• Recap
• Bleachers

Emery stymies Bruins as Senators open second half with win

Jan 28, 2007 - 1:05 AM OTTAWA (Ticker) -- Ray Emery and the Ottawa Senators apparently have figured out the Boston Bruins.

Emery made 29 saves and the Senators tallied three times in the third period en route to a 3-1 triumph over the Bruins.

It was the 12th victory in the last 15 games for Ottawa, which lost its first three meetings with Boston this season.

But thanks to Emery, the Senators have won their last three contests with the Bruins, including a 3-0 victory last Saturday in the clubs' final game before the All-Star break.

"We're coming out with a different mind-set now," Emery said. "We've kind of felt ourselves out and learned how to win. There's a race to the finish and a little bit of jockeying for a playoff position."

"We hadn't played well against Boston at the start of the year," Senators right wing Chris Neil added. "It looked like they would win the season series, so the last couple of games we wanted to go out and play solid against them."

Emery stopped 18 shots in last Saturday's game to record his fourth shutout of the season and nearly repeated the feat seven days later, turning aside all 13 shots he faced over the first two sessions.

"It has a lot to do with how well we play defensively the last three times we've played Boston," Emery said. "We didn't give them very much outside of their power-play chances. It's good to see us play that well defensively."

Emery, who is 3-1-0 against the Bruins this season, preserved a late one-goal lead in the third period when he stopped Marco Sturm's wrister from the slot with 1:56 left.

After both teams went scoreless over the first two periods, the Senators finally got on the board at 2:17 of the third session when Patrick Eaves snapped a shot from the slot past Bruins goaltender Tim Thomas.

"I thought our defense was going to get a handle on it," said Thomas, who had 33 saves. "But then it bounced over their stick, and Eaves did a spin-o-rama and put a really good five-hole shot in the pocket even though I was playing him dead square."

"There was a breakdown in the neutral zone and the puck ended up in the slot," Bruins coach Dave Lewis added. "Eaves just fired away and it went in."

Ottawa went ahead, 2-0, at 7:48 of the period when Neil banged home a feed from Peter Schaefer for his 10th goal of the season.

"Schaefer gave me a great feed across and Tom Preissing drove the net, which got their defensemen bunching in," Neil said. "Any time you get your defensemen jumping in like that, it's great because it opens up the ice."

But Boston halved its deficit just 56 seconds later when Glen Murray recovered a rebound near the doorstep and stuffed his team-leading 23rd goal past Emery.

After staving off a furious rally in the closing minutes, the Senators sealed the win when Antoine Vermette scored an empty-netter with 46 seconds left.

The game also marked the return of Ottawa star center Jason Spezza, who had missed the previous 14 games with a left knee injury.

"It felt pretty good despite feeling bulky at times," said Spezza, who assisted on Eaves' goal. "It was good to go through a game like that as it was a pretty physical game. Everybody was a little rusty after the break, but the pace was pretty quick."

Spezza suffered the injury when he was checked into the boards in the third period of a 4-2 loss to Tampa Bay on December 21. The Senators' leading scorer at the time, Spezza has 19 goals and 26 assists in just 37 games this season.

"(Spezza) is a different player," Emery said. "When he's out on the ice, he's always a danger to the other team. It's very important he's back, especially on the power play. He makes whoever he plays with more confident, and he's always a threat with the puck."