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Senators wrap up home ice for playoffs

Apr 8, 2007 - 4:03 AM BOSTON (Ticker) -- Playing for pride provided a jolt for the Boston Bruins, but the Ottawa Senators were motivated by considerably higher stakes.

Jason Spezza had two goals and an assist and Dany Heatley registered a milestone tally as the Senators secured home-ice advantage for the opening round of the playoffs with a 6-3 victory over the Bruins.

Ottawa (48-25-9) erased a pair of early one-goal deficits to wrap up the No. 4 seed in the Eastern Conference and gain home ice in their quarterfinal series against the Pittsburgh Penguins (46-24-11).

"If we do get to a Game Seven, we wanted to make sure it was in Ottawa," Spezza said. "We were pretty happy with the victory. We played a pretty solid game. We knew they'd be playing well because they don't have much to play for and they'd be loose, and that's when teams are dangerous."

The Senators withstood a pair of goals by the Bruins in the first six minutes before taking the lead for good on Heatley's tally at 5:15 of the middle session.

It was the 50th goal of the season for the right wing, making him the first NHL player to reach the plateau in back-to-back seasons since Florida's Pavel Bure accomplished the feat in 1999-2000 and 2000-01.

"It's nice, for sure. This team has a lot to do with it," Heatley said of his milestone goal. "It's fun playing with these guys the last two regular seasons and it's nice that (captain Daniel Alfredsson) set me up on both (No. 50) goals each year."

Alfredsson added a goal and two assists for the Senators, who squared the season series at 4-4-0 against the reeling Bruins.

"We can always improve as the playoffs approach, but I know if we play up to our potential, we can go a long ways," Heatley said.

Spezza's first tally at 6:50 of the opening period tied it at 2-2 and capped a furious early burst by the teams. His second goal of the contest - and 34th of the season - came on a deflection past goaltender Tim Thomas to make it 4-2 after two sessions.

Boston, which closed the campaign with 11 losses in their last 12 games, pulled within a goal on a power-play tally by Petr Tenkrat at 3:42 of the third. Tenkrat swooped in from the right side and lifted a rebound past netminder Ray Emery for his career-high ninth goal the season.

Alfredsson answered during a 5-on-3 advantage at 6:18, taking a pretty touch pass from defenseman Wade Redden and blasting a one-timer from the left side past Thomas.

"We take a lot of bad penalties because we're out of position and we're lazy," Bruins coach Dave Lewis said. "Some guys don't understand. It's an intelligence thing. I think as a team, we're not mentally strong. It becomes a game of mental strength. I think we have to get mentally stronger as a group."

Patrick Eaves capped the scoring at 9:24 and Emery recovered from a shaky start to make 29 saves for the Senators.

"That wasn't the start I was hoping for," Ottawa coach Bryan Murray said. "We gave them a lot of space, our defense and forwards gave them a big gap. But when we tightened that up, it looked like we started to play more intense and we certainly were able to score some goals and win a game the way we had to win it."