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Heatley, Senators cruise to easy win over lowly Flyers

Jan 8, 2007 - 12:50 AM OTTAWA (Ticker) -- The Ottawa Senators added their name to the growing list of teams that have gotten well against the lowly Philadelphia Flyers this season.

Dany Heatley tallied twice and had an assist as the Senators skated to an easy 6-1 triumph over the Flyers.

One of the top teams in the Eastern Conference, Ottawa looked sluggish offensively in Saturday's 3-2 loss to Martin Brodeur and the New Jersey Devils.

But the Senators were a different team one day later, scoring early and often while firing a total of 43 shots at Flyers goaltender Antero Niittymaki.

Heatley recorded his seventh multi-goal game of the season while captain Daniel Alfredsson had a goal and two assists for Ottawa, which improved to 6-1-1 in its last eight games.

"Everyone's picked their game up," Heatley said. "We've been playing well for the most part from the goalie right up. The biggest reason we're still OK is everyone's skating better and playing better. It's nice for (goaltender Martin) Gerber to get one at home here in front of the fans. He played well and it should get him some confidence going."

The Senators opened the scoring seven minutes into the contest when Alfredsson took a feed from defenseman Wade Redden and beat Niittymaki for his 12th goal of the season.

Ottawa blue-liner Joe Corvo doubled the lead with his sixth goal at 16:29 of the opening session, but R.J. Umberger tallied three minutes into the second period to halve Philadelphia's deficit.

The Senators did not look back from there, however, scoring four unanswered goals to win for the third time in three meetings with the Flyers this season. Heatley made it 3-1 midway through the middle session with his first goal of the contest and tallied again seven minutes later to push the lead to 5-1.

"I think a lot of other teams are also at about 40 shots against per game," Niittymaki said. "It's the way it is. I don't know what to say. It's just what it is. At least you get a lot of shots and hopefully a lot of saves, too."

Ottawa provided plenty of support for netminder Martin Gerber, who stopped 20 shots to record a win in his first appearance since December 23, a 6-3 victory at Philadelphia.

"The team played real well," Gerber said. "The defense was solid and we put a lot of pucks on the net. We put players in front of their goalie and that usually wins games."

Rookie center Josh Hennessy registered his first career goal - and point - in the second period, giving the Senators a 4-1 lead.

"I just whacked at his pads and the puck went in," said Hennessy, a second-round pick of the San Jose Sharks in 2003. "The guys were awesome, they were pretty excited for me. Patty (Patrick Eaves) was on the ice and tapped when I went by, so it was pretty cool."