa since January 19, 2004.
With time winding down in a scoreless first period, Islanders defenseman Tom Poti coughed up the puck in his own zone. Alfredsson pounced on it and attempted a pass that glanced off blue-liner Sean Hill to Fisher, who fired a shot past DiPietro from the right side with 1:48 remaining.
"I looked up and saw Alfredsson with (Dany) Heatley and Fisher on a 3-on-1," DiPietro said. "Sean Hill did a great job of preventing the pass. Unfortunately, it ricocheted through his pads. Fisher was on the other side of the net, and boom, it's in. It was disappointing."
"(Defenseman Wade Redden) stood up at the blue line and kept the puck in," said Alfredsson, who also helped set up Kelly's goal. "I was able to get to the puck first to create a 2-on-1, me and Heatley. I was looking to pass all the way and it hit their defenseman's stick. It caught DiPietro off-guard, which gave Fisher an open net, and he didn't miss."
The tally halted DiPietro's shutout streak at 156:29.
"I didn't pay attention to the shutout string," he said. "We just wanted this win and that's all we focused on tonight."
"Ricky's been great for us," Islanders coach Ted Nolan said. "He's playing almost the entire last month and he's really going to bat for us. He's our go-to guy and he's getting better and better for us as he goes."
After New York was called for three minor penalties with 7 1/2 minutes remaining in the third, Kelly redirected defenseman Anton Volchenkov's shot by DiPietro from the doorstep at 16:29 for his fifth of the season.
"I just went in the zone and the puck got to Alfie, who made a nice pass to Volchy," Kelly said. "He made a good heads-up play by seeing me up front. All I really had to do was get my stick on it, and it happened to go in."
The Islanders failed on their lone power-play opportunity against the Senators, who improved to 2-7-0 when scoring only two goals.
New York fell to 6-1-0 in the second game when playing on consecutive days.
"You can't use the Rangers game (on Tuesday) as an excuse, even though we're playing back-to-back," DiPietro said. "We were as full of energy as Ottawa, so it's not an excuse. ... Down 1-0 with five minutes left and we get that unsportsmanlike penalty is a tough pill to swallow."
"We're playing a lot of back-to-back games, which can be a problem," Nolan added. "You make your own breaks, but I don't think we had many calls in our favor. ... This team worked so hard that we deserved some breaks, but if we don't get them, we don't get them."
- NHL
FINAL 1ST 2ND 3RD TOTAL
--- --- --- -----
NY ISLANDERS 0 0 0 0
OTTAWA 1 0 1 2 FINAL
GOAL SCORING:
1ST PRD: OTT - MIKE FISHER 9 (DANIEL ALFREDSSON, WADE REDDEN) 18:12
2ND PRD: NONE
3RD PRD: OTT - (PP) CHRIS KELLY 5 (ANTON VOLCHENKOV, DANIEL
ALFREDSSON) 16:29
POWER-PLAY CONVERSIONS: NYI - 0 OF 1, OTT - 1 OF 5.
SHOTS ON GOAL
Dec 27 9:55 PM - NHL
NY ISLANDERS 0
OTTAWA 2
3RD PRD: OTT - (PP) CHRIS KELLY 5 (ANTON VOLCHENKOV, DANIEL
ALFREDSSON) 16:29
Islanders vs. SenatorsDec 27 9:48 PM - NHL
END OF THE 2ND 1ST 2ND 3RD TOTAL
--- --- --- -----
NY ISLANDERS 0 0 0
OTTAWA 1 0 1 END OF THE 2ND
GOAL SCORING:
1ST PRD: OTT - MIKE FISHER 9 (DANIEL ALFREDSSON, WADE REDDEN) 18:12
2ND PRD: NONE
SHOTS ON GOAL: 1ST 2ND 3RD TOTAL
--- --- --- -----
NYI 3 10 13
OTT 12 12 24
GOALIES: NYI -
Dec 27 9:02 PM - NHL
END OF THE 1ST 1ST 2ND 3RD TOTAL
--- --- --- -----
NY ISLANDERS 0 0
OTTAWA 1 1 END OF THE 1ST
GOAL SCORING:
1ST PRD: OTT - MIKE FISHER 9 (DANIEL ALFREDSSON, WADE REDDEN) 18:12
SHOTS ON GOAL: 1ST 2ND 3RD TOTAL
--- --- --- -----
NYI 3 3
OTT 12 12
GOALIES: NYI - RICK DIPIETRO
Dec 27 8:11 PM - NHL
NY ISLANDERS 0
OTTAWA 1
1ST PRD: OTT - MIKE FISHER 9 (DANIEL ALFREDSSON, WADE REDDEN) 18:12
Islanders vs. SenatorsDec 27 8:09 PM
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