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Senators aim to sweep home-and-home series with Maple Leafs

Mar 10, 2007 - 4:34 PM Ottawa (39-23-6) at Toronto (32-27-9) 7:00 pm EST

TORONTO (Ticker) -- In their last game, the Ottawa Senators finally found a way to hold on to a big lead.

After snapping a three-game losing streak on Thursday, the Senators look to sweep a home-and-home series with the Toronto Maple Leafs when the teams face off on Saturday.

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 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.

However, the Senators finally turned it around on Thursday thanks to Mike Fisher, who staked Ottawa to an early lead with a pair of tallies in the first period of a 5-1 victory.

Dean McAmmond and defenseman Tom Preissing scored in the second period to give Ottawa a 4-1 lead.

Alex Steen scored and Andrew Raycroft stopped 35 shots for the Maple Leafs (32-27-9), who are 10th place in the Eastern Conference, two points behind eighth-place Carolina (34-28-7) for the final playoff berth.