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Senators snap skid with thumping of Maple Leafs

Mar 9, 2007 - 6:07 AM OTTAWA (Ticker) -- Mike Fisher and Dean McAmmond staked the Ottawa Senators to another big lead. This time, they managed to maintain it.

Fisher and McAmmond each scored two goals as the Senators snapped a three-game losing streak with a 5-1 victory over the Toronto Maple Leafs.

Ottawa (39-23-6), which entered with a recent string of late-game collapses, ended the trend to increase its lead over Pittsburgh (36-21-10) for fourth place in the Eastern Conference to two points.

The Senators were coming off a 5-4 shootout loss to the Penguins on Tuesday in which they squandered a 4-1 lead in the third period. Ottawa also had suffered late meltdowns in losses to Chicago and Atlanta during its recent slide.

Fisher staked the Senators to a 2-0 lead with a pair of tallies in the first period. Ottawa dominated the opening session, outshooting Toronto 23-7, and did not let up afterward.

"We knew what we needed to do, and we got it done. We kept pressing, and that was the key," Fisher said. "We're confident about what we've learned this week, and I thought we played great in the third."

McAmmond and defenseman Tom Preissing scored in the second period to give Ottawa a 4-1 lead. McAmmond capped the scoring just over three minutes into the third session with his 10th tally of the campaign.

Captain Daniel Alfredsson had three assists, Dany Heatley extended his points streak to 13 games with an assist and Ray Emery made 28 saves for the Senators, who improved to 5-1-1 against the Maple Leafs this season.

"With this being a division rivalry and playing back-to-back, we wanted to get off to a good start with a win in the first game to get us into good position," Alfredsson said. "We know we're a good team in third periods. Tonight, we kept playing hard and kept the forecheck on. Overall, we played solid in the third."

The teams conclude their home-and-home series in Toronto on Saturday.

"They were on us early and they were real good," Maple Leafs coach Paul Maurice said. "They were just better than we were - power play, penalty kill and 5-on-5. We'll come back and fight the next game."

Alex Steen scored and Andrew Raycroft stopped 35 shots for Toronto (32-27-9), which technically trails the New York Rangers (33-27-7) for the final playoff berth in the East. Along with idle Carolina (33-28-7), the Maple Leafs and Rangers have 73 points, but New York has played one fewer game.

Raycroft dropped to 2-4-1 against Ottawa this season.

"We didn't capitalize on our power plays, and they did," said Steen, whose team went 0-for-8 with the man advantage. "It's a big story. They got three power-play goals and we got nothing. We've got to be better on Saturday, for sure."