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Senators stage third-period comeback to top Thrashers

Feb 18, 2007 - 12:42 AM OTTAWA (Ticker) -- Thanks to Mike Comrie and Dean McAmmond, Ottawa Senators coach Bryan Murray moved closer to an exclusive milestone.

Comrie tied the game midway through the third period and McAmmond scored the winning goal with 4:20 remaining as the Senators gave Murray his 599th career win with a 5-3 victory over the struggling Atlanta Thrashers.

Entering just two wins shy of becoming the fifth coach in NHL history to reach the 600-victory plateau, Murray saw his team enter the final period with a 3-2 deficit. However, the Senators came through with a rare late comeback to improve to just 3-17-2 when trailing after two sessions.

"It's tough in this league to come back when down after two periods," Ottawa captain Daniel Alfredsson said. "Pretty much every team has a good record when leading after two, so we're really happy. We've been very good in the third period the last two months when we haven't won games but have been able to come back and get points."

Comrie got it started at 10:05, knocking a rebound past goaltender Kari Lehtonen from the doorstep to extend his goal-scoring streak to three games and forge a 3-3 tie. Just over 5 1/2 minutes later, McAmmond received a pass from behind the net by Jason Spezza and fired the puck past Lehtonen from the bottom of the slot for his second tally in as many games.

"Dany (Heatley) go the puck and put it in deep, where Jason tracked it down," McAmmond said. "He made a pass and it was right on my tape. All I did was shoot it. It looks like I did a lot on the shift, but I really didn't. I just shot the puck after Jason made a great pass on it, and it ended up beating the goalie five-hole."

Lehtonen was more upset with Ottawa's first two goals than the pair of key tallies he allowed.

"I don't think I had a very strong night," the Finn said. "The first two goals, I gave fat rebounds when the shots were fairly easy. I should have been able to handle them easily. I don't know what the reason was, but I gave a couple of bad rebounds that cost us a couple of goals."

Mike Fisher sealed the win and stretched his own goal-scoring run to three games with an empty-netter in the final minute, Chris Kelly had a goal and an assist and Spezza and Alfredsson each set up a pair of tallies for Ottawa, which has won four in a row.

Playing in place of the suspended Ray Emery, Martin Gerber made 28 saves to extend his personal winning streak to five games for the Senators, who have won nine of their last 11 home contests.

"We always enjoy being at home, but at the same time, we were struggling early, and it's one of those things where it snowballs," Alfredsson said. "You know you should do well at home and sometimes you try to do too much. ... When we started playing well again, we realized we had to be good at home, especially with so many (games) in January. Once we started winning a couple, we loosened up the tension and now we're playing real good at home."

"Recently, we've been playing solid at every aspect of the game, and that's why we've been successful," Kelly added.

Vyacheslav Kozlov recorded a goal and an assist and former Senators Marian Hossa set up two tallies for Atlanta, which has lost four straight games and seven of eight.

"Bottom line is, we're playing desperate hockey now and we're just trying to find a way to get back on track," Metropolit said. "We've got the players, but you just hit a little bump in the road. You've just got to get over it and get back to what we're good at."

The Thrashers, who were victorious in the first two meetings between the teams this season, grabbed a 1-0 lead with nine minutes to go in the first period. Defenseman Steve McCarthy unleashed a rising slap shot from the blue line that beat Gerber high to the glove side for a power-play goal, his first in 16 games.

Peter Schaefer forged a tie with 32 seconds to go in the session, but Glen Metropolit restored Atlanta's advantage at 4:50 of the second, beating Gerber to the short side from the bottom of the right faceoff circle.

"It was a good play by (Ilya) Kovalchuk to hold the puck in at the blue line," Metropolit said. "He tried to hit Bobby Holik, who was driving for the net. The pass went wide and took a bounce off the wall, and I just went short side and it passed by the glove."

After Kelly made it 2-2 with a shorthanded goal at 7:19, Kozlov scored his sixth tally in three games against Ottawa with 1:43 left in the period, putting a shot from the bottom of the right circle past Gerber for his 20th of the season. Kozlov netted the winning goals in each of the previous two matchups between the clubs.

It appeared the Russian would make it 3-for-3, but the goals by Comrie and McAmmond ensured the Thrashers would leave Scotiabank Place with a 1-4-0 record on their season-high six-game road trip.

"Nobody's happy right now," Lehtonen said. "We have to bounce back and start playing a lot stronger. We've done well on the road at the beginning of the year, but now it's time to start winning games again."