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Spezza scores twice as Sens top Bruins

Dec 19, 2007 - 4:45 AM By Brian Devine PA SportsTicker Contributing Writer

BOSTON (Ticker) -- Jason Spezza scored twice to help the Ottawa Senators to a 3-2 victory over the Boston Bruins on Tuesday.

The win was the sixth straight for the Senators, who were also able to extend their lead in the Northeast Division over the second-place Bruins.

Spezza, who played his first NHL game and recorded his first career point in Boston on October 24, 2002, must like playing against the Bruins as he now has 10 goals and 15 assists in 24 career games vs. Boston.

He had missed the first two games between the clubs this year due to injury but made up for lost time on Tuesday.

Spezza scored his second goal of the game on the power-play when he took a cross-ice pass from captain Daniel Alfredsson and fanned on his initial shot, but on his second attempt got the puck over and past Bruins goaltender Alex Auld. The goal gave the Senators a 3-1 lead at the 8:29 mark of the final period.

"Things are going good, we are winning," Spezza said. "I feel petty good on the ice and feel that I have pretty good legs right now. The season goes in waves and I've always tried to be a consistent guy and when the team winning you always get more opportunities to score because teams are taking chances."

Scoring first has been a key for the Senators this season having scored the first goal in 21 of 32 games and Spezza continued that trend. The center, who has a point in four consecutive games, sent a one-timer past Auld at the 12:25 mark of the first period.

"When we score first, it forces teams to take chances against us and when they take chances then we can take care of turnovers and get defensemen rushing up ice," Spezza said. "For a team like us, that is explosive and relies on the other team turning the puck over, the first goal helps us."

The first goal allowed by Auld snapped a scoreless streak of 97 minutes, 7 seconds.

It appeared that Boston would be the team that grabbed an early lead when Marco Sturm appeared have a shorthanded-goal, but the play was blown dead prior to the puck sliding in.

Chuck Kobasew was sent in on a breakaway that tied the game for Boston at 14:40 of the opening session. Kobasew netted his 13th goal of the year when he beat Martin Gerber between the pads.

"I thought when we got it deep in the first period we were good," Ottawa coach John Paddock said. "We were able to fore check their defenseman and limit them to what they wanted to do but when we didn't get it in it was big trouble."

Luke Richardson scored his first goal of the season and first goal since November 26, 2005 for the only tally of the middle period and to supply Ottawa with a 2-1 lead.

"It is nice to score and contribute offensively but this is a tough building to win in this year so we will take the two points here," Richardson said. "It was a very smart game that we played as a 20-man unit."

Milan Lucic pulled Boston, which had won four of its last five games entering the contest, within a goal with 1:16 to go in the third period. The rookie collected a pass from Peter Schaefer and wristed a shot under Gerber's glove.

"Your best players have to be your best players and clearly tonight they weren't," Boston coach Claude Julien said. "My intention going into the game is to win and compete against these guys, but once the game is over, it certainly shows you where we are, and that means we still have some work to do."

Gerber made 26 saves, including 11 in the first period, to register his 16th victory and third of the season against Boston.

"We knew it was going to be a four-point game and playing here it is always hard and last season we had some tough times to be successful here," Gerber said. "We had to have another really good game and a solid game from everybody and keep it simple and keep it disciplined."

Auld made 24 saves in the loss for the Bruins, who have lost all three match-ups to Ottawa this campaign.

"We were right with them tonight, I feel confident that we can play with these guys but we have to find a way to score goals and create offense," Bruins center Marc Savard said.