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Gerber records first shutout of the season for Senators

Feb 15, 2007 - 5:39 AM OTTAWA (Ticker) -- Ray Emery's loss turned out to be Martin Gerber's gain for the Ottawa Senators.

Gerber made 28 saves for his first shutout of the season and defenseman Chris Phillips and Mike Fisher scored early goals to lead the Senators to their third straight win, a 4-0 victory over the Florida Panthers.

With Emery serving the first of his three-game suspension for slashing Montreal's Maxim Lapierre in the face on Saturday, Gerber made his first appearance in five games and third since December 27.

"You really just have to play day-by-day and put out everything you have and just go from there," Gerber said. "I really won't think about it for the next two days and just go day-to-day. I'll just try to do the best that I can.

"It's the way I've learned this game. You never know what's happening out there. The way I always work is to take small steps."

Gerber stopped 15 shots in the first period, six in the second and seven in the third for his seventh career shutout. He posted his fourth straight victory and raised his season record to 9-9-1.

"Obviously, it's a big boost for him," Senators captain Daniel Alfredsson said. "He (has) been in a good mood in the locker room. It (has) been a tough year for him, but he (has) made the best of it. It's really nice to see him get rewarded."

"We wanted to keep them to the outside and Gerber played very well," Fisher said. "Gerber was key for us. We got an early lead and were able to play well from there on in. Obviously, it was a big effort and we want to keep rolling here."

Ottawa opened the scoring at 8:21 of the first period when Phillips skated around the the back of the net and banked the puck off goaltender Ed Belfour inside the right goal post for his eighth tally.

"(Antoine) Vermette sent the puck up the wall and I saw it open up behind him, so I jumped in," Phillips said. "Nothing opened up, so I decided to throw it on the net. I thought someone would get a rebound and tap it in, but luckily it found its way in."

Fisher doubled the margin at 7:42 of the second session with his 11th goal, a quick wrister off Peter Schaefer's centering feed between Belfour's pads.

"Obviously, a great play by Alfredsson and (Peter) Schaefer to create some forecheck," Fisher said. "I was in the slot and Schaefer got it to me and I was able to bury the puck."

Mike Comrie and Dean McAmmond added third-period goals for the Senators, who are 8-1-1 in their last 10 home games.

"It was a 5-on-3," Comrie said of his power-play goal. "(Jason) Spezza made a pass to (Dany) Heatley back-door. Belfour got a piece of it and it was laying out front. I was able to chip it towards the net and it trickled in. I was able to be in the right spot at the right time."

Coming off Tuesday's shutout of the Canadiens - the 76th of his career - Belfour made 29 saves for Florida, which has dropped all three meetings against Ottawa this season and four of its last six overall.

"Ottawa came out hard," Panthers center Chris Gratton said. "Halfway through, we realized Belfour was playing great, which was a rallying cry for us. We were battling out there, but it just wasn't enough as they overpowered us all night. Their goaltender stood tall and we kind of let Eddie out to dry."

"We had a pretty good start then penalties changed the momentum around," Florida coach Jacques Martin said. "A couple of turnovers made it difficult. We got some opportunities early, but got no rebounds off our shots. There was much traffic out front, so most of our shots were long shots."